Nathan Diament, Director of the Institute of Public Affairs for the OU had a letter published today in the New York Times entitled “Conditions for a Mideast Peace.”
See below for letter.

October 2, 2007
Conditions for a Mideast Peace

To the Editor:
“That Long-Awaited Peace Meeting” (editorial, Sept. 25) urges President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to “push” the Israelis and the Palestinians to “sign a formal document laying out in as much detail as possible a framework for resolving the core issues of borders, refugees and the status of Jerusalem.”
How many formal documents bearing the signatures of Israeli and Palestinian leaders have been shredded by the shrapnel of terrorists’ bombs and the rockets that are still being launched by Palestinians at Israelis today?
Whatever one believes a final accord between the Israelis and the Palestinians may ultimately contain, that accord cannot be framed until the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza concretely demonstrate their ability and willingness to live in peace with Israel by halting all violent attacks and incitement.
To do otherwise may well give people the “feeling that something concrete has changed in the Middle East – and finally for the better,” but that will be short-lived and, in the absence of real progress, ultimately dangerous.
Nathan Diament
Washington, Sept. 25, 2007
The writer is director of public policy, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

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