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Posted on 12/04/2001 8:47:19 AM PST by veronica

I've said all along that the Palestinian leadership - this isn't to say every individual Palestinian, but the dominant leadership - doesn't want a negotiated settlement with Israel. They want Israel to cease to be, and the Israelis marched summarily into the Mediterranean Sea. They want to wipe out the Jewish state. It is not about sharing it or any Biblical claim to real estate. They haven't renounced this claim to have no Israeli state. They have not renounced their desire to basically eliminate that Jewish population in Israel.

We can't talk about this out loud as a nation, because of diplomacy, but we have to know it. That's why in the past two or three months it's been really frustrating here to watch our government tell the Israelis as they are attacked and assaulted, "Don't respond! Don't do anything! It will cause all kinds of trouble." It would be like the world telling us "Don't respond when they blow up the World Trade Center, because it could destabilize the peace process in the Middle East." In fact, they did tell us that with those two embassies in Africa, the USS Cole, the barracks in Saudi Arabia and the first WTC bombing!

Of course we don't sit here and "take it," but we ask Israel to sit there and take it - usually. We can't do that now, which is why we have sanctioned an Israeli response. So that's how serious this is. Israel has already offered to give up more of itself than anybody would ever believed possible. Ehud Barak's deal would have left an Israel nine miles wide at one point, and Arafat turned it down. Why did he turn it down? Because he doesn't want to share that land with Israel. That's not what this all about - and the actions of Hamas and the PLO bear that out.

The Israelis did not launch this assault ten days ago just out of the clear blue. Let us not forget that the Palestinians murdered an Israeli cabinet member, which is huge. That kind of thing does not happen every day, and you can't sit around and just let that go unanswered. Now, here's a wild guess on my part, one I think will get me in trouble in some quarters: the administration has been telling Israel, "Don't respond!" over the last three months, right?

Well, I think the PLO is probably looking at the fact that our coalition needs to be held together, and they know that any Israeli response threatens the solidity of the coalition. They may be taking advantage of that fact right there. That's not to say that this behavior is any bloodier than usual for their terrorists. They are acting normally. This is not abnormal for Arafat's crowd. This is standard operating procedure. It's really nothing new.

As this unfolds, however, I detect a shift from the White House and specifically President Bush. They must mean what they say when they put the onus on Arafat to straighten this out. Colin Powell says the same thing. They both told Ariel Sharon in a Sunday meeting, "Go ahead and do what you want response-wise. Just keep in mind the consequences." No more asking them to hold back. We only did that because of the shaky nature of our own coalition against bin Laden, and because we know the only thing the Arabs are united in is their hatred of Israel.

If the Israelis do anything that could cause the Arab members of our coalition to get cold feet, then the administration itself gets cold feet. But I think this is so outrageous. I don't think this is going to have any defenders except Palestinians in the region. In fact, many of them are applauding the attacks on Israel. Hundreds of Palestinians called for even more attacks against Israel at funerals over the weekend.

Now, the Palestinian Authority, to its credit, is rounding up a bunch of people and arresting them. But I have to tell you something, folks. This notion that Chairman Yasser Arafat is not involved is something I just can't accept. I know it's something that you've got to play out in public, to put out this message, but either he's behind this terror and is orchestrating it - in which he has to be dealt with - or else he's not behind it, has nothing to do with it, in which case he can't control what his own people are doing.

I can't believe that we don't see that Arafat is personally involved in this. I don't believe he's that ineffective. He's been the leader of this bunch for way too long. He has resisted maybe three or more attempts from a number of people in his organization to oust him. To come to a conclusion that he is powerless to stop his own people from engaging in activities like this is tantamount to saying that dealing with him is pointless, which he would have to be if he can't control these people.

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