You can read the full article here: at The Jerusalem Post.

I always hate it when people tell me, "See? I told you so!"

Especially when it's my wife, Marcia (because she's usually right).

But in this instance, it's true—because I predicted this development in an earlier blog.

The "peace talks" are doomed to fail because (1) the Palestinian Authority cannot govern its own people, let alone negotiate with another government, and (2) you cannot negotiate with someone who does not respect your legitimacy.

This is precisely why the Bush Administration refused to engage in direct negotiations with the government of Iran, which is blatantly anti-Semitic and a known state sponsor of terrorism worldwide. To have done so would have been to imply Washington's recognition of the Teheran government's legitimacy. The Obama Administration has since changed that policy vis-à-vis Iran, but my point still stands. Negotiations require a mutual recognition of legitimacy. Israel cannot negotiate with the Palestinians as long as they refuse to recognize the Jewish State.

One of the reasons for the establishing of the modern State of Israel was to provide a safe haven for the Jewish people in the midst of a dangerous world. In 1948, this tiny, fledgling nation was raised up in the shadow of the Holocaust. Six million Jewish people had perished alongside millions of others in the Nazi death camps during World War Two.

Let that sink in for a moment. Six million Jewish people—including men, women, the elderly, and children—were brutally and systematically murdered by the Nazi regime. Do you know how many people that is? It's roughly the same as the population of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It's almost the size of Cairo, Egypt. (Gideon and I were in Cairo a few years ago, so we have seen first-hand the teeming masses inhabiting that sprawling megalopolis.)

And each Jewish person who died—especially those who were younger and could have later had children—represented not just himself (or herself), but future generations, as well. The true loss in the Holocaust was many more than six million.

Have you ever been to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem? We routinely take our tour groups there. If and when you go, you will be confronted with the stark reality of evil and the horrible scars it leaves on our world. The experience (I hope) will break your heart and you will never be the same.

The cry of the Zionists was, "Never again!"

The official Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel (formally issued on May 14, 1948) said:

    The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations. 

It is unconscionable that the Palestinians stubbornly and maliciously refuse to recognize the Jewish State. The Israelis are bending over backwards trying to accommodate them, trying to come to some sort of mutual agreement, trying to make it work.

Sadly, it's not working. But I won't say I told you so.