The day before yesterday, with perfect timing that demonstrated the total disconnect between the event and reality, a conference dubbed by its organizers "The Israel Conference for Peace" was held at an upscale Tel Aviv hotel. This was just a meeting of people who represent a shrinking minority opinion in Israeli society that is trying to recycle the delusions of the past. In a nod to pluralism, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) was also invited to speak, but participants couldn't keep up the pretence and heckled him during his speech. Afterwards, as he was leaving the hall, they forced him to be escorted out by security guards. The Haaretz newspaper, which hosted the event, did not issue an apology and addressed the reported violence as "inappropriate behavior" by a participant who had "pushed him lightly," as if that were all right. The rest of the conference participants regurgitated various arguments from a reality that no longer exists. Even former national security advisor Yaakov Amidror said that he was in favor of establishing a Palestinian state in the heart of our land "for demographic reasons," despite the reality that indicates precisely the opposite -- today there is a clear Jewish majority in the state that will apply Israeli law to Judea and Samaria, and this majority continues to grow with time. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni whined about the Americans not handing her a (democratic, of course) silver tray on which to push Israel toward its own position because she hasn't been able to bring the illiterate voters around to recognizing that her path won't pose grave danger to us all. These people of the past are ignoring the fast-changing Middle East reality approaching our eastern border, which demands a fundamental change to the paradigm if we want to live. They have a problem admitting that they were wrong about the reality of the past in light of the reality of today, just like the conference organizers have a problem apologizing to Bennett. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak surprised when he argued at the conference, straight-faced, that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "has proved by his acts and his declarations that he is a partner for peace." Nothing less. Mr. Barak, Abbas is one of those responsible for the murder of three teenage boys, and the one who incited the current round of violence. He fires up his public with hatred toward Israel using all the media outlets put at his disposal by our generous governments and his own school system that teaches generation after generation to hate and delegitimize Israel's existence. Every day, the watchdog website Palestinian Media Watch publishes reports such as Fatah (yes, the one headed by Abbas) posted on its Facebook page a call for Israelis to prepare plenty of body bags. The PA school system, whose content Abbas oversees, teaches the pupils the Palestinian charter because it has never been retracted. This is hotbed that raised and sent out the murderers of the boys. So Abbas, because of his direct responsibility for fostering generations of potential murderers and because of his methodical hatred of us among his constituency, is certainly no partner, but a bitter, sophisticated enemy.
