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Like America, Israel was fragile at its birth. It is a democracy surrounded by 22 Arab monarchies and dictatorships. For the first three decades of Israeli statehood, not a single neighbor recognized its right to exist. Many still refuse to do so, and some, including Iran and Syria -- and, until recently, the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization -- have vowed to destroy it.Israel endures because it is a land of quiet heroes who have been tested again and again. They have fought five wars against hostile Arab countries, in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973 and 1982. They fight a different kind of battle every day, against the constant threat of terrorist attack. More than 600 Israeli civilians have been murdered by terrorists in just the last three years.
Yet, somehow, Israelis cling to the hope of peace. They showed it in their repeated attempts to make peace with their neighbors, which did not bear fruit until 1979. Even then, it was only the "cold peace" of the Camp David Accords with Egypt. They showed it again in the 1990s when they signed the Oslo Accords, a framework for Israelis and Palestinians to live in harmony. In the end, neither of these efforts freed Israel from Arab hatred and terror.
Not even Israel's stunning offer of Palestinian statehood, made by Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000, led to a breakthrough. Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat rejected Barak's proposals, and the bloody conflict carried on.
Is there any hope for the latest plan for the Middle East -- the "Roadmap to Peace"? Perhaps. Polls show that the Israeli people are willing to make difficult concessions for peace, including dismantling some Jewish settlements in the West Bank. But the Roadmap will go nowhere until the Palestinians decide to end terrorism against Israel. The continuing and savage attacks on Israeli civilians show that the main obstacle to peace is not the Israeli government, but a corrupt Palestinian leadership.
Terror has no place at the negotiating table. No nation can allow terrorists to chart the political course of its people. The Israeli people understood the truth of this long before it was brought home to Americans on September 11, 2001.
On a recent visit to Israel, I stood in a square of the historic Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City, hallowed ground for a faith that statelessness, genocide and terror could never extinguish. Israeli children played in the shadow of ancient city walls. Etched into one of them are the words of an old Jewish man, exiled from the Old City after the Arab attack and occupation of Jerusalem in 1948, expressing the hope that he would live to see once again the sight of young Israeli children playing in that square.
America's support helped make that man's dream possible. In standing by Israel, we are merely being true to ourselves. If we ever turned our backs on Israel, we would be abandoning the principles that built our nation.
We should remember one more thing. So long as the United States leads the world in defending freedom, terrorists will plot against us. They must be defeated. And in that war, we will never have a stronger ally than Israel.
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