HOW CAN ISRAEL MAKE PEACE WITH AN ENEMY SWORN TO DESTROY IT?

Egyptian President Mubarak has just finished hosting a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and King Abdullah II of Jordan. This conference was designed to show support for Abbas and his "moderate" Fatah movement in their life and death struggle with Hamas.

The United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations have banded together as the Quartet with the purpose of achieving a Mideast peace. The Quartet supports and will provide economic and millitary aid to Fatah, while pressuring Israel to restart negotiations with Abbas on "the road map to peace" designed to establish an independent Palestinian state.

The Quartet trusts and expects Israel to trust an entity which is better known for corruption than for good governance, its officials having lined their own pockets by siphoning off millions of dollars in international aid. And the irony of it all is that the United States will join the rest of the Quartet in pressuring Israel to make concessions to the very same people who cheered and danced in the streets while celebrating the deaths of 3,000 men, women and children in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

There is only one problem. The road map to peace leads down a highway which ends with the disappearance of Israel. Most followers of Islam, including the Palestinians and the Saudis, are committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. The Saudis have proposed an Arab Peace Initiative which requires Israel to retreat to it's pre-1967 borders, to give up East Jerusalem, and to accept the right of return for the Palestinian refugees.

The Saudi "peace" plan is strongly backed by Abbas. It would leave Israel with defenseless borders. It would inundate Israel with a "fifth column" of millions of Arab refugees, thus destroying the Jewishness of the State. It was proposed by a people who applauded and supported Hitler's "final solution," the extermination of the Jews. It was proposed by a people who now claim the Holocaust was a hoax. Abbas has threatened war if Israel does not accept the Saudi plan. If Israel is to survive, THE ARAB PEACE INITIATIVE IS A NON-STARTER!

The United Nations and Russia, both of which have a long history of siding with the Arabs against Israel, are backing the Saudi Plan. The Saudis, who teach their school children that Jews are apes and Christians are swine, engage in the vilest forms of anti-Semitism. However, their hatred is not limited to Jews - the Saudis hate all infidels and advocate Jihad against non-blievers.

When adddressing the West, Abbas expresses a willingness to co-exist with Israel, but he sings a different tune to the Arab world. Time after time he has promised to fight "the occupation," a term used to describe the Jewish occupation of Palestinian lands - and for the Arabs that means THE WHOLE STATE OF ISRAEL, not just Gaza and the West Bank.

How then can Israel make peace with an enemy sworn to destroy it? For starters, in Israel's case, it must have a strong resolute Prime Minister, one who can stand up to the international community when it pressures the Jewish State to make self-destructive concessions to the Palestinians. Ehud Olmert is certainly not that man. He will wilt under international pressure. The only Israeli leader with the fortitude and strength to stand up to the international community is Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, head of the Likud party. So, before the Israelis can even begin to think about peace, they will have to elect Netanyahu as their Prime Minister.

In order to survive an enemy that aims to annihilate it, Israel must have borders that it can defend. That requires it to be more than only nine miles wide, which it now is at its narrowest point. This means that Israel cannot give up all of the West Bank. It must retain that part of the West Bank which contains major Jewish settlements. These settlements must be maintained and remain within the final boundaries of Israel, rather than abandoned as demanded by the Arabs.

The Jewish State must retain access to the Jordan River, its water being Israel's life-blood. It must keep most of the Golan Heights so that it can defend itself better from a possible attack by the Syrians. And, most certainly, Israel cannot give up East Jerusalem which would, under control of the Palestinians, be a dagger pointed at the heart of the Jewish State.

Israel must strengthen its armed forces. The war with Hezbollah, which was so badly mismanaged by an incompetent Ehud Olmert, revealed that Israel was incapable of defeating a guerilla militia. The weaknesses shown by the army must be corrected by developing new tactics to deal with unconventional guerilla warfare and to stop deadly rocket attacks against Israeli military and civilian targets. And above all, Israel must continue to develop its nuclear weapons, always leaving the nuclear option on the table.

Israel can only survive if it is armed to the teeth with secure and defensible borders. That is not acceptable to the left-wing Peace Now movement, Israel's peaceniks, which believes the lie that the Palestinians only want a state of their own, co-existing peacefully alongside the Jewish State. Peace Now is willing to pay almost any price to achieve an end to the current hostilities. And of course, an Israel which retains any part of the West Bank and retains all of Jerusalem is not acceptable to the Arabs either.

In the end, however, the Palestinians may yet accept these conditions if that is the only way to achieve their own statehood. Bibi Netanyahu is the only Israeli leader who will make the kind peace with the Arabs which will not lead to the eventual destruction of the Jewish State. Israel will continue to be attacked by Arab militants waging a war of attrition, even if it gives up all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. A peace of sorts is better than the international community's alternative - a peace which leaves Israel defenseless and leaves it to be swallowed up by its sworn enemies.