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Posted on 12/15/2002 6:10:09 AM PST by SJackson
As America contemplates when and how to resolve the threat of Iraq and its possible use of weapons of mass destruction, Israel confronts the dilemma of how to protect its society from the suicidal attacks by Arab Muslim fanatics. Israel's freedom of action to move decisively against Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Tanzim, Hizbullah, PFLP and other groups bent on its destruction must take into consideration the possible impact of Israel's actions on the US strategy to seek Muslim support for its initiatives involving Iraq.
The persistence of terror against Israeli civilians, the refusal or inability of the Palestinian Authority to control terrorism, and the refusal of Israeli society to succumb to the threat of terror has increased the pressure on Israel to take firm and decisive action against the sources of terrorism.
The US should welcome and encourage Israel to do everything needed to fight the terrorists and protect its institutions of freedom and liberalism from the forces of evil, reaction and chaos.
The suicide bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and the near-miss of shoulder-launched missiles at an Israeli aircraft, possibly by persons with links to al-Qaida, complete the linkage between the terrorist threat against the US and the Western world and the terror Israel has faced for more than 50 years.
Unfortunately, most Western leaders have failed to see the threat to Western society implicit in the Islamist jihad against Israel. The West is paying a heavy price for its failure to understand that linkage. The US and others now realize that what we are facing is not a single terrorist network but a network of networks together comprising the terrorist threat to Western society.
The massacre in Kenya has put greater strain on Israel's patience and willingness to desist from a strong response to the terrorists. There is increased feeling in Israel that something must be done; the problem is that there is no clear agreement about exactly what measures should be employed.
The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has taken strong measures and announced a policy of even stronger measures to fight terror. Some Israelis feel that Sharon's policies have not been strong enough. Other opinion is less certain and advocates a policy of negotiation, compromise and concessions in the hope that terror will subside. The election in late January may clarify these differences.
Sharon's government may not wait for elections to signal its course of action. If Israel elects to escalate its war against militant Islam, the US and the West should understand and support the effort to crush those militant Arabs who have chosen terror.
THERE ARE signs of increased unhappiness in Palestinian society over the intifada and the use of suicide bombing, strategies that have brought disaster to the Palestinian people. It is well known that Palestinians who speak out against the terror do so under threat of death for themselves and their families at the hands of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian Islamists.
Despite occasionally condemning suicide attacks, the Palestinian Authority and its head Yasser Arafat have been unable, or unwilling, to permit a free expression of that opinion in Palestinian society. That is the reason US President George W. Bush, in his watershed speech on June 24, ran out of patience with Arafat and the PA and demanded a change in Palestinian leadership. It is time that demand was met.
The US should not request that Israel curtail its efforts against Islamic terror out of concern for the support of the Muslim world. The premise that Israeli restraint will help bring the Islamic world to the US's side, or that Israel's more aggressive initiatives against terror will inflame the Muslim world and weaken support for a US move in Iraq, is dubious.
The plain fact is that the suppression of Islamic terror and violence is very much in the interests of the Arab and Muslim world. Dozens of Muslim countries agree with the US campaign against terror, though they may be circumspect in the way they announce and reflect that agreement.
Countries will act in their own best interests. The US must pursue the best means of eliminating terror, but it must also maintain fidelity to the principles upon which its society rests. Those principles do not permit the US to sacrifice the security and safety of its friends and allies in order to curry favor with those who are themselves motivated by principles hostile to basic American traditions.
The notion that the Arab world will abandon America because of its support and friendship for Israel has been disproved time and time again, commencing with the examples of presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush (I), Clinton, and Bush (II). Their support for Israel never cost the US an Arab friend. On the contrary: Arab and Muslim countries have clamored for US favor, aid and friendship, particularly following the implosion of the Soviet Union. They do that because it suits their interests.
Israel and the US, following Bush's demands, should go about the business of ending the reign of Arafat and excising the influence of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others committed to suicidal terror. It should encourage the development in Palestinian society and the Arab world of a democratic tradition and the free expression of ideas.
That will chart a surer path to peace and the development of a healthy Palestinian society.
The writer, a lawyer, is chairman of the America-Israel Friendship League, president of the American Jewish Historical Society and a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
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That will chart a surer path to peace and the development of a healthy Palestinian society.
Palestinian society will most likely be destroyed. The chances that Jews and Arabs will find a way to live together peacefully in the land of Palestine - which includes Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and parts of Sinai - are are slim, slim, slim.
I understand why people choose to paper over this reality. But I don't like it.
Merciful for they are all hell-bound, them and their offspring. Ending their lives is merciful. But it's God's work. My job is to pray for them and love them.
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