Last month, when Time Magazine published a cover story headlined “Why Israel doesn’t Care about Peace,” many in our community protested. The Anti Defamation League even accused Time of anti-Semitism.

Now this newspaper’s Israel Viewpoint column flatly contends that it’s “the Palestinians [who] don’t want peace.”

Well, where does one start addressing such a sweeping statement? First, let us find a common ground: what we want is a peaceful, prospering, permanent Jewish State of Israel. It is the road to that which is where we find our differences.

What in fact are the Palestinians with whom we negotiate, saying? Mahmoud Abbas is the President of the Palestinian Authority and the Chairman of the PLO. Abbas has been saying for years – in Hebrew, English and Arabic – that his objective is lasting peace with Israel, a diplomatic resolution of all outstanding issues with Israel and an end to all claims.Not a truce, not a ceasefire, but permanent peace. He said it several times in recent interviews with the Israel media, and he said it recently in meetings with American Jews on a U.S. visit. He’s not the only one. Members of his Palestinian Authority say the same. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, when he met with Abbas in Washington last month, turned to him and said: “You are my partner for peace.”

But you may not believe Abbas and other Palestinian leaders. You may say that what matters is not what the Palestinians say but what they do.

Israel Viewpoint holds that the Palestinians have not done a thing to build confidence with Israel toward peace. Let’s examine the facts. In May of 2003, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to the “Roadmap,” a U.S.- made plan, co-sponsored by the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, which was aimed at re-launching negotiations after more than two years of violence. Phase I of the Roadmap, which was supposed to be implemented immediately, called on both sides to take measures to increase security, stability and confidence. The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has fulfilled most of its Roadmap commitments, including a successful effort to halt anti-Israeli violence. The Palestinian Authority built an effective security force that has taken on Hamas in the West Bank, working closely together with Israel’s security forces. Brigadier General Mike Herzog, one of the IDF’s brightest minds, recently told the New York Review of Books that Israel’s security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority was “excellent.”

Not only Israeli leaders are expressing satisfaction with the Palestinian Authority’s security performance.So are our leaders. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month said that the PA’s progress on security is “impressive” and depicted Palestinian security officers as “more professional and capable than ever.”

The Palestinian Authority is combating anti-Israeli hate speech and incitement. This school year, the PA’s Ministry of Education approved a new curriculum on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, which was devised jointly by Israeli and Palestinian scholars, to present in parallel form the Israeli and the Palestinian narratives of the conflict.

But let’s accept Israel Viewpoint’s argument that there are legitimate doubts about the Palestinians’ intentions. When Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978 decided to engage with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and to negotiate a peace agreement with Egypt, there were many Israelis who suspected a trap. Many warned of Egyptian sweet talk that masked belligerent intent. The naysayers were wrong and Israel’s peace with Egypt, a “cold peace”, to be sure, has been one of its key national security assets. The same goes for Israel’s peace treaty with Jordan.

An Israeli peace treaty with the Palestinians – a treaty that would solve, once and for all, the conflict with the Palestinians – is a primary national security interest of a Jewish and democratic state of Israel. It is also a key American national security interest. If Israel does not reach a two-state peace solution with the Palestinians, it will not be able to maintain its character as both Jewish and democratic. As Israel’s Minister of Defense Ehud Barak said earlier this year, “as long as in this territory, west of the Jordan River, there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish, or nondemocratic.” He added, “If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

There is only one way to conclusively ascertain whether Palestinians are serious about peace. Try them. Negotiate in earnest with them. Reach a historic compromise with their leaders over the creation of a viable, contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Address all core issues, including East Jerusalem and refugees. Obviously, such an agreement would include robust security arrangements, with international guarantees, to help Israel address regional foes, and could deliver comprehensive peace between Israel and the entire Arab and Muslim world.

The great majority of Israelis want such peace. They yearn for it. They have paid with their blood for over sixty years for its absence. To quote Eric Alterman in the October 22 issue of The Nation, in fact “[b]oth sides desperately need a peace agreement–Israel, to preserve its democracy and moral character, and the Palestinians, simply to enjoy some semblance of collective dignity and civil society.”

And yes, Hamas in Gaza is a far different story than is the PA in the West Bank. But the blessings that flow from a peace treaty to both Israel and the West Bank will not be lost on the Palestinians in Gaza or, perforce, on Hamas. They will come to recognize, ultimately formally, that Israel is here to stay. And Israelis – all Israelis – will accept the same for the Palestinians.

This message is from Americans for Peace Now, America’s leading Jewish organization advocating for Israeli security through peace. It has been financed by a grant by Alan Kligerman.