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Posted on 10/08/2001 11:34:41 PM PDT by abigail2

Are We In Danger of Selling Out Israel And Ourselves?

By Patrick Rooney
Director of Special Projects
B.O.N.D.
Oct 8, 2001

Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.

- President George W. Bush
Speech to the Nation
September 20, 2001

This past Thursday, Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made an unusually blunt public statement, accusing the United States of attempting to appease Arab countries at Israel’s expense for the sake of our war on terrorism, and that this tactic was “unacceptable.” The White House fired back Friday, calling Sharon’s outburst itself “unacceptable.” Sharon’s blunt statement came in response to a news item, leaked early in the week by an unidentified administration official, that President Bush’s security team was working on a plan for an independent Palestinian state.

The U.S. and Israel are, of course, longtime friends and allies, but friction has not been a stranger to this relationship. The problem is relatively simple: The United States, at least for now, appears to be focusing its attention on Osama bin Laden and his network, Al Qaida. To this end, the U.S. is attempting to build an alliance with many Arab countries, and in doing so may be overlooking Arab organizations and states that Israel would like to see dealt with as terrorists and supporters of terrorists: Hamas, Hezbollah, armies of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Syria, and Iran. This week’s revelations of the Bush Administration’s behind-the-scenes Palestinian statehood plan, with its appearance of rewarding the perpetrators of the September 11th attack on America, was just too much for Sharon, a proud career soldier, to remain silent on.

The squabble is not unlike the one that occurred in 1990 when President Bush’s father George Sr. formed an alliance with Arab countries against Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s incursion into neighboring Kuwait. Then as now, Israel was asked to basically stay in the background. They did -- Israelis put on gas masks and endured a series of Iraqi Scud missiles without striking back.

Does Israel have a legitimate security concern here? The short answer is “yes”. Planning to implement a Palestinian state at this time was indeed an extremely naïve move by the Bush team, the first real gaffe I’ve seen so far in this war, but indeed a huge one. This move can only be seen as a slap in the face to families of the September 11 victims and our longtime friend, Israel, not to mention a sign of weakness to the terrorists. If President Bush is interested in exploring statehood for the Palestinians, then he should do so in a context that makes clear “talks start when terrorism stops.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understood this concept well. As he told the American media at the Wye Summit in 1998, “Any movement to give them [the Palestinian Authority] additional land is premised on their fighting terrorism”, and “Israel is a tiny country. We’re asked to give large blocks of land right next to our cities, right next to our ‘White House’, right next to our ‘Capitol’. How do we know that these areas, these territories do not become bases of terrorism?” Good question. I don’t believe the Bush team has an answer for that.

The longer-term answer as to whether Israel has a legitimate security concern, I believe depends on exactly what type of war the Unites States intends to fight. President Bush, in his magnificent speech to Congress and the nation September 20th, said, “Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.”

However, there is either a battle going on within the administration, or a purposeful propaganda effort being maintained to confuse our enemies. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with NBC, said, “With respect to the nature of the regime in Afghanistan, that is not uppermost in our minds right now”, referring to taking on the Taliban government, in an apparent direct contradiction of President Bush’s remarks to Congress. Rush Limbaugh, noting the discrepancy, flat out called it “insubordination” if it was not a propaganda tactic. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, at a September 13th briefing, in stark contrast to Powell’s statement, called for “ending states who sponsor terrorism.” Wolfowitz, like many Americans, is reported to be particularly interested in taking on Iraq. Is there an internal struggle in the Bush Administration to define the nature of this war?

It is questions such as these that make Israel and many Americans nervous. Will the United States follow through on the President’s words and prosecute a war as if “Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them”, or will our actions more closely resemble a civilian police action, where we focus primarily on individuals and networks responsible for terrorist acts?

There is a strong believe among many conservatives that Colin Powell is a dove in a general’s uniform, that he was behind the elder Bush’s decision to halt the war on Saddam Hussein before we could take out the Iraqi leader and Baghdad, and that he is behind the “limited war” idea and the decision to place the Palestinian statehood proposal back on the table. Indeed, the Associated Press reported that “under prodding by Powell, Israel and the Palestinian Authority resumed security talks without waiting for a period free of terrorist attacks, as demanded by Sharon.” This is insanity, and demonstrates at the least, a gross misunderstanding of the nature and psychology of effective warfare.

Americans must, without delay, bring themselves up to speed on an extremely critical truth: We are engaged in the battle of our lifetime. This is a conflict unlike any we have previously been involved in. In Vietnam, for example, we had the “luxury” of prosecuting the war via the dictates of politicians, instead of military leaders. Our error resulted in the horror of the “killing fields”, where Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge wiped out nearly two million Cambodians after the U.S. pulled out of Saigon in 1975. But Americans did not learn the lesson, because two million Americans did not die horrible deaths for our lack of resolve. No, this current war is different – it is personal. It is about us. And the enemy is at our door.

We are facing an evil enemy. There is no talking to them, there is no appeasing them. In truth, there are no options: We must hunt them down, we must kill them, and we must wipe out their bases of operation. That base consists of countries. Benjamin Netanyahu told the House Government Reform Committee on September 20th that, “There is no international terrorism without the support of sovereign states. International terrorism simply cannot be sustained for long without the regimes that aid and abet it. Terrorists are not suspended in mid-air. They train, arm, and indoctrinate their killers from within safe havens on territory provided by terrorist states… Take away all this state support, and the entire scaffolding of international terrorism will collapse into dust.”

The United States is wise to attempt to find allies in the war on terrorism. But those allies must bend to our will, not vice versa. And we cannot appease any nation, particularly countries such as Iran and Syria, both designated as “state sponsors of terrorism” by the U.S., in a rush to the “coalition building” Colin Powell seems to be so fond of. As for the Palestinian statehood question, it can be addressed, but only after A: We finish prosecuting the war on terrorism; B: Palestinians completely and totally renounce terrorism; and C: Yasir Arafat is removed from power, for we must not trust a wicked man to rule such a state, proximate as it would be to our close ally Israel.

President Bush drew a clean line in the sand for the world to see in his address September 20th: “From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.” All that is needed now, is for the President, and all Americans, to neither “yield, rest, or relent, in waging this struggle for the freedom and security of the American people.” Our victory will ultimately be a victory for the nation of Israel too, as well as for people of goodwill everywhere.

Patrick Rooney is the Director of Special Projects at BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “Rebuilding the Family By Rebuilding the Man.”

For more information, please visit www.bondinfo.org or call 1-800-411-BOND (2663).

© Copyright 2001, The Washington Dispatch

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