Arafat's best hope for 'Kosovizing' the conflict. The lesson is that what brings peace is not fulfilling Palestinian grievances but bringing the Palestinians to the conclusion that Israel cannot be browbeaten into abandoning its fundamental interests.
Singer is only partially right.
He is right in rejecting the fulfillment of Palestinian grievances as a worthy negotiating objective. He is wrong to suggest that the Palestinian leadership can be persuaded to abandon its objective of taking all the land and annihilating Israel. Implicit in his argument is the widely-held view that what Israel does determines the behavior of the Palestinian side. Promises of violence are the only promises Israel's enemies keep. Hussein Sheikh, a leader of the Fatah Tanzim terror organization in the West Bank, called Sharon's political platform a declaration of war.