Editor, Daily Nexus,

For the first time in over two years, the Israeli leader Ariel Sharon sat down with the new Palestinian leader Abu Mazen to engage in peace talks. Within 48 hours of the talks, Israel was rocked by five suicide bombings.

These attacks on innocent Israelis were aimed just as much at the people as at Abu Mazen, the Palestinian prime minister. It was a case of attempted political assassination perpetrated by Arafat and his supporters. When Mazen and Sharon sat face to face, Arafat and those in his camp launched a wave of terror to torpedo Mazen politically and to kill any hopes for peace.

Arafat time and time again has done nothing but hurt the Palestinian people. In 2000, he walked away from a comprehensive and just peace offer at Camp David. Afterward he headed home and started this campaign of terror.

Mazen has openly said that the decision to launch an armed conflict against Israel has been nothing short of counterproductive and detrimental to the Palestinian cause.

Arafat and the terrorist groups he created, Fatah and al-Aqsa Martyrs, along with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, do not accept Israel’s right to exist. A Camp David agreement would have created a Palestinian state side by side with an Israeli state. If Arafat had accepted this peace deal, he would have had to accept Israel’s right to exist and could no longer seek its destruction.

Israel wants peace! Israel has made successful and comprehensive peace deals with Egypt and Jordan. Israel offered a Palestinian state in 2000. Israel has sat down to talk peace with the new Palestinian leader.

If Arafat, al-Aqsa, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have it their way, Mazen will become irrelevant and the fight to destroy Israel will continue. If Mazen wins this struggle for power, then there is hope for peace. The only way for Mazen to do this is to actively fight the terror groups headed by or allied with Arafat. If he does not take action now, he will lose and so will the hopes and dreams of the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, Israel has been getting ready to make peace with the Palestinians since the 1993 Oslo Accords. The question now is whether or not her date picks her up for the dance or stands her up once again.