Taking stock.

• Author: Greer, Herb
• Position: Letters - Letter to the Editor

Dennis Ross is at some pains to scan the present Arab-Israeli situation without squarely confronting some hard truths (Fall 2003). It is a somewhat empty truism to say that no peace process will succeed without the Arabs. Ross's heavily clouded argument seems to be that we must be nicer to the Arabs and a little less forthcoming in our support of Israel. Probably fortunately, there is no peace process in this area and none is likely. In any case, as in Ulster, the term "peace process" has become an unconvincing euphemism for appeasing terrorists.

The opposition of the Middle Eastern Muslim world to the existence of Israel remains as absolute and bitter as it has been since the 1940s. This is true both among the ruling elites and at a popular level. The "polls" cited by Ross do not have the meaning and political weight in a society ruled by corrupt and violent tyrants that they have in democratic societies like ours. It serves no purpose but that of the terrorists to pretend that they do. And so does the extraordinary willingness of Westerners to swallow whole the English-language pronouncements from the PLO and others that are the polar opposite of what they say to their Arab constituents.

There is absolutely no chance, none at all, that the Palestinian "authorities", under Arafat or anyone else, are going to confront any of the terrorist groups dedicated to destroying Israel. Indeed, the Fatah website shows that the PLO itself still shares that commitment.

There are in this world, alas, conflicts of a kind that are not resolved. They are dissolved in blood, with one side winning and one side losing. Anyone who has (as I have) spent time in the Muslim world knows that the Arab-Israeli clash is just such a conflict. The terrorists will continue, mercilessly and obstinately, until they are...