and Syria, Israel rebounded after initially devastating losses. As soon as Israel seized the initiative and was close to enforcing humiliating surrenders upon Egypt and Syria, the Americans, spearheaded by Henry Kissinger, arranged a series of retreats by Israel. Again, it was the same old story...retreat and surrender by Israel for chimerical Arab promises.

After Sadat's journey to Jerusalem, the nostrum of "territory for peace" became the mantra for all subsequent negotiations. It produced the Camp David accords where Israel withdrew from the entire Sinai Peninsula and promised "autonomy" to the Arab residents of Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. Has Tom Friedman ever reflected on the fact that Egypt has flouted every single paragraph of its so-called peace treaty with Israel? Has he ever read the government-controlled press and the government-controlled schoolbooks in Egypt? Even Friedman might be startled by the uncontrolled and violent anti-Semitism inculcated into Egyptian civilians and students.

In Israel's 1982 Lebanon War, commenced after unbearable terrorism against Israel's northern population, the PLO was defeated and disrupted. Again, as soon as Israel was on the march and the PLO dispersed and in tatters, Secretary of State George Shultz spoke of the "winds of moderation" among the Arabs and trotted out the tired old Rogers Plan as the "Reagan Plan." The same old state department types -- whose policy might as well have been crafted by the Arab states -- pressured Israel into withdrawal.

In the wake of Saddam Hussein's defeat in the Gulf War, the PLO, which had supported Saddam, was on the ropes. The intifada had run out of steam. And this time it was Prime Minister Rabin who listened to the Pied Piper, belatedly giving the Rogers-Reagan Plan his blessing. The Oslo surrender followed and while Shimon Peres sang odes to the New Middle East, the PLO escalated terrorism to new and ever more deadly levels. Nonetheless, the Rogers Plan in its Oslo incarnation continued to be endorsed by Rabin, Netanyahu, Barak and President Clinton. The end result (after Barak's final offer of virtual 100% withdrawal) was not just terror but today's outright war.

Finally Sharon has responded, although not as forcefully as the situation demands, and Arafat is cornered in Ramallah. Even Ehud Barak makes the rounds of television shows, supporting tough counter terrorism by Israel. Confronting Muslim terror itself, the United States has no longer been so quick to engage in the naked hypocrisy of demanding Israeli "restraint." Suddenly, here it is again, the same old plan now cloned as the "Abdullah Plan." And, in spite of overwhelming evidence that the Arabs want every single Israeli dead, Abdullah's snake oil is being peddled as the new remedy for the Israel-Arab war.

To say "Return to Oslo" now sounds absurd. But call it the Abdullah Plan and a shopworn absurdity suddenly sounds orginal and promising. It's as if the United States, seeing the return of warlords to Afghanistan and the danger of renewed inter-ethnic strife, said "Back to the Taliban."

Ruth King is a member of the executive committee of Americans For a Safe Israel.

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Outpost               - 12 -               March 2002