The past thirteen years of more or less unilateral Israeli concessions, having yielded mostly negative dividends, have finally started to wear thin in places you wouldn't expect.
In a startling departure from his usual resolute non-intervention in the internal governance of Israel, President Moshe Katsav has launched a scathing attack on a series of Israel's recent prime ministers and governments for failing to "get anything in return" for the historic concessions they made in signing the Oslo accords, endorsing the notion of independent Palestinian statehood, and pulling out of the Gaza Strip. Because of this cardinal error, he said, Israel was today further from peace with the Palestinians than it would otherwise likely have been.
Yes. This is undoubtedly true. And President Katsav's remarks don't appear to be ideologically motivated. It's more of a pragmatic approach.
Speaking exclusively to The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, Katsav ascribed the record of incompetence to a consistent failure to carry out appropriate preparatory work ahead of major diplomatic moves, and to the abiding absence of an agreed "map of vital Israeli national and security interests" to guide policymakers.
An important observation. Too many of Israel's leaders, on both the left, the "center" and the right, I must say, have allowed ideology to cloud this essential guidepost of policy. That "map of vital Israeli national and security interests" is the only map that Israel should be following. It's way past time to dig it out, dust it off and start tracing its pathways.
The terrorists have blundered. And they may have inadvertently provided Israel with a golden opportunity to set its course in the right direction again. Let's hope that Israel hasn't "gone native" to the point where history will say of her that she also has become adept as missing opportunities.
