Creating Evil

Now that we are at war with nations that harbor terrorism, the Moose hopes that the United States is not in the business of creating one.

Reports indicate that prior to the September 11th attack the Bush Administration was planning to announce support for the creation of a Palestinian state. Although its earlier planned announcement was derailed by the terrorist attack, the Administration may still be contemplating moving forward on the statehood idea.

Since its creation by the Oslo process, the Palestinian Authority has been a breeding ground for terrorism. The PA is the terror playground of Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah and Islamic Jihad. It is no accident that the Palestinian masses actually celebrated in the streets over the attack on America. It is interesting that when Arafat sees it in his interest to close the terror spigot, he is amazingly effective. At other times, he not only harbors terrorists, he employs and succors them.

In his stirring September 20th address, President Bush declared, "From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded as a hostile regime." If this is true, then why in the world would we reward the Palestinian Authority which has been the launching pad for the brothers in terror of Osama? Even Clinton Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross says, "I think in this context to formally recognize a Palestinian statehood would have been a mistake in my judgement, because it emerges in the aftermath of violence and our response to that violence shouldn't be to change the position of the United States."

So who was behind this profoundly misguided proposal? We learn that major promoters of this cockamamie idea are the Saudis and CIA Director Tenet. Maybe Director Tenet should have been more involved in defending the American homeland than creating a Palestinian terrorist homeland. And, of course, the Saudis have long been at best indifferent to Islamic terror.

It is disturbing that we risk losing some our moral focus in this war against terror. Frank Gaffney points out that the Bush Administration "has been courting organizations in this country that have refused to condemn the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah." The Moose has faith that President Bush will do the right thing at the end of the day. But, he needs to make certain that his Administration appreciates our true friends and punishes our genuine enemies.

The Moose hoped that the President would denounce the reports that his Administration was supporting the creation of a Palestinian state. Alas, it was not to happen.

At a time of heightened political correctness and sensitivity to Islam (even to the extent of changing the name of the military campaign so as not to offend), citizens of the Jewish state awoke on the holiday of Sukkot to reports that President Bush was promoting a Palestinian state. Later in the day, President Bush acknowledged that this was his Administration's position. As has been pointed out, this is the first time any Republican president had supported the concept.

So let's get this straight. Arab terrorists murder over 6,000 American civilians, and the Bush Administration leans on Israel. Talk about rewarding terror!

Then, President Bush offered this odd formulation, "We are fully committed to working with both sides to bring the level of terror down to an acceptable level for both." Huh? First, this is an extraordinary example of moral equivalence. Israel defends itself against terror and riots and they are guilty of 'terror'? Second, the Moose asks what exactly is "an acceptable level" of terror. How about zero tolerance?

Let's reconstruct the events of the past year. Before Clinton left office, Israel agreed to almost all of the Palestinian demands only to be met by rejection and a year of terror.

What may be going on here is an extension of policy of the first Bush Administration. The players may have changed, but the legacy of Baker and Scowcroft continues. In order to build a broad Arab coalition, the price is apparently sacrificing the security interests of our only reliable, democratic ally in the Middle East.

As the Administration was floating its Palestinian state trial balloon, Hamas terrorists attacked a Jewish settlement in Gaza killing a young couple. There is no "acceptable" level of terror.

The President has been largely masterful in the past three weeks in the war on terror. His Administration should get back on message.

This is such a sad appeasement it almost puts my heart where it was when the Trade Center was collapsing. We cannot be this hypocritical. Terrorists figure out quickly how to exploit moral weakness just as they do airport security weaknesses.

This is the time to take a stand and force enemies to come to your position. If not now, when?

Bin Laden is now getting one of the many things he wanted from the bombing of WTC.... I thought we did not negotiate with terrorists

The WSJ Opinion Journal page noticed how nuts this is too.

Too bad people are still blind after Sept 11. Where are the journalists on this? We just lost the second battle of the war, and today called off the third battle in Afghanistan we were about to initiate.

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