Ever Notice--Israeli Prime Ministers Take The Chance For Peace, While Their Arab Counterparts Are Assassinated?

In the course of fisking Karl Vick and Time magazine, Joshua Muravchik notes:

All Israeli prime ministers have seized any opportunity for peace. The hawkish Menachem Begin ceded the Sinai for a peace treaty with Egypt and sought one with Lebanon as well. The even more hawkish Ariel Sharon ordered the Gaza withdrawal. The left-of-center hawk, Yitzhak Rabin, signed the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and the Oslo agreements with the PLO, and Ehud Barak, a former military commander, pulled Israeli forces entirely out of Lebanon. The Israeli public’s yearning for peace is so strong that no leader, of whatever feather, can afford to spurn a chance for it.

In contrast, Arab publics have rarely supported peace and few of their rulers have espoused it. The exceptions have mostly been assassinated, notably Jordan’s first King Abdullah, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, and Lebanon’s Bashir Gemayel.

No wonder Abbas is so keen on finding an excuse to get out of having to negotiate with right wing Likud hawk™ Netanyahu.

Technorati Tag: Mideast Peace Talks.