Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet
Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident and the deputy prime minister of Israel, wrote a WSJ OpEd Tuesday:
Arafat’s Palestinian Authority used the power and resources given to it not to build a better future for Palestinians, but to construct an infrastructure of terror and indoctrinate an entire generation of Palestinians into a culture of death.
Unfortunately, it is still widely believed that all that is necessary to get the peace process back on track is to convince him or some other Palestinian interlocutor that nothing will be gained through the use of terror. But with his speech last week, President Bush made clear that the source of the problem is the nature of the Palestinian regime, not this or that Palestinian leader.
The president’s words point to a truth that many seem to have forgotten: that there is a fundamental difference between democratic leaders and dictators. Because democratic leaders are dependent on the will of the people, they strive to promote peace and prosperity, opting for war only as a last resort. By contrast, in dictatorships, external enemies become the dictator’s lifeblood, enabling him to divert discontent with his own repressive rule.
He recommends an international force taking over the administration of Palestinian territories for 3 years until elections can be held. I think such a force would need at least 100,000 NATO troops and would be there for the next 100 years or so. I also fully support the idea.