Asher Weinberg
Placing the fault on the US and Israel for last week's terrorist attacks is quite frankly taking the easy way out. In all honesty, I find such remarks careless and irresponsible. Those in "the know" all agree that bin-Laden's beef with the US stems from his fall out with Prince Tariq and the Saudi royal family over a rift concerning the continued presence of US troops on "sacred" Saudi soil. Bin-Laden's campaign of terror against the US has spanned three American administrations and five Israeli Prime Ministers. Whether democrat or republican, labor or likud, bin-Laden has sought jihad against the US. Bin-Laden's war represents not a failure of US-Israel policy but rather the development of the success of the mujahadeen Afghani fighters from the war against the Soviets.
The truth is that this development coupled with the wider situation in the middle east, whereby hatred, intolerance, and violence are justified under the guise of religion is the true culprit. The Arab and Moslem countries of the region (excluding Jordan and Turkey) bare the onus of blame as it is they who reinforce and propagate this hatred and the glorification of suicide bombers. Martin, nothing justifies terrorism, be it in Israel, New York or anywhere. The fact that in this part of the world, large segments of societies and most regimes support terrorism in some capacity remains the true obstacle to peace, not Jewish settlements, for instance. The US has paid a price by being a willing participant to a world order that has consistently said that terrorism is wrong, but it's OK if it's done against Israel. Thankfully, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz maintain senior positions in this administration. Under their leadership I am convinced that the US will have the moral clarity to commit itself to the war against all terrorism.
Futhermore, no country has endured terrorism to the extent of Israel. Just yesterday Sarit Amrani 26, a mother of three and her husban Shai were killed by PLO-Fatah terrorists in front of their children. The fact Palestinian terrorism continues and the fact that it continues to be justified throughout Europe and the Middle East, represent the major political failure of recent years, again, not US policy with regard to Israel.
19 September 2001