Dr. Frank's What's-it

Fudge Jeff Jacoby has the

Fudge

Jeff Jacoby has the right idea on Israel-Palestine: peace requires a drastic reform of Palestinian culture which, unfortunately, cannot begin without a crushing military defeat. He seems to think that this is Bush's idea as well, which is strange given the fact that "the speech," disingenuously or not, got the main point wrong. (Jacoby says Bush "fudged" when he said ''the hatred of a few holds the hopes of many hostage.'') I guess that depends on the level of disingenuousness. We'll see. Good column, though:  

The nearly nine years of Arafat's misrule have poisoned Palestinian society, and in such toxic soil peace cannot take root. Palestinians have been steeped in hatred and bloodlust; great numbers of them are convinced that it is only a matter of time until the Jews are expelled and all of ''Palestine'' is theirs. It is folly to think that they could abruptly change course and extend to Israel the hand of neighborly goodwill.

As a prerequisite to peace, Palestinian culture must be drastically reformed. The venom of the Arafat era must be drained. Persons implicated in terrorism must be punished and ostracized; democratic norms must be instilled; the virtue of tolerance must be learned. There is only one way to effect such wholesale changes: The Palestinian Authority has to be dealt a devastating military defeat, one that will crush Arafat and his junta and shatter forever the Palestinian fantasy of ''liberating'' Israel and driving the Jews into the sea.

Then the Palestinian territories must be reoccupied, the terror chieftains executed, and the putrescence of Arafat and Hamas flushed away. That will make it possible to rebuild the structures of civil society - the legislature, the courts, the police, the media, and, above all, the schools - from the ground up. The Palestinian polity can become a true liberal democracy, one committed to pluralism, civil rights, competitive elections, and the marketplace of ideas. When that happens, peace with Israel will be a given, and no one will fear a Palestinian state.