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 his
past week five bombs exploded across population centers in Jerusalem.
Israel responded by rocketing a convoy of known terrorists, killing
two of the three intended targets. Israel has been attacked from
nearly every quarter regarding this response to the savage terrorism
which the Palestinians are perpetrating upon the Israeli populace.
Even the United States, by every account Israel's best friend, has
joined in the chorus, albeit not directly, by blindly repeating
the same mantra of moral equivalence, "violence by both sides,"
and "cycle of violence." Such morally damaging phrases
fail at capturing the truth of what is happening in Israel, which
is that the Israeli response of targeting terrorists and destroying
Palestinian military infrastructure (when they are empty) is laughable
comparable to the Palestinian butchery on Israeli civilians using
suicide bombers.
The Israeli
practice of liquidation, preemptive targeting, or assassination,
call it what you will, is an effective tool against the Palestinian
attacks. In fact it is an extremely moral response to a strategy
that is anything but. Israel's goal is to eliminate the middle tier
of Palestinian leaders, who are recruiting, training, and directing
the cadre of suicide bombers that are essentially holding Israeli
society hostage. It is important to unmask exactly who is being
targeted by Israel and not to be led by the Palestinian propaganda
machine, which exclaims that Israel is targeting political leaders.
Politics and terrorism are inexorably intertwined in Palestinian
society.
Mahmoud Karmi,
one of the targets, is personally responsible for the killing of
six Israelis, of which two were peacenik restaurateurs from Tel
Aviv who were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. The last Israeli
targeted killing was PFLP commander in the West Bank and Gaza, Ali
Zabri. Aside from being one of the most effective terrorist organizations
in the 70's and 80's, when it was responsible for the killing of
more than a dozen Americans, Zabri has been personally responsible
for over half a dozen bombs in Israel this year alone. Israel has
made the strategic choice to selectively target these criminals
in polished surgical operations, which by and large kill only the
intended targets, often time putting Israeli soldiers at risk in
order to do so. This avoids the painful process of Israel gearing
up its significantly larger and more powerful army and engaging
in real combat, which would prove disastrous for the Palestinians.
Israel rarely
chooses the military option first. As in this case, Israel has implored
Arafat for years to arrest the known terrorists and their handlers,
but Arafat has steadfastly refused to make any meaningful effort.
Let there be no mistake about it, Arafat has not only refused to
take action against the terrorists — he gives them tacit approval.
Arafat owns the military infrastructure of the Palestinian people,
and he knows exactly who and where the terrorists are. If he possessed
the will, he could wipe out the terror cells, particularly because
he has no judicial restraints. Arafat chooses not to because the
terrorists play a very useful purpose for him. In fact after he
makes weak condemnations in English soon after a particularly horrendous
attack (almost always done so with pressure from Colin Powell),
he follows that with praise for the murderers in Arabic, a very
important distinction. The terrorists allow Arafat to inflict an
enormous amount of pain on Israel, while giving him the illusion
of deniability. The reality is that his address is where the final
accountability lies. He bore that responsibility when he shrewdly
negotiated quasi-sovereignty over much of the West Bank. He has
now forced Israel's hand when it comes to how they can deal with
the terrorist threat.
When the State
Department attacks Israel's action as being provocative one can
not help but wonder at the hypocrisy. The United States has engaged
in far more confrontational operations, such as lobbing dozens of
cruise missiles into Afghanistan, killing Osama bin Laden's terrorists
in training. One of the more morally dubious examples was when U.S
helicopters attempted to assassinate Muhammad Adid, and in the process
inadvertently killed hundreds of Somali citizens. Even more laughable
is the Palestinian claim that the explicit targeting of these terrorists
is "extra judicial." This coming from an entity that cultivates
the "judicially appropriate" terrorist organizations.
Further, the Palestinians have engaged in a systematic "cleansing"
of its own population, by arresting and executing hundreds of "collaborators."
These collaborators are rounded up by the Palestinian police force
and put on show trials, which can last as little as half an hour,
with no real defense council. They are then put in jail or summarily
publicly executed; it makes the Soviet judicial system look like
the Peoples' Court. That is if they are lucky enough to avoid Arafat's
roving gangs that simply shoot dead suspected collaborators where
they stand.
It is important
to understand the conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis
as a state of war. From Israel's side it is a defensive war, all
violence would end the day the Palestinians put down their arms
and return to the negotiating table. The Palestinians are not in
the least bit interested in this option and they are using whatever
weapon they have at their disposal in this fight. The most effective
weapon that they possess is the suicide bomber attacking its civilian
targets. If they had a military that could rival Israel's they would
use such power without an afterthought. Israel is on the other hand
morally self-constrained; it chooses not to fight fire with fire.
It has therefore devised a very practical and highly ethical way
to battle such insidious combat. They simply target the masterminds
behind the bombers. Instead of being vilified by the international
community Israel should be lauded for its restraint.
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