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«It looks like the road to heaven, but it feels like the road to hell.»

George Michael – From the song Freedom

The road map was already flawed in its conception and problematic in its wording. On top of this, it is now clear that its implementation is an abysmal disaster: The Israelis are being pressured to go beyond what the document demands, whereas the Palestinians are being let off the hook as they breach their core obligation under the road-map terms.

This is a repetition of the Oslo mistakes, and it can lead only to a new intifada. The current one has not even ended yet, and unless the road-map implementation is urgently corrected, this diplomatic initiative will not only fail to reduce animosity and violence but also bring about more pandemonium.

Israel is being asked to release Palestinian prisoners and to stop building a security fence separating the two peoples. Neither requirement appears in the road map. Furthermore, at times when Palestinian suicide-bombers are blowing Israelis to pieces, the world community expects Israel to free Palestinians who have murdered civilians and who in all likelihood will resume their killings. It also demands that Israel stop building a security fence aimed at preventing more atrocities.

In other words; Israel is being pressured into releasing terrorists and keeping its borders unprotected so that these killers and their comrades in arms in the territories can go on jointly with their carnage. The sheer insanity of this dual demand is breathtaking.

The international community seems to be asking Israel to abet the murder of Israelis as a «confidence-building measure» to the Palestinian Authority. That the PA is the entity responsible for brainwashing and seducing an entire generation of Palestinians into criminal political violence can only add to one’s puzzlement as to why it merits a reward.

The Palestinians, for their part, are supposed to be fighting terror. This is their central commitment under the road map. But, until a few days ago, when for the first time he ordered the capture of those behind an attack, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas had been saying that he would not risk civil war by confronting the radical elements of Palestinian society. Each time that Palestinian fanatics killed Israelis, including this week’s bombing in Jerusalem, the typical Abbas condemnation was to indicate that such attacks did «not serve the interest of the Palestinian people.» Does this mean that were such crimes against humanity helpful in advancing the interest of the Palestinian people, it would then be just fine with Abbas? And remember: He is the leader of moderation in Palestinian politics.

There should be just one standard to judge the parties’ performance vis-a-vis their obligations: We should assume that the respective leaderships are able to fulfill requirements that they have accepted, even if such fulfillment involves a domestic political price. Otherwise we would be tying contractual implementation to political feasibility, a principle that would exonerate the parties from their duties and thus kill the essence of any agreement.

Concerning the fight against Palestinian terror, this translates as no more talk about «root causes.» No more sympathy for real or imagined grievances. No more contextualizing, rationalizing or borderline justifying terrorism. If Abbas committed himself to dismantling the terrorist infrastructure, he should do it. That would serve the interest of the Palestinians so much better than whatever excuses apologists feel inclined to raise every time a Muslim fundamentalist decides to take innocent lives in Israel or elsewhere.

The twin suicide-bombings this week in Baghdad and Jerusalem tragically shed light on a simple truth: The way to stop terror is to fight it, not to excuse it.

Julián Schvindlerman is a political analyst and journalist in Buenos Aires.