Different Rules
Wage war on all terrorism, except when it’s aimed at Israel.

October 18, 2001 9:10 a.m.

he Bush administration's approach to Israel has become increasingly absurd. On Tuesday, an Israeli cabinet minister, Rehavam Zeevi, was assassinated at Jerusalem's Hyatt Hotel by terrorists belonging to the so-called Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). When asked at yesterday's daily press briefing what impact the murder would have on future talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, State Department Deputy Spokesman Philip T. Reeker condemned the killing, labeled it a terrorist act, urged Yasser Arafat to take steps to arrest the perpetrators, and then said this:

... It would be a tragedy if the terrorists were able to derail [the] progress and claim another victim today, so we want the Palestinians and the Israelis to continue with the positive steps that they have recently embarked on to improve the situation and begin to restore some measure of cooperation so that they can continue moving towards implementation of the Mitchell Committee recommendations and get into a dialogue for negotiations towards a permanent status settlement.

A reporter then reminded Reeker that the PFLP is based in Syria and that the Bush Doctrine calls for holding state sponsors of terrorism accountable. Reeker referred the reporter to the Patterns on Global Terrorism Report, refusing to provide a straightforward answer about the obvious gap between the administration's stated policy and its actions. In the end, Reeker resorted to quintessential Clintonian spin:

We will continue, Barry, to wage our campaign against terrorism globally. I would refer you to what the President, the Secretary of State and other senior officials have said in regard to that campaign. We are focused on this using all tools at our disposal, be they financial and economic, information and intelligence-sharing, police and law enforcement action, as well as military action when that is appropriate. And we will continue to follow in this, and I just have nothing further to add to what the President has said at this point.

And if you think Reeker may have misspoken, according to the Jerusalem Post, Secretary of State Colin Powell told Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to retaliate in a way that would harm efforts to attain a ceasefire.

An Israeli cabinet minister is murdered in cold blood by a terrorist group tied to Syria and close to Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat, and the best the Bush administration can do is urge Israel to continue negotiations with Arafat — in direct contradiction of its own repeatedly stated antiterrorism doctrine.

There can be no doubt that if a member of President Bush's Cabinet was gunned down in a Washington hotel by some terrorist, the last thing the U.S. government would do is negotiate with the terrorist's sponsor. Clearly, this would be an act of war. Yet, the president insists that Israel follow a different path.

Israel is an independent nation. Its government is elected by its people. And the government's paramount job is to protect the citizenry from harm. If the elected officials of the government believe it is not in the best interests of Israel to negotiate with terrorists, or sponsors of terrorism — a position embraced by all sensible democracies, including obviously the United States — then they must not.

While running for president, candidate George Bush took a very different approach to Israel. In fact, in May, 2000, he pledged to move U.S. diplomatic operations from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, "the city Israel has chosen as its capital." Surely Bush knew that if carried out such a move would kill any chance for successful peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians have insisted on making Jerusalem the capital of any future Palestinian state. Today, Bush has so completely changed course that he stunned Israel with his recent announcement supporting a Palestinian state, which he now claims falsely has always been an American "vision" for the Middle East.

Let's face it. The Bush Doctrine — i.e., holding terrorists and their sponsors accountable for their mayhem and murder — has an exception. And that exception applies to Israel's enemies. Otherwise, the administration would not be pressing Israel to continue to negotiate with people and organizations that seek to destroy it.