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imagine that day after remorseless day Osama bin Laden were organizing
suicide attacks against American targets. Just imagine that his propagandists
were proclaiming that these attacks would stop only when bin Laden's
demands were met in full. President Bush would have no trouble mobilizing
the entire nation and employing whatever methods were required for
self-defense.
Israel is in
this predicament. Virtually every day, Yasser Arafat dispatches
suicide bombers and gunmen to kill Israeli civilians, and in the
Islamic mold he has taken to celebrating these fanaticized murderers
as "heroic martyrs." Eighteen months ago he was offered
peace on terms highly favorable to the Palestinians. Rejecting compromise,
he has instead taken to the gun and the bomb, extending what has
already been a 35-year career of murder and mayhem. Moreover, this
strategy has paid off, because in one crunch after another the United
States or the Europeans have lost their nerve, and pressured Israel
to make concessions to Arafat, which he pockets without giving anything
in return.
In the aftermath
of September 11, the president recognized that the violence faced
by Americans is like the violence faced by Israelis: Terror is one
and indivisible. It was understood that the government of Ariel
Sharon has no choice but to defend its citizens by whatever means
are appropriate. These include large-scale military incursions into
areas under Palestinian control, for the purpose of discovering
arms caches and arresting, or even killing, whoever intends to use
those arms. But as the next stage of the campaign against "the
axis of evil" takes shape, the administration perceives a need
to garner Arab support. At the expense of Israel, of course. So
Gen. Zinni shuttles once more between the parties as though they
were equivalent, and Bush announces that Israel's military measures
are "not helpful."
How many times
we have been here before, and how futilely! Once more, we are hastening
to rescue Arafat from the consequences of his strategy of terror,
rewarding instead of punishing. All he has to do in order to get
what he wants, he may reasonably conclude, is double the number
of suicide bombers. In which case, we shall all lose our nerve,
pressure Israel into unconditional surrender, and Arafat's dream
of a Palestine without Jews will come true. In addition, every Arab
ruler is able to see for himself that the United States can be manipulated
by violence into compromising its moral and political position.
The rational ordering of the Middle East cannot be achieved by propitiating
thugs and tyrants.
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