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February 1, 2005

The Palestinians have long adopted the strategic approach that terror would lead to a state. But now that the establishment of a Palestinian state seems further removed than after the issuance of the roadmap, it is also clear that they continue to not miss any opportunity to miss an opportunity. But if that is the case perhaps it is not a state that they are after; they could have had it decades ago and again as recently as in 2000 and had they behaved - in 2005. Perhaps what they want is terror for the sake of terror. Even if they ever establish a state - through terror - it will be only be to have a state FOR terror. They act of aspiring to ruin their enemy not out of being despondent ("It's Aspiration, not Desperation: Understanding the Death Worship of the Palestinian Suicide Bomber," Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, Jerusalem Post, January 29, 2004).

This is best illustrated by using terror as a strategy - not merely as a tactic - and it is evident throughout the world including currently in Iraq where Israel is not a player and where Muslims kill more Muslims than anyone else. Indeed, the culture of death that glorifies murder and genocide has very little to do with territorial aspirations as such or with the Israeli-Palestinian (or better state Israeli-Arab) dispute. It has to do far more with the idealization of genocide that is caused by the suicide of the perpetrator and by the idealization of death as a way of life and this is not an oxymoron ("Contemporary Islamist Ideology Permitting Genocidal Murder," Yigal Carmon, MEMRI, Special Report - Jihad & Terrorism Studies Project, January 27, 2004, No. 25).

Not all Palestinians are blowing up (pun not intended but it is fitting) $100,00 a month to live lavishly in Paris, as Arafat's wife is doing, and the corruption of the Palestinian leadership does not mean that the average Palestinian is corrupt. But it is also rather clear that those who live in misery - economic, psychological, political, and physical - could point the finger at their leadership which has chosen terrorism over diplomacy and a total rejection of any reasonable offer that could have extricated them from their current predicament ("Palestinians' misery self-inflicted by refusal to renounce terrorism," Craig Weiss, Arizona Republic, Jan. 25, 2004).

Instead, the average Palestinian is offering support to the leadership by hailing suicide bombing and showing how proud they are of committing these atrocious murders ("Suicide bomber's family is proud," Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 30, 2004). A special report on Israel TV's Channel 2 last week, on terrorists jailed in Israel, featured one who has a 500 year sentence of several consecutive life terms who responded to a reporter's question about him being a terrorist with an answer that the Israelis are terrorists.

And it is not just the popular support which plays an important role in international terrorism. Iran is now playing host to a terror convention while at the same time it appears "in agreement" with general statements about the need to fight terrorism ("Tehran Terrorfest," Amir Taheri, The New York Post, January 26, 2004): "THE other day at the World Economic Forum's inaugural session at Davos, Switzerland, Iran's President Muhammad Khatami repeatedly nodded his head in approval as forum founder Klaus Schwab called for the eradication of international terrorism. In his own speech, Khatami called for a "dialogue of civilizations" as an alternative to war and terror. Meanwhile, militants from some 40 countries spread across the globe were trekking to Tehran for a 10-day "revolutionary jamboree" in which "a new strategy to confront the American Great Satan" will be hammered out."

Moreover, the situation in Iraq is not necessarily motivated by the remnants of the Iraqi regime ("The Jihad on Iraq: Bad analysis and bad policy" Michael Ledeen, National Review, January 26, 2004): "Bad analysis leads inevitably to bad policy, and our narrow focus on Iraq costs lives. Widespread terrorism and political demonstrations are not organized solely, or even primarily, by the shattered remnants of Saddam's Baathist regime, nor by the splintered pieces of al Qaeda. The war against us in Iraq and Afghanistan is an existential struggle guided, funded, and armed by tyrannical regimes in Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, because they are convinced — rightly enough — that if we succeed, they are doomed to fall in a regional democratic revolution. Their plan, modeled on the strategy that drove us out of Lebanon in the 1980s, was prepared long before we attacked....The mullahs know their best chance for survival is to defeat us in Iraq before we vigorously support their own people against them. Both our national interest and our national values demand that we give that support — political support, not further military action — now, before Iraq gets much worse."

This makes it abundantly clear - what should have been known for a long time - that what is peace for us means war for them and we know who "them" are. What is freedom for us means tyranny for them. And of course the opposite is true too. Hence negotiations with states and with terrorists groups (which regrettably do take place) have to take into account the absolute abuse of language by the terrorists and their supporters. And that is why the word of Iran and that of Libya should not be taken at face value unless when they promise to kill. No amount of good will is going to change the terrorists nature as the recent exchange of almost 500 terrorists for the bodies of 3 kidnaped and murdered Israeli soldiers - under U.N. eyes - and one kidnaped businessman ("Israel and Hezbollah Trade Prisoners and War Dead in Flights to and From Germany," Ian Fisher and Greg Myre, The New York Times, January 30, 2004) has demonstrated. It only increases the insatiable appetite of the terrorists to carry out more such attacks.

The brazenness of terrorist organizations goes way beyond perpetrating murder. Now that Hamas - a key terrorist organization - is being weakened and is threatened (even by its European supporters who outlawed it) it is "offering" Israel a 10-year "cease fire" provided Israel withdraws from areas it captured in the 1967 Six days War ("Hamas proposes 10-year truce for Israeli pullback," Reuters, Haaretz, January 26, 2004). Of course, this will not bring an end to Palestinian demands, which proves time and again - for those who need such proof - that the territories captured in 1967 are not the problem but rather ANY territory that Israel holds constitutes a challenge for the Arabs to have it for themselves. The Hamas leader clearly declares that the temporary cease fire will not bring an end to the conflict and to Palestinian demands. That is one reason why all peace advocate from Carter to Friedman should cease discussing "peace" and start talking about the end of conflict..

But the strongest call to fight terrorism comes from those who have a voice and influence with the Bush administration and they focus on the terror-sponsoring states. Not only those which direct a single suicide bombing mission from afar but also those who develop or help develop nuclear weapons. These countries include Iran which is already part of the axis-of-evil as well as Syria and Saudi Arabia but Egypt is glaringly absent ("War on Terror: Time to Get Tough," BICOM Daily Brief - 29 January, 2004, David Frum and Richard Perle (The Times, 29/01).

A new book on the intentions of Adolph Hitler - which is based on a second book by Hitler published after his death - concludes that he actually laid out his intention in a form of a strategic plan and that in retrospect he indeed tried to execute it ("Did Hitlerism Die with Hitler? He Meant What He Said," Omer Bartov; Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf, By Adolf Hitler, Edited by Gerhard L. Weinberg).

The author admits that the information in the book is not new but the lesson is: "This is a book that should be read, rather, by contemporary journalists, political observers, and all concerned people who have the stomach to recognize evil when they confront it. For one of the most frightening aspects of Hitler's book is not that he said what he said at the time, but that much of what he said can be found today in innumerable places: on Internet sites, propaganda brochures, political speeches, protest placards, academic publications, religious sermons, you name it. As long as it does not have Hitler's name attached to it, this deranged discourse will be ignored or allowed to pass. The voices that express these opinions do not belong to a single political or ideological current, and they are much less easy to distinguish than in the 1930s. They belong to the right and the left, to the religious and the secular, to the West and the East, to the rabble and the leaders, to terrorists and intellectuals, students and peasants, pacifists and militants, expansionists and anti-globalization activists. The diplomacy advocated by Hitler is no longer relevant, but his reason for it, his legitimization of his "worldview," is alive and kicking, and it may still kick us."

Nowhere is Hitlerism - in both its expansionist and its genocidal forms - is as evident as in the radical Islamist ideology of today which is pervasive throughout the world and not only in Islamic strongholds. We are now taking OBL's threats very seriously but not yet seriously enough the culture of expansion and death promulgated by the Palestinians and their supporters throughout the Arab and Islamic world. They do not only want a "living space" (Lebensraum) or to kill the "sub-human." (Untermensch) They want to destroy what is not theirs and to rule the world and paint it green.

Indeed, some in Israel read the tea leaves correctly when interpreting action and rhetoric that are so vehemently anti-Israeli ("Confront the evil," Isi Leibler, The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 27, 2004) and also correctly point out that "The obscene level of anti-Jewish incitement is comparable to the worst days of the Nazis in the early 1930s" but also that "It is often said that the attitude toward Jews is a litmus test for the level of bigotry and intolerance in any given society." This test shows a miserable failure with regards to Israel as the world allows it to become not only attacked but also demonized. This, instead of staunchly supporting the only democracy in an area where official U.S. policy is to turn the former dictatorships and monarchies into democracies.

But even some Arab condemnations of terrorism pale in comparison to the vitriol they spew out against the leader of the battle against terrorism, namely, President Bush. Arab press reactions to the President Bush's State of the Union Address (MEMRI, Special Dispatch - U.S. and the Middle East, January 30, 2004, No. 652) is symptomatic of the mind-set that permeates the Arab world. Bush is called a beater of "drums of war" by the Saudis; the Syrians define his achievements as "nothing but mistakes, errors, and catastrophes;" the Jordanian press - ironically and unintentionally - set the people of the Middle East apart from "mankind" when stating that the Bush address is "a tragedy not only for mankind, but for the peoples of the Middle East;" the Palestinians became experts in logic stating that "Bush's priorities are illogical;" and so did the Egyptian press: "President Bush has ceased to act with logic and common sense." This is mainstream Arab journalism and there it represents the government line and hence it is so worrisome as it is reflective of the depth of the gap between the free West (and particularly the U.S. and Israel) and the fixated Arab/Muslim regimes - even those "friendly" to the U.S. (and some who have peace treaties with Israel).

For those criticizing the measure against terrorism - particularly those who state that they are exaggerated - the question then is how would they explain such gaps, how would they explain such hate, how would they explain the actual terror and how would they explain the real threat? They will in all likelihood be among the first to complain when the next terror attack happens that not enough was done to protect us. The fight against terrorism is not a sprint but a marathon and it still has a very long way to go.

To view previous e-Letters:

"Terrorism relegates politics into a screen-saver" (e-Letter #204)

"Those not so magnificent men and women flying machines" (e-Letter #203)

"Virgins (still) on his mind" (e-Letter #202)

"On Morality and Humiliation" (e-Letter #201)

"Caught like a rat" (e-Letter #200)

"Wannsee, Oslo, Geneva" (e-Letter #199)

"Do not show a fool a job half-done" (e-Letter #198)

"Mirror mirror on the wall: who is the wickedest mayor of them all?" (e-Letter #197)

"Butt out Jimmy! Help around the house Tom!" (e-Letter #196)

"Per-diem for relatives of a "humiliated" terrorist" (e-Letter #195)

"The greatest threat to world peace" (e-Letter #194)

"Rulers of the world means candidates for extinction" (e-Letter #193)

"Have you driven a Ford lately?" (e-Letter #192)

"And the wolf cried: the sheep attacked me" (e-Letter #191)

"Saturday (lunch massacre) at Maxim's" (e-Letter #190)

"The "I do not do windows" Approach to Fighting Terrorism" (e-Letter#189)

"Would the French recognize their enemy or become one?" (e-Letter #188)

"A fence built, an expulsion that wasn't, and a 2-year old 9-11" (e-Letter #187)

"Terrorism delenda est! (With Thanks to Senator Cato)" (e-Letter #186)

"Consuming hate - exporting terror" (e-Letter #185)

"Human Weapons: Terrorism Also Numbs the Senses" (e-letter #184)

"The sui-genocide bomber" (e-Letter #183)

"Terrorists Do Not Apologize" (e-Letter #182)

"The Terrorist as a Ventriloquist (No Offense to the Latter)" (e-letter #181)

    "When 'peace' means war" (e-Letter #180)

     "Old news we should pay attention to" (e-Letter #179)

       "The poor bully and the unwilling victim" (e-Letter #178)

"Terror and the rhetoric of peace" (e-Letter #177)

"To catch a terrorist" (e-Letter #176)

"Spilling blood and ink" (e-Letter #175)

"The language Laundromat at work: Troubled ally or troubling "ally" (e-Letter #174)

"The piranha bully: The 'right' to lie and murder" (e-Letter #173)

"Terrorists are being rewarded yet again" (e-Letter #172)

"The road not to be taken (with thanks to Robert Frost)" (e-Letter #171)

"News reports do not necessarily reflect reality" (e-Letter #170)

"Golf Wars" (e-Letter #169)

"1001 Baghdad tales" (e-Letter #168)

"Taxi wars" (e-Letter #167)

"It was calm at first, everyone thought it was part of the act" (e-Letter #162)

"The terrorist as a killer and destroyer" (e-Letter #160)

e-Letters on the web

Additional e-Letters and articles:

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