FOR NATIONS AS FOR PEOPLE, one question is always available to find out whether a past decision was right or a mistake. Would we do it again?
I doubt there are any Israelis who would not now agree that it was a bad mistake to turn over to Yasser Arafat the responsibility for anti-terrorist action in territory from which Israeli forces had withdrawn.The result is achingly plain. The decision, made in Oslo in 1993, allowed terrorists to shovel arms and bombs into Gaza and the West Bank, train there, then cross into Israel to murder civilians. It also put into jeopardy the very withdrawal that Israeli negotiators and much of the Israeli public wanted to achieve, hoping it would bring peace.
The escalation of terrorism was foreseeable from the beginning. High Israeli officers I know were horrified. To expect Yasser Arafat, the man responsible for killing Israeli civilians from Gaza to the Olympic village in Munich, to risk his life and new political power to protect Israelis from terrorism was self-destructive fantasizing.
It could have been prevented if the Israeli government leaders, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, had insisted on the logical safeguard before signing any withdrawal agreement:
The job of fighting terrorists in territory turned over to the Palestinian authorities would remain an Israeli responsibility until the Palestinians showed both the will and ability to deal with them.
That would mean stationing some Israeli anti-terrorist forces in the major cities of the West Bank. For Palestinians, it would have been the price of the Israeli withdrawal that they logically expect to lead to independence. Considering that Israel was demanding virtually nothing else in exchange for the territory and the road to nationhood, the withdrawal would have remained a world-class bargain for Palestinians.
Naturally, the Palestinian-run territory - so far, Gaza, six of the seven West Bank cities and the land around them - became a military storehouse, safe haven and launching pad for the terrorists.
Guns by the tens of thousands were smuggled into Gaza from Egypt overland, by sea and by tunnels. Also brought in, according to the courageous Jerusalem Post, were up to 1,500 land mines whose explosives were intended to be used in portable bombs.
Rectifying the error is the only worthy memorial to the terrorist victims. Israel would have to resume control of antiterrorist action throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Yes, that will delay withdrawal negotiations even longer than the bombings already have. Better that than keeping the nasty pretense of Palestinian protection for Israelis.
Israel and the United States must also expose the propaganda campaign about the good-guy Hamas "moderate" wing and how it should be helped. Weeks ago, Israeli intelligence warned that the campaign would take place. On Sunday, Hamas will push it on "60 Minutes" and on Monday in the newspapers.
The "moderate" Hamas wing does not exist. Any twaddle that Hamas committed the bombings to kill the "peace" negotiations is more self-delusion.
Israel is cracking down on terrorists in West Bank villages still under its control. But it has not moved to take over anti-terrorism in the cities from which it has already withdrawn.