E-MAIL THIS LINK To:  This Road Map May Be The ONLY Viable Alternative. RealClearPolitics.com. Author: J. McIntyre Pasted in its entirety because it I think this approach is the most viable alternative to achieve a Palestinian state. I don't think it will bring "peace", but perhaps a "peace" by Mideast standards is achievable. MIDDLE EAST PEACE: I'm a big believer in the KISS principle. For those who don't know, KISS stands for "Keep It Simple Stupid." Now, I am not under any illusions that the problems that bedevil the Mideast are easy to resolve, they aren't. Let's face it, the Israeli-Palestinian issue has a million reasons why it is not going to be settled any time soon, but here is my 'road map' to give peace a chance. I was watching Hannity & Colmes on Wednesday night where they had George Mitchell and Lawrence Eagleburger discussing the Mideast. Hannity began with a diatribe attacking Ari Fleischer, Colin Powell and President Bush for coming down on Ariel Sharon and the Israelis. His point in a nutshell was: terror is terror, and there will be no peace until Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad etc. are wiped out. He also made the point that if the U.S. were being attacked in the same fashion as Israel we would certainly be responding and striking back, so why condemn Israel for pursuing the equivalent of the 'Bush Doctrine'? One side of me finds this argument very compelling, but the other side sees it for what it probably is: a proscription for more violence. President Bush was right when he suggested that Sharon's attack on the Hamas leader Rantissi did not help Israeli security. The attack might have been perfectly justified, it might have made many in Israel feel good, but it didn't make Israel more secure. There won't be peace in the Mideast until the terror practitioners are crushed, but as long as it is Israel doing the crushing there is no chance of success. Given this assumption, the solution is for the Palestinians to eliminate the terror machine of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad. And to be fair, this is one of the core tenets of the road map today. The problem is Prime Minister Abbas and the moderate Palestinians don't have the ability alone to win this Palestinian Civil War. This leaves two general possibilities: First, we could just wait until the moderate Palestinians triumph over the radicals. The problem with this approach is it could take decades, even centuries for this to happen. This would let the violence fester and continue unabated in a world where weapons of mass destruction are only going to become more common. Not a great long-term plan. The second option is to have outside forces join with Abbas and the moderate Palestinians and wipe out the terrorists together. No cease fires, no discussions. I'm talking about a very simple policy: If you engage in terrorism you will be hunted down and killed. If the world community, and more specifically; France, Russia, the EU, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan really want peace, they need to put together an armed coalition that will go in with Abbas and eliminate these terrorists by hunting them down door to door in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel's role would be to step back and not retaliate for any terrorist attacks that occur during this war to eliminate the terrorists. The U.S.'s job would be to put pressure on Israel to make sure they don't retaliate. The U.S. could also pump money into the West Bank and Gaza to build schools, hospitals, roads, etc... After the terrorists and their organizations are crushed, then the two sides can sit down and hammer out a compromise to settle this intractable problem. At least at that point peace will have a chance. Today it seems we are still caught in that cycle of violence. The moderate Palestinians either do not have the will or the means to eliminate terrorism and every time Israel takes action to eliminate the terrorists all they do is make Hamas and the terror groups more popular, while delegitimizing the very moderate Palestinians they want to strengthen. I am in total agreement with the author on this intractable paradox. As in Iraq, the status quo needs to be changed. The "game", as it were, needs to be changed. Let's keep this simple. First, the world community needs to get rid of the terrorists in the Palestinian territories. Let's send in French, Russian, German, Turkish and Egyptian commandos and destroy Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, etc. Arafat then needs to be removed, jailed or killed. With the terrorists crushed, Prime Minister Abbas and the moderates can establish the beginnings of a functioning state and THEN we might be on the road map to Mideast peace. Bottom line, the Palestinian terrorists have to be crushed, but they can't be crushed by Israel or the U.S. This is the only option I see giving Mideast peace any type of chance in the near future. Posted by: ColoradoConservative 2003-06-13 http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=15415