By LEO AND SHIRLEY LAUFER (2000)

Palestinians not 'hapless victims'

There are a number of fictions being circulated designed to turn the Palestinians from aggressors into hapless victims. First, in 1948, the Palestinians conceded no land to Israel. When the United Nations partitioned Palestine into separate Jewish and Palestinian states, the Jews accepted it, but the Palestinians and Arab states rejected it. They told the world they would fight to gain all of Palestine for themselves. Palestinians attacked Jewish communities in the North while the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq invaded Israel. The Palestinians and their Arab allies lost their war of conquest and only recently acknowledged Israel's presence. In 1988, Yasser Arafat recognized Israel as a fact of life but never acknowledged Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. During the peace process, he used terrorist attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad to pressure Israel into concessions.

Second, Ariel Sharon went to the Temple Mount but never set foot inside either mosque. He confined himself to the holiest site in Judaism: the Temple Mount. Unlike the Palestinian mob that totally destroyed a Jewish holy site, Joseph's Tomb, Mr. Sharon committed no act of violence or desecration. When Time, like the Palestinians, accused him of overseeing the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, Mr. Sharon sued for slander. An American jury ruled Time's accusation was false.

Third, the critique of Ehud Barak's concessions at Camp David is a red herring. The real trigger of the current mayhem is Mr. Arafat's rejection of Mr. Barak's historic offer to give 92 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians, allow some Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, cede control of East Jerusalem, including the Muslim and Christian quarters, to the Palestinians and share sovereignty over the Temple Mount. Pretending the concessions do not exist is a device to portray the Palestinians as having no alternative to riot and kill.