July
22, 2003, 8:45 a.m.
Moral Clarity and the Middle East
Why we support
Israel.
By William
J. Bennett
he terrorist attacks against us on September 11, 2001 taught us a great
many lessons. One of the lessons we learned — or relearned —
was that democracy is not just disliked by Islamists, it is hated. And
one way to give in to terrorism, rather than fight it, is to concur with
the basis for that hatred and weaken democratic institutions, and democracies.
We in the United
States did no such thing. Rather, we decided to brook no tolerance for terrorism,
and we sought to root it out by going after cells in our own country and
elsewhere and by changing the terrorist-sponsoring regimes in Afghanistan
and Iraq. We may yet have to change other regimes, we may not. But one thing
we will not do is consent to weakening our resolve, our defenses, or our
national commitment to the democratic way of life.
We also learned who our true allies were on September 11 and its aftermath.
They are the countries that expressed their sympathy with us and help us
in our war against terrorism. We will never forget the strength and resolve
evidenced by the leadership of some of our European allies, allies whose
own countries' very existence is not threatened. But one ally does live
under the cloud of daily extinction and has lived so since its very creation:
Israel. Israel, ironically, is also one of the world's greatest exemplars
of democracies.
In the wake of September 11, many argued that we brought the attack upon
ourselves because of our support for Israel. Even were this true, we should
no more end that support than we should eliminate religious freedom and
women's rights in our country — hallmarks of our democracy that also
engage the wrath of the terrorists who attacked us. And it beggars belief
to think our support for Israel played much of any part for the attack upon
us.
First of all, complaints about Israel ranked low with Osama bin Laden until
he realized that ratcheting up those complaints to the top of his list would
earn him more support within the Arab world. Second, if Israel is responsible
for Islamist or Arabist wrath, I cannot imagine just what Israel did to
encourage Syria to swallow Lebanon, to encourage Saddam Hussein to unleash
a bloodbath against Iran, to encourage Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait,
to encourage Kuwait to expel hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, to encourage
the Taliban to destroy the Bamiyan
Buddha statues in Afghanistan, to encourage the slaughter of Christians
in the Sudan, to encourage the bombings in Bali that killed 202 people,
or to encourage church bombings in Pakistan.
An honest look at Islamist or Arab wrath (or both), requires an honest conclusion:
Israel's existence, or our support for it, simply cannot be responsible
for the terrorism and violence we have born witness to over the past several
decades — or, for that matter, the terrorism we suffered on September
11. What these terrorists and thugs hate above all is liberal democracy,
religious freedom, and any alternative claim to God or land that they, themselves,
claim. This list includes America, Israel, Christianity, moderate Islam,
Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. It is a long list, a list which makes our
task all the more difficult but also a task that makes our resolve all the
more important.
When it comes to "Peace in the Middle East," most people think
immediately of Israel and Israel's requirement to make peace with its Arab
neighbors — even as its Arab neighbors seem to have a very hard time
of making peace with themselves. Nonetheless, Israel does stand out; and
it stands out for three reasons: 1) It is the only country in the region
that has a majority of Jews; 2) It is the only country in the region that
gives people of all faiths and nationalities full religious, civic, and
political freedom; and 3) With two exceptions, it is not recognized by any
other Arab states.
Thus we come to how we can help broker a peace deal between Israel and her
neighbors as well as Israel and the Palestinians. First, we need follow
the principle of the Hippocratic oath: Do no harm — we should not put
any pressure on Israel (a democracy) that it believes it cannot handle in
negotiating with those who show very little respect for democracy. Second,
we should require a signed affidavit — in English and Arabic —
from Yasser Arafat declaring that foreign policy, peace negotiations, and
security are under the sole bailiwick of the prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.
Third, Abbas needs to make guarantees to the settlers in what will become
the Palestinian state: At a minimum, they should be given the choice of
where they want to vote — in Israel or in Palestine. Arabs in Israel-proper,
after all, vote for and serve in the Israeli parliament. Fourth, Abbas needs
to cleanse all official maps, and all state-sponsored schoolbooks, of the
lie that his state, proposed or otherwise, encompasses Israel in toto.
These requirements would go a long way toward clarifying much confusion
about what a new state in the Middle East will be, and look like. Israel,
after all, will be making an ultimate sacrifice: land. Palestinians should,
thus, be willing to make these much less painful adjustments. If they cannot,
statehood and the conveyance of land from a democracy to a who-knows-exactly-what
should not take place.
Finally, the United States has a moral and legal obligation to maintain
its embassy and ambassador in Jerusalem. That sentence comes from the 2000
Republican-party platform. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and should
remain an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths. That sentence
comes from the 2000 Democratic-party Platform. Just so, in the 2000 election,
both major parties in America articulated their commitment to the only democracy
in the Middle East — a commitment that had, by then, become a commonplace
understanding. Indeed, most Americans today would be surprised to learn
that, in fact, the U.S. embassy in Israel is not in Jerusalem. If
we, as a nation, want to maintain our moral clarity in supporting democracy,
we should be very clear that we will not tolerate any other capital for
Israel, and we shall not maintain any other location for our embassy. If
the United States would comply with what both major parties in this democracy
have agreed to, that would send the most morally clear message we could:
Israel is our ally, Jerusalem is its capital, and we will not cave in to
the demands of terrorists.
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he terrorist attacks against us on September 11, 2001 taught us a great
many lessons. One of the lessons we learned — or relearned —
was that democracy is not just disliked by Islamists, it is hated. And
one way to give in to terrorism, rather than fight it, is to concur with
the basis for that hatred and weaken democratic institutions, and democracies.
