"Terrorism
of global reach" gets local.
Remember when the
Bush Administration tried to distinguish between "low-level local
conflict" (Israel vs. Palestinians) and "terrorism of global
reach" (the West vs. Qaeda)? The translation was roughly: Terrorists that
Kill You vs. Terrorists that Kill Us.
The former was Israel's problem, to be solved peacefully. The latter justified
world war.
Since the Qaeda attacks on the synagogue in Djerba, and attacks on an Israeli
hotel and airliner in Mombasa, that distinction even less credible. Intelligence
sources report that the focus of Qaeda now is on Jewish and Israel targets.
From the start, Israelis have recognized that we are on the front lines of the
war against global Islamic aggression, with Palestinian suicide bombing copied,
on a grander scale, in the 9/11 attacks.
Now, in the imminent war against Iraq, Israel finds itself once again the
primary target. Not only that, we are not just the target of Saddam, but also of
Bush.
The refusal of the UK to supply spare parts for Israel's Phantom fighters, of
Germany to supply armored personnel carriers, and the veiled ultimatum inherent
in the Quartet "road map" to a Palestinian State add up to a clear
message that Israel is bound to be the next object of international pressure.
And, of course, Israel's is the nation most exposed to violent retribution if
Allied forces attack Iraq, or Iraq seeks to pre-empt that attack.
Paraphrasing Begin's quip after the Sabra and Shatila massacres, where Lebanese
Christians carried avenged themselves on Lebanese Moslems: "Goyim kill
goyim, and they come to hang the Jews."
The Quartet roadmap is based on the same false assumption that has prevented the
West from mounting a credible campaign against Islamic aggression: reward
terrorism by demanding concessions to Palestinian terror, award them an
undeserved state, and somehow the terrorists will agree to spare Western
interests.
Wrong. Is it not more logical that the terrorists will thus conclude that their
violence achieved victory, and thus pursue greater violence and greater
victories.
The only effective way to stop terrorism is to back Israel's efforts to prove
that Islamic terrorism, whether from Fatah, Hamas, Jihad, or Qaeda, is totally
counter-productive.
The victory must be as resounding as was the Allied defeat of Nazism and
Japanese imperialism in World War Two. Only then will a "Marshall
Plan" and a durable resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict be conceivable.
It may be hard for Europeans and American liberals to stomach, but only military
force can stem the tide of rapacious Islam. President Bush is leading this
campaign to isolate and dissipate terrorist forces on a global scale. Ariel
Sharon is leading the campaign west of the Jordan. The global war against
terrorism, for Israel, is local. Israel winning the war locally is an essential
prerequisite for the West to defeat Islamic terror worldwide.
Shabbat shalom.
Reuven Koret