TORONTO — The readiness of Arabs to accept Israel’s existence and legitimacy has sunk to a new low, claims U.S. analyst and syndicated newspaper columnist Daniel Pipes.

Pipes, who was in Toronto last month as a guest speaker for the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, said Israel is far less accepted by Arabs than it was 15 years ago.

“Talk of eliminating Israel has become mainstream discourse in the Arab world,” he said in an interview.

Pipes, who is generally associated with right-wing causes, blames Israel itself for the “significant deterioration” in its status.

Pipes, whose columns are distributed by the New York Times Syndicate, argued that Yitzhak Rabin, the late Israeli prime minister, placed Israel at a disadvantage when he agreed to negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the 1993 Oslo peace process.

He said Rabin’s policy of engaging Israel’s adversaries was misconceived.  

“First you have to defeat your enemies,” Pipes said.

“Oslo was premature, though I wasn’t against it in principle,” he added.

Pipes, the director of the Middle East Forum think tank, said Rabin should have convinced the Palestinians that they cannot defeat Israel before he started talks with the PLO.

In his view, the Palestinians want to destroy Israel. He described their policy as “this evil, irredentist goal.”

Asked whether the current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, shares that objective, Pipes replied, “Abbas is [former PA president] Yasser Arafat with a tie. He wishes to see no Jewish state.”

Pipes said Israel should concentrate on winning the struggle with the Palestinians rather than negotiating with its leadership.

But last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas indicated that  peace talks are proceeding.

Olmert declared he is determined to press ahead with negotiations “until we finalize a solution,” while Abbas said that talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators have already adddressed “all core issues without exception: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders and security.”

In an allusion to these talks, Pipes suggested that the Israeli government has not grasped Palestinian intentions.

“So how can the United States?” he asked.

Pipes said Israel should not enter into final status negotiations until the Palestinians fully accept its existence and legitimacy.