Who hasn't called for Israel's destruction?

When the President of Iran said that "Israel should be wiped off the map," he was far from being the first Arab leader to do so. Back in April 2003, Bashar Assad of Syria stated to the world media that "Israel needs to be destroyed."

Likewise, the state-run news- papers of Egypt, Yemen, Iran and Libya repeatedly have called for "ridding the Middle East of the Zionist entity (Israel by another name)" during the previouys four months.

Since its inception, Hamas has always called for Israel's destruction. Even so-called "moderate" Arabs have expressed their determination to destroy Israel.

President Mamoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority is considered by President Bush and our State department to be a "moderate Palestinian willing to make peace with Israel." Yeah, right, the Al-Aksa Martyrs, card-carrying members of Abbas' Fatah group, is responsible, along with Islamic Jihad, for every homicide bombing committed inside Israel. Also, Abbas has repeatedly stated, in private and in Arabic, that he will never abandon the strategy of "armed struggle" (terrorism by another name).

Abbas is doing the Arafat dance. He continues to blame Israel for all the failures to reach a peaceful settlement because Israel had not given up plans for expansion inside the West Bank and Gaza.

Wrong. Israel gave up control of 98 percent of the West Bank and Gaza under the Oslo accords, despite the repeated violations of the Palestinian Authority.

Israel has no plan to annex what is, in effect, its ancient land, which is why the Israelis gave up control of it. Abbas, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are the biggest obstacles to peace. They will never give up their vision of a unified Palestine, which, by the way, requires the destruction of Israel.

Finally, it was the Arabs who rejected the U.N. resolution to create an Israeli state in 1948. It was the Arabs who urged Palestinians to leave their homes until after Israel was "driven into the sea" by "the victorious Arab armies."

The Arabs not only created the Palestinian refugee problem, but they have maintained it for the past 50 years to deflect criticism of their own failings.

These are the cold, hard facts.