Our stance should be, "You'll get off the list when we choose. If we want to raise the bar, we'll raise the bar."
Personally, normalizing relations with Israel should be a precondition of getting off the list, but another precondition should be at a minimum of 10 years of good behavior from a nation that has an evil past that stretches back for centuries.
“Personally, normalizing relations with Israel should be a precondition of getting off the list, but another precondition should be at a minimum of 10 years of good behavior from a nation that has an evil past that stretches back for centuries.”
I totally agree. Given the inconvenient reality that the Koran and Hadithas command Muslims in four detailed categories of ways they must lie and dissimulate to non-Muslims, such a cautionary requirement as the one you suggest is not only prudent, but obvious.
Since Muslims are required by Islamic law to spend their lives making the entire world Islamic, through violence, threats and subterfuge, a huge dose of caution and a step by step approach is clearly warranted. Israel should have and still can apply such cautions with all the other countries that are uncharacteristically claiming to be peace-niks with Israel.
The U.S.interlocuters of these “normalization” deals seem to be oblivious to the need for proofs and consistent behavior over time. Not only the English-language press, but far, far more important, the Arabic press should demonstrate a continuous, consistent change of heart towards Israel and the Jewish people, before the U.S. or any Western country grants bribes, such as sweet business deals, sophisticated fighter jets, etc.
The Oslo Accords turned out to be a total fiasco con-job by the P.A., a con-job that the U.S., the E.U., and Israel fell for.
The P.A. kept none of the promises they had signed onto and their use of violence and incitement to hate not only continued, but greatly accelerated. The vast array of financial and material incentives (i.e., bribes) they got for shaking hands on the U.S. White House lawn and saying they were making peace were used for much more institutionalized incitement to hate in schools, madrasshs, books, and media, and for more sophisticated weapons and much more mass terrorism against Israel civilians.
If a county has to be dragged into this kicking and screaming, U.S. and Israeli negotiators should harbor even less hope that that country can be coaxed to have an epiphany of uncharacteristic peacefulness among the family of nations.