August 24, 2011

Problems of "Land for Peace"

Part of what bothers me about proposals for various "land for peace" deals that Israel is sometimes encouraged to make is that it's been tried before and hasn't worked. Recently I realized another problem that such hypothetical deals have. Such deals are rewarding bad behavior, specifically, terrorism committed against the citizens of Israel. To some extent, encouraging such deals is a refusal to call evil such acts as murdering teenagers in pizza parlors, and instead treating the groups that further such acts, like Hamas and Hezbollah, as legitimate bodies of government. They are not. Whatever diplomatic solutions may exist for problems in the Middle East, we can't really begin so long as we ignore massive displays of evil, and ask murderers to keep their word after having demonstrated that if they commit further murder, we're prepared to give them yet more land.