Hamas has always defined its highest priority as the establishment of an Islamic Palestine "from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River" (International Policy Institution for Counter-Terrorism). If these organizations were just fringe Arab terrorist groups with no international legitimacy or financial backing, the peace process would be in a much different place than it is now. However, until April of last year, the key negotiator in every failed negotiation for peace between Israel and the Palestinians-the Madrid Peace Conference, the Oslo Accords, the Wye River Memorandum and the Camp David Accords-was a man who gave financial, ideological and practical support to Palestinian terrorist organizations, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
During Operation Defensive Shield, the Israeli defense forces' attempt in March and April 2002 to destroy the terrorist infrastructure operating in the Jenin refugee camp, soldiers found hundreds of documents with Arafat's signature that authorized small and large sums of money for the funding of illegal weapons and bomb-making factories, terrorist attacks and financial rewards for families of homicide bombers and other terrorists.
With Arafat's history of concealing his true role in financing terror from international leaders, it is no wonder that Israel and the U.S. eventually refused to meet him again at the negotiating table. So when he appointed the moderate Mahmoud Abbas as the Prime Minister of the Palestinian people on April 30, 2003, to begin a new chapter of the peace process with Israel, a ripple of hope ran through millions of Israelis, Palestinians and concerned citizens nationwide.
But President Arafat has fought Abbas' attempts at compromise and negotiation with Israel and America since the latter's election. The last straw came when, according to The New York Times, Abbas demanded that aggressive action be taken against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad after they claimed responsibility for a homicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus on Aug. 19 that killed 22 Israelis, several of them children. Arafat refused. Now that Abbas has resigned as Prime Minister, at least in part due to Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, it seems as though we're back where we started in April, except 84 Israeli citizens have lost their lives in shootings, stabbings, homicide bombings and other terrorist attacks since then.
The international consensus is virtually unanimous-Abbas' resignation is a clear step backwards for the peace process. The future of millions of Israelis and Palestinians currently hangs in the balance. But this time there is no map, no road to peace in sight. Just miles of desert sand and rocks.