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ZEV CHAFETS:
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I was wrong

In 1991, I wrote an article in the Jerusalem Report calling for a Palestinian state. This was before the Oslo Accords were struck, but I was influenced by the same optimistic spirit that animated its negotiators. I thought the Palestinians were ready for a genuine peace in return for an independent state in most of the West Bank and Gaza.

I was wrong.

Still, I don't regret Oslo. It was a necessary test of reality. It showed that the Palestinians didn't want a peace Israel could (literally) live with. They preferred war.

Israel has to win that war in a way that is wholly unmistakable to the other side - and then dictate its terms. They should be as generous as a skeptical prudence allows. And not one bit more.

The writer is a columnist with the New York Daily News.