"Anyone who believes that what Israel does or doesn't
do has any effect on what the Palestinian side does or
doesn't do is self-deluded. American policy is to get
the terrorists before they get us. That policy ought to
be the parallel track for Israel."
When terror drives policy
By Cal Thomas
The twin terror incidents in Baghdad and Jerusalem last
Tuesday (Aug. 19) may have sprung from different
sources, but as House Majority Leader Tom DeLay noted,
"They are a common enemy." DeLay also broke through the
fog about the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" when
he added, "The organizations behind the attacks will
not be tolerated or bargained with. They must be
dismantled and destroyed."
The dismantling of the "terrorist infrastructure," the
ending of incitement and the election of new leaders
"not compromised by terror," as well as the unequivocal
embracing of democracy and free market economies were
all conditions laid down by President George Bush on
June 24, 2002, if the Palestinian side wanted American
support for the creation of its own state. Not one of
those conditions has been fulfilled, but the United
States continues to pressure Israel to give more, thus
encouraging terrorists to kill more. Why compromise
when your murderous policies are working?
Former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft
repeats the miscalculation of those who support the
"road map" when he writes in the Aug. 20 Washington
Post that the Israelis and Palestinians must take steps
"in parallel, rather than sequentially, in order to
increase the prospects for building and sustaining
momentum." Otherwise, he says, there will be "renewed
violence."
Whatever is he talking about? Violence as an instrument
of policy by the Palestinian side has not stopped. It
has ebbed and flowed as a strategy for extracting the
maximum possible concessions from the Israeli and
American sides before the coming all-out war to
eliminate Israel. Any "cessations" are pauses that the
terrorists use to rearm. Despite all of the gestures
and hand-wringing by well-meaning Westerners,
eradication of Israel has been the objective of the
Palestinians and the Arab states since modern Israel's
creation in 1948. Nothing that Israel's enemies have
said and done in the last 55 years has shown they've
changed their minds.
In fact, a strong case can be made that all of the
pressure on Israel for "goodwill gestures,"
"confidence-building measures" and other wishful
thinking has contributed to terrorism, not diminished
it.
Over the last decade, 1,300 Israelis have been murdered
by Palestinian terrorists, according to official
Israeli count. That is proportional to 60,000 dead
Americans. When 3,000 Americans were murdered on 9/11,
the United States declared its intention to conduct a
"war on terror" and dismantle terrorism's
infrastructure in Afghanistan, Iraq and anywhere else
that threatens American lives and interests. If that is
a proper objective for the United States - and it is -
why isn't it proper for Israel, whose very existence is
threatened?
It does no good to pressure Israel to "do more" while
allowing the Palestinian side to get away with doing
less. Statements condemning Tuesday's bus bombing in
Jerusalem by the Palestinian "prime minister," Abu
Mazen (a.k.a. Mahmoud Abbas), are insufficient,
especially when it has been Mazen who has shown his
unwillingness to eradicate terrorism. Rather, he has
incorporated terrorism as a means of reaching his
political objectives. Mazen has been the chief
architect since 1993 of the "series of understandings"
reached between the PLO/Palestinian Authority (PA) and
Hamas, allowing for the establishment of the largest
terrorist base in the world inside PA-controlled areas.
If the United States cares about reducing terrorism, it
will live up to the conditions set down by President
Bush last year, especially those concerning the
dismantling of terrorism's infrastructure. If the
Palestinians won't do it - and they won't because
terror is their policy - then the American yoke should
be removed from Israel's neck. The Israelis know the
location of the terror camps. They should be allowed to
take them out.
Anyone who believes that what Israel does or doesn't do
has any effect on what the Palestinian side does or
doesn't do is self-deluded. American policy is to get
the terrorists before they get us. That policy ought to
be the parallel track for Israel.
Cal Thomas is the author of, among others,
The Wit and Wisdom of Cal Thomas
© 2003, TMS
Posted by permission
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