JUN. 5, 2003: HISTORY LESSONS
In December 1921, the British government and the
leaders of Catholic nationalist Ireland signed a
treaty dividing the island. The southern 26
counties would become an effectively independent
country; the northern six would remain within the
British union.

Over the next six months, opinion in Ireland
divided between those who wished to accept the
treaty as the best possible deal and the more
militant nationalists who wished to continue
fighting Britain in hopes of gaining the remaining
counties. The militants continued to attack
British security forces - Britain put heavy
pressure on the new Irish Free State - and in the
early morning hours of June 28, 1922, the
pro-Treaty forces launched an attack on military
units of the anti-Treaty faction.

Thus began the Irish Civil War, the subject of any
number of books, movies, photographsand bar-room
songs. Over nine months, some 3,000 Irishmen would
die in battle. Ultimately, the pro-Treaty forces
won, and independent Ireland accepted the
partition of the Protestant north from the
Catholic south. And since 1923, the independent
new Irish state has been a peaceful neighbor to
Britain, a valued member of the Atlantic
community, and (increasingly) a beneficiary of a
thriving, free-market economy.

Why delve into this ancient history? It is this
Irish story that contains the test for the new
Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas. Making
treaties with Israel is by no means the hardest
part of his job. In fact, it is probably the very
easiest. The hard will be making the treaty stick
- by for example suppressing the radical local
militias who will certainly impose it. The job
ahead of Abbas, in other words, bears a remarkable
resemblance to the duty history thrust upon
Michael Collins and the Irish leaders of 1922: to
crush the radical opposition, sign a treaty with
Israel while they can, and then enforce compliance
with the treaty even at the risk of war with
former comrades.

Will Abbas do that, or its contemporary
equivalent? For all the many technical details in
the roadmap, really, that is the only one question
that counts.

Afterword

At the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty, the
British signatory, Lord Birkenhead (better known
by his birth name, F.E. Smith) remarked, "I may
have signed my political death warrant." Michael
Collins replied, "I may have signed my actual
death warrant." So he had: He was murdered by IRA
gunmen in August 1922.

Many readers have written to point out that
Mahmoud Abbas would risk the same fate if he were
to make and honor a peace with Israel. So he would
- and if he did, he would achieve yet another
distinction: He would become the first Palestinian
leader ever to risk his own life for his people´s
cause.

http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/diary060503.asp