All I could think of today was the infamous phrase, “peace in our time.” I have watched myself go from being an optimist to becoming an extremely cautious cynic in matters relating to the “Palestinian Authority” (PA). On September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waved a worthless piece of paper which he had signed with Adolph Hitler. The rest is history. Is history repeating itself?

So what am I to make of the ceasefire agreement made today between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas?

I’m not getting my hopes up until I see real actions from Abbas and the PA. If history is any judge of Palestinian intentions, then the latest “peace” talks will amount to nothing.

I was so excited when Bill Clinton brought Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat together to sign the Oslo Accords in 1993. “Give peace a chance,” I thought. But I slowly learned the hard way that Arafat had no intention of making peace. He was the perfect wolf in sheep’s clothing -- a consummate terrorist. For him, the Oslo process was a ruse for continuing Hitler’s dream of genocide against the Jews. Oslo also assured Arafat a continuous stream of foreign aid dollars he could steal from the very people he claimed to represent.

During the ‘90s, Arafat did nothing to stop terror against the Israelis. In fact, he encouraged it. Then Yitzhak Rabin, a truly great and honest man, was assassinated. Then came the “second Intifada,” the most sustained wave of terrorism that Jews had suffered since Hitler. Then came 911.

Even though I had spent quite a bit of time in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Egypt – even very briefly (and accidentally) ending up in Syria, I still didn’t get the big picture until 911 and the second Intifada. While in Gaza and the West Bank, I noticed how some Palestinians glared at me with utter hatred for... being me, I guess. I followed the news from Israel. I saw pictures of the smoldering wreckage of Israeli buses. I even saw a Palestinian Katyusha rocket slam into a hillside in northern Israel.

The fact is, I and many Americans were complacent before 9/11 -- living with low unemployment and a booming stock market. What a wonderful but false sense of security. Only a few individuals, like Daniel Pipes and Steve Emerson, saw the real threat posed by Islamism’s murdering thugs. At best, some found the Pipes and Emerson warnings as important reading, but not high on the priority list. At worst, these two respectable men were completely ignored as nut-cases. In a democracy, a government is only as good as the people that elect it. 20/20 hindsight is easy to claim credit for, but what were we doing about terrorism during the 1990s? Obviously, not enough.

According to BBC coverage of today’s meeting between Abbas and Sharon:

TV pictures showed Mr Abbas and Mr Sharon smiling as they shook hands across a table at the talks.

"We have agreed on halting all violent actions against Palestinians and Israelis, wherever they are," Mr Abbas said.

"The calm which will prevail in our lands starting from today is the beginning of a new era."

Mr Sharon said: "For the first time in a long time, there is hope in our region for a better future for us and our grandchildren."

Hope? I can’t bring myself to feel very hopeful, though I’m trying not to be a complete stick-in-the-mud. Granted: Arafat is dead; in his short tenure as PA prime minister, Abbas did try to wrench some control from Arafat over Palestinian security forces (and Arafat promptly fired him). Abbas did deploy Palestinian security forces in northern Gaza to prevent terrorists from firing rockets into Israel.

But is anything really different this time? Will Palestinians finally give up the dream of destroying Israel? Can two parties negotiate when one (the Palestinian side) is simultaneously plotting the murder of the other?

The situation in the Middle East is different than it was in the early 1990s. The Taliban have been crushed; Afghans have voted. Saddam is gone; Iraqis have voted; the families of Palestinian homicide bombers a not getting checks from the Iraqi national bank anymore. The Syria Accountability Act easily passed; economic sanctions are in place against Syria. Israel’s security fence has prevented homicide bombings.

Perhaps most importantly, President Bush has been reelected. Bush is the most ardently pro-Israel president in history. He has quietly allowed Israel to relentlessly hunt down and eliminate scores of Palestinian terrorists. Sure, people can find fault in some of the Bush administration’s public statements, but these statements are window dressing. Politics is inescapably political. You can’t make all the people happy all of the time.

The relative calm in the Promised Land is due directly to Israel’s extremely effective targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists, as well as her other security measures. An enemy is defeated when it is utterly and completely defeated. Some Palestinians are starting to grudgingly realize that Israel cannot be destroyed militarily. The “Intifada” has brought Palestinians nothing but physical, economic, and emotional pain – and needlessly wasted the lives of so many innocent Israelis.

Of course, the diehard Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas are balking at today’s ceasefire agreement. They will probably never give up their delusions of genocide – that is until they are dead and buried. But I would venture that even some Hamas members have taken pause: They have seen dozens of their brethren swatted like flies by Israeli helicopter gunships.

Eventually it will not matter what groups like Hamas believe. If Palestinians as a whole refuse to clean up their own garbage, then Israel will continue to do it for them. If a terrorist is born every day, then Israel will fire a missile with that terrorist’s name on it. Palestinians will slowly but surely be worn down by Israel’s military, economic, and social might.

The Palestinian dream of destroying Israel is on its death-bed. Part of that dream died with Arafat. I will view today’s meeting between Abbas and Sharon with very, very cautious optimism. I have to believe that peace will come. I know that peace will come because I have faith in the strength and resolve known only to free people, like Israelis and Americans.

300 Spartans defeated the overwhelming might of the Persian army at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Persia’s King Xerxes purpose for attacking the Greek isles was vainglorious megalomania. His soldiers had nothing to fight for, except perhaps plunder. The Greeks, on the hand, had something to fight for: their freedom.

Similarly, most Palestinians have been taught from birth that their purpose for living is the hatred of Jews. What a sad and empty reason for living. Israelis, outnumbered and surrounded as were the ancient Greeks in 480 B.C., have something meaningful to fight for. They have proven their fierce and tenacious determination to remain free in 4 wars against Arab armies; armies who fought like King Xerxes' men, without purpose.