The January 2 death of Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, has prompted consternation from some press and policymakers. Killed in Baghdad by a U.S. drone strike, Soelimani was <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1212907536833220608" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1212907536833220608&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHpilSf6fYHToY3HKxO7dBDmtZp5g">described</a> by The Washington Post as a “revered military leader” and by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as a mere “<a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/03/ilhan-omar-and-ted-cruz-clash-over-qassem-soleimani-strike/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nypost.com/2020/01/03/ilhan-omar-and-ted-cruz-clash-over-qassem-soleimani-strike/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF5c-YWQiOrhhfuX94tA4Xym2dK6w">foreign official</a>.”
In fact, he was an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/raphael-irans-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-is-a-modern-day-nazi-ss">arch-terrorist</a> responsible for the murders of thousands of people — including hundreds of American servicemen and women, many of who were murdered and maimed by Iranian-created explosive devices.
Pundits and reporters alike have claimed that Soleimani’s death has led to Iran threatening the U.S. But they have it backwards. Tehran has been threatening the U.S. for years — a fact the media have often ignored or obfuscated.
Indeed, in the days prior to his death, Soleimani and the Shiite militias under his command had <a href="https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2049534/statement-by-the-department-of-defense/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2049534/statement-by-the-department-of-defense/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHMa9PkrZSmYC2xW8fYZ1vNbQ9jUQ">murdered</a> an American contractor and attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
Iranian belligerence long predates the Trump administration.
Ever since its founding in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently called for “death to America.” <a href="https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/anti-american-statements" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/anti-american-statements&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEEZcg3ZcJ_BHvO4a6GXbjKkZW9QA">Anti-Americanism</a>, like anti-Semitism and imperialism, is a core tenet of the regime’s Islamist <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TAPs_r81AqQC&amp;q=ideology#v=snippet&amp;q=ideology&amp;f=false" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://books.google.com/books?id%3DTAPs_r81AqQC%26q%3Dideology%23v%3Dsnippet%26q%3Dideology%26f%3Dfalse&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFH0wn8HiHGON8co_qZTpuMYlgB5g">ideology</a>. For four decades, Iran has sought to make good on its threats, kidnapping and <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/why-the-cia-killed-imad-mughniyeh" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/why-the-cia-killed-imad-mughniyeh&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF0l1yNTe6i7IbJDBOyLddUXtGEuA">torturing</a> Americans, bankrolling terrorist groups — Sunni and Shiite <a href="https://twitter.com/SeanDurns/status/1139190702016028672" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/SeanDurns/status/1139190702016028672&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGU6Zm_QmKHPkTTArPeNB3gCvB7Cg">alike</a> — that attack Americans, and murdering <a href="https://taskandpurpose.com/iran-killed-us-troops" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://taskandpurpose.com/iran-killed-us-troops&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHx1UBKlC8CMU6EHLKorW4JQceemA">our troops</a>.
Yet Western media have frequently minimized Iran’s open hostility. In December 2015, for example, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/defense/262616-house-panel-supports-bill-to-directly-arm-the-kurdish-peshmerga" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/policy/defense/262616-house-panel-supports-bill-to-directly-arm-the-kurdish-peshmerga&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEhsPzIt_VMhKvJstZpG-Q8vfPvCg">noted</a> that “powerful Iran-backed Shiite militias” had “threatened to attack U.S. forces in Iraq in response to U.S. legislation” granting Kurdish forces the means to defend themselves from ISIS. Most major U.S. news outlets <a href="https://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/12/wheres_the_coverage_iran_threa.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/12/wheres_the_coverage_iran_threa.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHTc8EeHpMz_Vr-OyEIX9PwyMANtw">ignored</a> Iran’s gangster-like behavior.
Similarly, on November 26, 2016, an Iranian ship threatened a U.S. military helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz. The incident was profiled in a brief Reuters report at the time that noted that “a small Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard vessel pointed its weapon” at a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter. However, The Washington Post, USA Today, and other prominent newspapers <a href="https://blog.camera.org/2016/12/_iranian_ship_threatens_us_hel.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/2016/12/_iranian_ship_threatens_us_hel.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE0_4WHsusjl8wTHte1QcPg22dz-A">failed</a> to cover it.
In 2014 and 2015 — while the Obama administration was engaged in negotiations with Iran over its illicit nuclear weapons program — the regime was ramping up its cyber war. As one New York Times report <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/middleeast/iran-hackers-cyberespionage-state-department-social-media.html?_r=0" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/world/middleeast/iran-hackers-cyberespionage-state-department-social-media.html?_r%3D0&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFp2L3zAElm6sm6U5J29ebbrNo5Lw">detailed</a>, American officials and private security groups “say they see a surge in sophisticated computer espionage by Iran, culminating in a series of cyber attacks against State Department officials.” The attacks, the Times admitted, were “nothing new, having begun in the latter years of the Bush administration and proceeded since then to target U.S. agencies, banks and citizens.” The report pointed out that Iranian cyber attacks transitioned in 2014 from attempting to disrupt, degrade, and destroy targets to “spear phishing for espionage.”
“Beginning in May 2014,” the report said, “researchers found evidence that Iranian hackers were targeting Iranian dissidents, and later policymakers, senior military personnel and defense contractors in the United States, England, and Israel.”
Perhaps most alarmingly, Iranian terrorists have sleeper cells in the U.S., Canada, and Europe — a fact that many in the press have overlooked. On April 17, 2018, several intelligence officials told Congress that Iranian agents tied to the terror group Hezbollah had been discovered. Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based terrorist organization completely <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/hezbollah-backgrounder-2016/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.camera.org/article/hezbollah-backgrounder-2016/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEjhvF0zS7Zt41jYdK4uzRmtUqDKA">funded and controlled</a> by Tehran. Prior to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks by al-Qaeda, Hezbollah had murdered more Americans than any other terrorist entity.
Although the majority of analysts testified that Iranian proxies like Hezbollah pose a threat to the U.S. homeland, many news outlets failed to report their testimony, as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) <a href="https://blog.camera.org/archives/2018/04/iran_has_sleeper_cells_in_the.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://blog.camera.org/archives/2018/04/iran_has_sleeper_cells_in_the.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGQAjDE6ZIZXfOysiC3aF94CQ8Paw">noted</a> at the time.
U.S. law enforcement even arrested two Hezbollah operatives, Samer El Debek and Ali Mohammad Kourani, indicting them in May 2017 for “casing targets for possible future terror attacks.” Both were members of Hezbollah’s External Security Organization (ESO), also known as Unit 910. ESO is tasked with carrying out terrorist attacks and other operations, such as money laundering and drug smuggling, throughout the world. As he later told investigators, Kourani had been recruited into the ESO in January 2008.
The two Hezbollah operatives — both naturalized U.S. citizens — underwent military training in Lebanon and procured explosives, night-vision goggles, and drone technology. El Debek reportedly scoped out potential targets, including New York’s John F. Kennedy (JFK) and La Guardia International Airports, and the U.S. Armed Forces Career Center in Queens, New York. As the terror analyst Matthew Levitt detailed in a June 14, 2019 Foreign Policy <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut.-its-in-new-york-too" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/hezbollah-isnt-just-in-beirut.-its-in-new-york-too&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHixgr6xY7xcaKSjhb7wujvP4nm8w">article</a>, before he was convicted, Kourani’s trial showed that Iranian sleeper cells were far more active in the U.S. than previously thought. Yet this revelation, and the trial itself, received little press attention.
In 2007, Iranian proxies <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg85689/html/CHRG-113hhrg85689.htm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg85689/html/CHRG-113hhrg85689.htm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHk7Z2JVKGcDEDoxTj36OEqYh53hA">planned</a> to blow up the fuel tanks at JFK International Airport, but were thwarted by authorities. In another foiled plot, Iranian-backed operatives <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-charged-alleged-plot-assassinate-saudi-arabian-ambassador-united-states" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-men-charged-alleged-plot-assassinate-saudi-arabian-ambassador-united-states&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF1Cfv2ScXLiMfmDDtw32fuLU4avw">planned</a> to blow up a Washington, D.C. restaurant in 2011 in order to murder a Saudi dignitary. Yet these facts were conveniently ignored in numerous reports on the potential fallout from Soleimani’s death.
Iran itself has openly broadcast its ambitions, holding rallies and marches calling for death to both “the Great Satan” (the U.S.) and “the little Satan” (Israel). In 2017, an Iranian filmmaker <a href="https://apnews.com/6343bea57e224da8b6e30f46a994415f" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/6343bea57e224da8b6e30f46a994415f&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1578428303467000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGnAbpF-sOXW-wLoqVf-iUDgimOag">released</a> a 90-minute movie depicting the destruction of U.S. Naval forces by Tehran. In the film, a character that closely resembles Soleimani leads a single vessel against more than a dozen American warships. When a U.S. commander orders him to surrender or die, he replies: “General, I am not a diplomat, I am a revolutionary!”
But Iran’s threats are no mere fantasy. And the threat posed by the Islamic Republic warrants honest and complete media coverage.
&nbsp;
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for the Washington D.C. office of CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

Iran map

DURNS: The Media Have Long Ignored Iran’s Threats

Foreign Policy

Iran

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Islamic State (ISIS)

Leftism

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Media Bias

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Radical Islamic Terror

Terrorism

The Napoleonic-era French diplomat Talleyrand famously offered a rather harsh assessment of the Bourbons after they regained power decades after the French Revolution that overthrew them: “They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.” The same might be said for a coterie of American diplomats who, decades after the failure of the Oslo Accords peace process of the 1990s, have failed to learn the lessons of Oslo&#8217;s failure. Worse still, many Western news outlets repeat their claims — many of which have been disproven by both history and experience — as gospel truth.
In last Sunday&#8217;s edition of The Washington Post, Aaron David Miller and Daniel Kurtzer, both former U.S. State Department officials, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/lets-not-pretend-washington-ever-really-tried-to-stop-israeli-settlements/2019/11/21/2fc18316-0c96-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/lets-not-pretend-washington-ever-really-tried-to-stop-israeli-settlements/2019/11/21/2fc18316-0c96-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237582000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFFtqdKQX8xdEfehadfC60p-kVo3g">lambasted</a> the Trump administration’s recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-the-trump-administration-is-absolutely-correct-to-call-israeli-settlements-legal">announcement</a> that it would not consider Israeli construction in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), or “settlements,” to be “illegal.” The decision, Miller and Kurtzer claim, has “compromised, if not killed” the possibility for any U.S.-brokered “peace deal” between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
They assert that the decision violates international law. <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/294359/israels-rights-in-the-west-bank-under-international-law" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/294359/israels-rights-in-the-west-bank-under-international-law&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE-8RFb84eA-Gbp-IwmxuYIhmsq4w">However</a>, the League of Nations Palestine Mandate, Article 6 (1922) encourages “close settlement by Jews on the land” west of the Jordan River. The U.N. Charter (1945), Chapter 12, Article 80 (“the Palestine article”) upheld the Mandate’s position, as did the San Remo Resolution (1920) and the Anglo-American Convention (1924), which either recognized or assumed the legality of Jewish settlement.
Miller and Kurtzer add: “The United States has known for decades how damaging settlement activity is in the search for peace — Palestinians cannot trade land for peace if they don’t possess the land.”
But the veteran diplomats have it backwards: U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, adopted shortly after Israel seized territories from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria in a 1967 war of self-defense, assumed “peace-for-land” negotiations; first the Arab side would commit to peace with Israel, then Israelis would withdraw from some of the land.
Miller and Kurtzer have misdiagnosed the problem at the root of the conflict. Palestinian-Arab leaders consider all of Israel to be a “settlement” — an “occupation.” And there’s a huge body of evidence to prove it.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has <a href="https://palwatch.org/analysis/97" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://palwatch.org/analysis/97&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEfClXxrHHlebOd717VruCYKiaLqQ">documented</a> how official Palestinian Authority (PA) media routinely refer to all of Israel as “occupied” and deny any Jewish connection to the land. The PA itself uses <a href="https://palwatch.org/page/12774" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://palwatch.org/page/12774&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHQWGntsTl5fQ3FSTKJeWDpNGVqSA">maps</a> that depict all of Israel as “Palestine” and its leaders have <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/fiery-speech-palestinian-president-abbas-condemns-united-states-threatens-violence-denies-jewish-history/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://freebeacon.com/national-security/fiery-speech-palestinian-president-abbas-condemns-united-states-threatens-violence-denies-jewish-history/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG_vvSH7W2SfgJTk7lMeSh8vAr0tQ">asserted</a> that Jews have no historical link to Jerusalem, a city whose historical and religious ties to Judaism predate the creation of Islam by thousands of years.
Indeed, &#8220;settlements&#8221; would be a moot point if the Palestinian leadership had accepted U.S. and Israeli offers for statehood in 2000 at Camp David, 2001 at Taba, and 2008 after the Annapolis Conference. Each of these proposals would have given Palestinian leaders a state and the overwhelming majority of the West Bank. Yet, the PA rejected each offer — without so much as a counteroffer. The 2008 Israeli <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/195315/missed-opportunity-olmert-abbas-and-media-bias" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/195315/missed-opportunity-olmert-abbas-and-media-bias&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHhU0cmZJMsoDaS1OA2FCazaKqZTw">offer</a>, which provided for a Palestinian state with its capital in eastern Jerusalem, was the basis for U.S. attempts to restart negotiations in 2014 and 2016, both of which were <a href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/29/the-palestinian-authority-repudiates-oslo-and-no-one-reports-or-cares/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/29/the-palestinian-authority-repudiates-oslo-and-no-one-reports-or-cares/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH0RHR-l_OTbyqyBHIl97r6SVroKQ">also rejected</a> by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The PA’s refusal to resolve outstanding issues in bilateral talks is a violation of the Oslo Accords, which created the PA and remains the basis for its legitimacy. But the PA also <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/israel-plo%20recognition%20-%20exchange%20of%20letters%20betwe.aspx" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/peace/guide/pages/israel-plo%2520recognition%2520-%2520exchange%2520of%2520letters%2520betwe.aspx&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFZZU947pFwBwWUcnWgd-NzRBhvNQ">violates</a> Oslo — which Miller and Kurtzer championed when in government — in more grotesque ways.
The PA has continued to pay salaries to those who carry out attacks against Jews — even increasing the amount by 11.8% in 2019 alone, as PMW noted in a July 4, 2019 Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/PA-increases-salaries-to-terrorists-in-2019-despite-financial-crisis-report-594600" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/PA-increases-salaries-to-terrorists-in-2019-despite-financial-crisis-report-594600&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF9Un9rY4uSU0mORb0zV7yVvq0Wjg">report</a>. As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) has <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international-affairs/333662-how-the-palestinian-authoritys-social-safety-net" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international-affairs/333662-how-the-palestinian-authoritys-social-safety-net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFlPfTZLreQ8608uef_JG1u5BL2gg">detailed</a>, the PA’s decision to pay terrorists and their families is enshrined in the PA&#8217;s own laws, passed in 2004 and amended in 2013, stipulating that convicted terrorists <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/04/28/palestinians-are-rewarding-terrorists-the-u-s-should-stop-enabling-them/?utm_term=.9aafce51bbb9" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/04/28/palestinians-are-rewarding-terrorists-the-u-s-should-stop-enabling-them/?utm_term%3D.9aafce51bbb9&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFw2r0vy_iOtIri-Ke0cvUfrYb2JA">receive</a> monthly “salaries.” Further, cash grants and priority civil service job placements are offered to those who carry out terror attacks.
Streets, sports teams, tournaments, and even schools are <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/missing-the-palestinian-after-terror-after-party" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/missing-the-palestinian-after-terror-after-party&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGYDQixaNXx05jAhdHQF5jKRDp3Mw">named</a> after murderers of Jews. In but one example, in October 2015, the PA Ministry of Education <a href="http://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/10/moderate_palestinian_authority.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/10/moderate_palestinian_authority.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGzAZCLgOBUMqYbjzjvUWSWRanh7A">announced</a> that it would plant olive trees and place signs with the names of terrorists who have died murdering Israelis. One of these terrorists, Muhannad Shafeq Halabi, killed two Israelis and stabbed a two-year old child in an October 8, 2015 terror attack in Jerusalem. For his actions, Halabi was posthumously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/12/30/palestinian-bar-association-grants-honorary-degree-to-terrorist-who-murdered-two-israelis/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/12/30/palestinian-bar-association-grants-honorary-degree-to-terrorist-who-murdered-two-israelis/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGjCR_PmISArtnY84MvO61WdFc_1A">awarded</a> an honorary law degree by the PA Bar Association.
This is par for the course for the Palestinian-Arab leadership. Yasser Arafat, Abbas’s predecessor, acted similarly. In a May 10, 1994 <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiOycnJxLjdAhUlheAKHV47A88QFjABegQICRAB&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F1994%2F05%2F20%2Fworld%2Frabin-says-arafat-s-jihad-remark-set-back-peace-effort.html&amp;usg=AOvVaw3gpH0UWmxGZMhql_BuuEVm" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?sa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26esrc%3Ds%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D2%26cad%3Drja%26uact%3D8%26ved%3D2ahUKEwiOycnJxLjdAhUlheAKHV47A88QFjABegQICRAB%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F1994%252F05%252F20%252Fworld%252Frabin-says-arafat-s-jihad-remark-set-back-peace-effort.html%26usg%3DAOvVaw3gpH0UWmxGZMhql_BuuEVm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237583000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHhbD7E-yXz6jR7YnxGdWweX9vhMg">speech</a> in South Africa — and in another one on August 21, 1995 at Al-Azhar University in Cairo — Arafat compared his decision to participate in the Oslo process to deceptions that the Prophet Muhammad engaged in against rival tribes. As he <a href="http://washingtonjewishweek.com/34878/the-post-gets-lost-inside-a-dead-terrorists-bedroom/editorial-opinion/voices/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://washingtonjewishweek.com/34878/the-post-gets-lost-inside-a-dead-terrorists-bedroom/editorial-opinion/voices/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237584000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEiuj6dbwPGR_dkngM2s-EUd-Kbfw">stated</a> in a 1996 speech in Stockholm: “We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. … We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.”
If Miller and Kurtzer’s argument were true, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 or from most of the West Bank in the 1990s would have enhanced peace. Instead, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-israel-must-destroy-hamas-once-and-all-josh-hammer">genocidal terror group</a> that calls for Israel’s destruction, Hamas, was emboldened, winning Gaza elections soon after Israel&#8217;s unilateral withdrawal. And as CAMERA analyst Steve Stotsky has <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/the-straight-facts-about-the-palestinian-authority-and-fighting-terrorism/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.camera.org/article/the-straight-facts-about-the-palestinian-authority-and-fighting-terrorism/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1574888237584000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEpFGT8nRFb_WlWN3NGX2JGqqYqLg">documented</a>, terror attacks increased after Oslo, as well.
Put simply: It is asinine to believe that Jewish home construction in Judea and Samaria is more “damaging” to peace than a faux “peace partner” honoring and celebrating those who stab Jewish babies. Palestinian-Arab terrorism, and indeed the 1964 creation of the PLO, predate the much-ballyhooed &#8220;1967 borders.&#8221;
Palestinian-Arab leaders have shown no interest in changing. And regrettably, the same can be said for some policymakers, journalists, and pundits who remain wedded to an idea long after its failure passed from opinion into the realm of fact.
&nbsp;
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for the Washington, D.C. office of CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.

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