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 lthough
there are questions about its provenance and precise translation,
the statement by Osama bin Laden that was broadcast Sunday on Al-Jazeera,
the Arabic television network, will be closely studied by American
experts as they search for clues to bin Laden's motivations.
Released as
American missiles and bombs began to rain down on Afghanistan, bin
Laden's statement sheds new light on a number of issues that have
been the subject of widespread speculation in the United States.
For example, his words add new evidence to the debate over the extent
to which U.S. support for Israel was a motive for bin Laden's September
11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
The competing
arguments in the dispute can be summed up in two headlines on the
Wall Street Journal editorial page. One, "Know
Thy Enemy: Israel Isn't the Issue," was the title of an
essay by Norman Podhoretz that appeared on September 20. The other,
"They Hate Us Because They Hate Israel," by David Gelernter,
appears today. Bin Laden's statement shows that both theories are
incomplete.
First, his
words suggest that Israel plays a significant role in his actions.
In his summation, according to the New York Times translation
of his words, bin Laden says, "I swear to God that America
will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine, and before
all the army of infidels depart the land of Mohammad." That
appears to place the Israeli issue on a par with the subject of
American forces in Saudi Arabia, another bin Laden obsession.
Earlier in
his statement, bin Laden says that, "Israeli tanks rampage
across Palestine, in Ramallah, Rafah and Beit Jala and many other
parts of the land of Islam, and we do not hear anyone raising his
voice or reacting." And in a third passage, bin Laden refers
to the attackers of September 11 as Muslims who "have stood
in defense of their weak children, their brothers and sisters in
Palestine and other Muslim nations." After this, it seems impossible
to argue that Israel isn't a major issue for bin Laden.
At the same
time, bin Laden's statement makes clear he has other obsessive grievances
against the United States. It has been widely reported that he hates
the presence of the U.S. military in his native Saudi Arabia, home
of Islam's holiest sites. His statement about the "army of
infidels" in the land of Mohammad is echoed in another portion
of his speech, in which he says that the "wind of faith is
blowing and the wind of change is blowing to remove evil from the
Peninsula of Mohammad."
There are several
other statements that allude generally to the Gulf War and its aftermath.
Bin Laden refers to "a million innocent children are dying
at this time as we speak, killed in Iraq without guilt. We hear
no denunciation.…" Later, bin Laden again refers to the
"million children," and says American did not care about
their deaths but became angry when "a few more than ten were
killed in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam," a reference to bin Laden's
1998 terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Then there
is America's role in enlisting the help of Muslim nations in the
war on terrorism. "Every Muslim after this event [should fight
for their religion]," bin Laden says. They should target "the
head of international infidels, Bush," and "those who
turned even the countries that believe in Islam against us."
Finally, bin
Laden's speech also sheds some light on the arguments made by President
Bush, most eloquently in his September 20 address to a joint session
of Congress. "They hate our freedoms," the president said.
"Our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, or freedom
to vote and assemble and disagree with each — other."
Perhaps those factors do underlie bin Laden's thinking — they
are undoubtedly some of the things that make Americans "infidels"
— but they are not included in his bill of particulars. Rather,
bin Laden's speech suggests that he hates America for a variety
of specific reasons. There's no single cause.
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