The systematic suicide bombings must be dealt with now.
The evidence is pouring out of that campaign, evidence not only of Yasser Arafat's complicity in that campaign, but his direct involvement—signed documents in which he approves the funding of materials for suicide bombers.
This should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched Arafat in his own language in front of his own people.
I have a film on tape that I play sometimes for people who doubt it. It shows Yasser Arafat on a stage on the West Bank three weeks after the famous handshake with Yitzhak Rabin on the south lawn of the White House.
Standing next to him on a platform is the grandmother of a suicide bomber. And Arafat can be seen plainly on this tape saying 'Give me your children, give me all your children, Jihad'.
If anyone doubted where Arafat stands on the use of terror as a political instrument, his management of the Palestinian authority makes that entirely clear.
There is a great deal going on in the world right now.
The world has changed enormously since the days when I was in the Pentagon at the height of the Cold War. My country is a very different place since September 11. September 11 was the product of a succession of very weak responses to the terror that preceded it.
What is going on today in the Middle East is strikingly similar to the American response to September 11.
We went after the Taliban and we went after the al-Qaeda network because they committed acts of terror against innocent civilians.
The Israelis tolerated a great deal before they decided to take military action. They are making it clear that there is a price to be paid for engaging in acts of terror against innocent civilians.
The urgent necessity not to allow terror to achieve a political purpose is made very clear by the admisson that there is a political purpose that lies behind the terror.
And so I think America was right in going after the Taliban. The Israelis were right going after Yasser Arafat's regime of terror.
Whatever the subsequent diplomacy turns out to be, the lesson in both cases should be clear—that if you engage in acts of terror against us you will face a terrible prospect.
On September 11 George W Bush said some very important words that have shaped the American response to acts of terror.
He said we will not distinguish between the terrorists that commit these acts and the states that harbour them. We have taken that war to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and it has been destroyed.
The lessons for other regimes supporting terrorism isn't clear enough yet, so we will need to take the war against terror to other states.
My own hope is that the best candidate for that will be Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He is already in possession of chemical and biological weapons and is working feverishly to acquire nuclear weapons as well.
We can read from our President's suggestion that we are going to take action against Saddam Hussein.
We will not deal effectively with terrorists until they are on the run and until they have to sleep in a different place every night, and work from a different location every day.
Because when they enjoy the freedom of sanctuary, and the freedom to plan and carry out their acts of terror, they pose a threat far larger than I am willing to contemplate.
It went on: "We especially condemn the attack that took place against Israeli citizens in Jerusalem."
Actually, he didn't say "acts of terrorism," he said "violent operations." And he didn't say "attack," he accused Israel of a "massacre."
Official Israeli Defense Force Website, Highly Informative click here