Time for the stick, not the carrot: David Dolan says backing Sharon is good U.S. policy

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, April 5, 2002 | David Dolan

[JohnHuang2]

At this writing, it has been over four days since Israel was forced to endure a major suicide terrorist atrocity deliberately aimed at innocent civilians. Still the funerals have continued as four more wounded victims of the Passover massacre in Netanya passed away this week, along with a man severely injured in last Saturday’s attack on a coffee house in Tel Aviv and another who was wounded in the Haifa restaurant blast on Sunday.

Why the relative quiet? It is unquestionably the result of the massive Israeli army operation against the suicide terrorist centers in Yasser Arafat’s autonomous zones. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim terrorists are simply too preoccupied with basic survival at the moment to lash out in their all too customary, ugly manner.

That is the main point of the Israeli military operation dubbed “Protective Wall” in English, but actually called “Shielding Wall” in Hebrew. The clear design is to shield Israeli mothers and children, and of course men, from sudden death and destruction. (I am thinking at present of a young woman literally blasted to bits here in Jerusalem two weeks ago. She and her slain husband were not able to go home and tell their two youngsters the joyous news that an ultrasound test had just revealed their mother was pregnant with twins).

Israeli leaders hope to deal such a powerful blow to the various Palestinian terrorist organizations that they simply will not be physically able to undertake significant terror operations for some time to come, if ever again. However to accomplish that difficult goal, military leaders estimate they will need at least a few more weeks of sustained army action. Under enormous international pressure himself, President Bush seems determined to rob them of this vital time.

It is quite understandable that the American commander in chief would call for a quick end of the Israeli army incursion into Palestinian urban centers. He is being called on the carpet by all the Arab states, the wider Muslim world and even by America’s erstwhile allies in the European Union to “do something” and to “give peace a chance.” Madeleine Albright and other former Clinton officials have joined the critical chorus, afraid that the United States will make additional Muslim enemies if the Great Power is seen to be taking Israel’s side too overtly.

But Bush would not be “siding with Israel” if he looked the other way while the Jewish State dealt a massive blow to the wide web of terror that Arafat has sponsored, encouraged, or at the very least not seriously attempted to dismantle or control. He would be taking America’s side. For until kamikaze terrorism is dealt a deadly blow, it will continue to thrive, and ultimately not only against tiny Israel.

Bush and company wisely realized that the only way to deal with the likes of Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists who glory in the deaths of innocent civilians (the more the better) is to destroy their ability to carry out heinous suicide assaults. Yet Israeli leaders (who include Nobel peace prize winner Shimon Peres and the daughter of the late Yitzhak Rabin, who is Israel’s deputy Defense Minister), are told just days into their own campaign – designed to halt identical attacks upon their civilian population – that they must put a premature end to the operation.

Is Colin Powell going to convince Yasser Arafat to wipe out the terrorist infrastructures when Anthony Zinni, CIA chief George Tenet, and indeed Albright and other Clintonites repeatedly failed to do so? What magic wand is the congenial former general wielding? Indeed, Arafat has demonstrated time and again that he only responds to a big stick, not a tasty carrot. Israeli leaders – including Labor party stalwarts like Peres, not just Ariel Sharon – were finally wielding that stick despite the knowledge that it would produce fierce howls of protest from people living in regions not subject to daily suicide outrages.

Before giving the Israeli stick a chance to achieve its necessary, if distasteful goal, Bush is throwing Arafat another carrot. This action can only encourage the veteran PLO leader, along with the world’s other would-be terrorists who are eagerly watching and waiting in the wings, to believe that their methods will eventually win out over the Wimpy West.

George Bush surely has the best of intentions in mind. He is trying to prevent a wider Middle East war with its broad political and economic ramifications, and protect America’s vital interests in the Arab world. But the current While House occupant, who has dealt rather well with the unwanted terrorist war thrust upon him during his first year in office, needs to be careful that he does not fall into a trap that undermines his own battle against terrorism. Because like it or not – and he would undoubtedly rather be fishing – his war is the same one being waged, with the same reluctance, by tiny Israel.

=======================================================================

Another masterful Chess

Anyone who thinks President Bush embarked on this course of action on-the-fly, or was caving willy-nilly to media pressure, I've got a bridge to sell you. In fact, Israeli officials likely kept the White House in-the-loop all along, but have decided to wrap-up the mission, its primary objectives having been met.

The notion that Bush would risk U.S. prestige to have Israel snub his appeal to withdraw is ludicrous on its face. Yesterday's Rose Garden statement was likely the culmination of heavy U.S.-Israeli advance planning. You'll notice the tell-tale absense of any timetable for Israel's departure.

In Mideast diplomacy, finesse is the coin of the realm, so a good deal of tactical subterfuge is essential.

Contrary to claims by enemies of Israel, it was never Sharon's intention to stay in the "territories". Public statements by senior Israeli officials made that abundantly clear. The mission was never meant as open-ended, but rather a short-term (2-week) incursion with very specific, clearly defined military goals.

One thing's clear: Both in its swiftness and execution, the impressive success of Operation Defensive Shield sent a jolting message to enemies of Israel -- particularly those in the "territories". It convincingly demonstrated that, notwithstanding months of suicide bombings, Israel's resolve remains as firm as ever. If the terrorists banked on breaking Israeli morale, they badly miscalculated. The wanton killing of innocent civilians only strengthened Israel's resolve.

Operation Defensive Shield was 'blowback' -- Israeli style. It reaffirmed Israel's determination to survive; but more than survive, to defeat -- and defeat decisively -- those who would threaten her, or attempt to drive her from the region.

That said, Israel would still need a face-saving way to pull out, and that's where yesterday's Rose Garden announcement comes in.

Regarding that speech, it wasn't exactly what I would call a glowing portrait of Yasser Arafat. Far from it: It was a searing indictment. The President placed the onus for peace where it rightly belongs -- squarely on Arafat's shoulders. In so doing, he vindicated Sharon and blamed Arafat -- not Israel -- for the deterioration. He reiterated Israel's case for moving against the terrorists, and put his imprimatur on her military campaign.

"At Oslo and elsewhere, Chairman Arafat renounced terror as an instrument of his cause", said the President yesterday, "and he agreed to control it. He's not done so. The situation in which he [Arafat] finds himself today is largely of his own making. He has missed his opportunities and thereby betrayed the hopes of his people."

Not quite what Arafat and his minions wanted to hear. "Cabinet Minister" Saeb Erekat blasted Bush, denouncing his criticism as "unjustified and unacceptable", even as the Palestinian Authority issued a statement ostensibly embracing the U.S. initiative "unconditionally".

The President, in that 20-minute address, made another thing clear: Suicide bombers aren't "martyrs", they are murderers. This is homocide, not legitimate political activism. He condemned governments like Iraq for inciting it. In Iraq's case, for soliciting it through its system of payments to families whose children engage in it.

The President put Syria and Iran on notice: "Those who would try to use the current crisis as an opportunity to widen the conflict: Stay out".

While the President said he doesn't harbor any illusions, it's clear where blame will fall in the event of failure: On Arafat and his terrorist allies.

Moreover, among the damning evidence collected by the IDF during its sweep of the West Bank are truckloads of documents implicating Arafat personally of complicity in terrorism, despite strong public denials.

Gee, any wonder why those suicide bombings have ceased since Israel's incursion?

In short, for the U.S., this is a diplomatic/political no-brainer; For Israel, it's a win-win.

So, in one swift-fell-swoop, Bush gives Sharon a face-saving way out (and enough time to finish the job: Sec. Powell won't get there till the middle of next week), out-maneuvers the E.U., defuses yet another issue -- all the while maintaining America's pre-eminent role as honest-broker in the region.

Yet another masterful chess move by the master himself.

Anyway, that's...

My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"

[JohnHuang2]

Friday, April 5, 2002

Quote of the Day by livius 4/5/02

[JohnHuang2]

Moral Equivalence?
by JohnHuang2
March 30, 2002

Fed up with Arafat's double-dealing and duplicity, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon went on the offense yesterday, seizing the West Bank town of Ramallah and laying siege to Arafat's terrorist headquarters there.

For Sharon, the straw that broke the Camel's back came on Wednesday, with the deadly suicide bombing attack at the Park hotel in Israel's resort town of Netanya.

As many as 250 Israelis had gathered in the hotel's banquet hall for the Passover Seder, which heralds the traditional 8-day observance commemorating Israel's exodus from biblical Egypt. "Suddenly, it was hell", is how Nechama Donenhirsch, one of the diners, describes it. The bomber rushed into the hall and blew herself up, killing 22 and wounding more than 130 innocent civilians.

The bloodcurdling carnage was the dastardly handiwork of Hamas, a pathological Islamic death cult whose scorching hatred for Jews rivals that of German Nazis under Hitler's Third Reich.

The Klu Klux Klan, the Skin Heads, the Aryan Nation and their ilk have nothing on Hamas nor any of the plethora of fascist Islamic hate cults flourishing under Arafat's corrupt, tyrannical misrule. The so-called "territories" have literally become the ugly spawning ground of demented Hitler-fans, a veritable psycho-ward where 'Mein Kemp' is a runaway best-seller.

Not content with Wednesday's massacre of Jews, Islamic fascists on Friday were at it again, this time targeting a supermarket in a Jewish working class neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem. Thankfully, the suicide bomber was stopped by a security guard at the entrance to the Kiryat Yovel strip mall, preventing an even greater carnage.

The 18-year-old Islamic storm trooper blew herself up, killing the guard, one other civilian and wounding at least 19 others.

Tellingly, the attacker was a member of the ruthless Al Aqsa Brigades, a band of barbaric savages linked to Arafat's Fatah gangsters.

Meanwhile, Israel's Ramallah actions sparked a cacophony of caterwauling from the usual gaggle of Neville-Chamberlain-wannabees.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on both sides "to exercise responsible leadership".

Javier Solana, head-honcho for European Union foreign and security policy, huffed and puffed that military force was no solution. His carping was echoed by French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that "never has there been a greater need for restraint to be shown on both sides."

You see, in Straw's twisted world, neither side is right, neither side is wrong. To him and his morally diseased ilk, it's all the same. The technical term is 'moral equivalence.' As Straw sees it, bloody Islamic terrorism, which targets innocent civilians, and Jewish self-preservation are morally the same -- equivalent.

Sick, eh? You bet.

Memo to Sec. Straw: Take your moral blinders off, you buffoon.

My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Copyright Enrique N. ©2001

[JohnHuang2]

The Left -- Bastion of Anti-Semitism
by JohnHuang2
April 1, 2002

Yesterday evening, while poring over a trail of anguishing accounts of still more suicide bombing attacks in Israel, I stumbled onto yet another repulsive reminder of unbridled hypocrisy on the left.

Left-wingers relish parading themselves as heroic champions of "human rights" and "democracy," of "peace" and reconciliation," rather than war. To hear these snake-oil con-artists tell it, they -- and only they -- are the noble vanguard, gallantly battling -- not nations nor armies -- but racism, fascism, anti-Semitism and other dark human impulses or aberrations.

Oh, they're champions, alright; indeed, they've set a world record -- for brazen shamelessness.

Make that two world records. Add hypocrisy.

Item: A European Kumbaya brigade of "peace activists" on Sunday stormed through lines of Israeli soldiers surrounding Arafat's terrorist headquarters in Ramallah. Their "mission?" Forming a "human shield" to guard Arafat, the terrorist butcher holed-up inside.

In Bethlehem's Azar and Aida refugee camps, another contingent of "international volunteers" formed "human shields" around "Palestinian" terrorists.

Some might dismiss this clique of Bohemians (there were 200 in all) as screwballs and kooks, but, in fact, their solidarity with Arafat -- a Hitler-wannabe who's called for hordes of suicide bombers to swarm Israel with mayhem and death -- is typical of liberalism's pervasive anti-Semitism today.

For Jew-baiting, no one tops media darling golden-boy Al Sharpton. The sanctimonious charlatan poses as "civil rights" leader, no less. Sharpton wears his ugly bigotry proudly -- on his sleeves. He and Jesse L. Jackson are two peas in a pod.

Or how about Gore Vidal? The Jew-bashing novelist might as well wear a swastika armband.

Or the rancid anti-Semitism of Alexander Cockburn, a chip off the old Soviet Bloc, as Nation Review would say?

Or, how about the U.N., the golden-calf of the left? The Israel-bashing, anti-Semitism sizzles fiercer there than at a Klu Klux Klan rally.

Or how about the citadel of liberalism itself -- Big Media? The broadcast networks and CNN operate as veritable "Palestinian" mouthpieces, regurgitating every Jew-hating swill and slander from Arafat and his ilk like affiliates of al-Jeezera TV.

The Jewish state is relentlessly maligned as ruthless, cruel, oppressive; whereas, cold-blooded suicide bombers who blow up crowded Pizzerias in Jerusalem are routinely romanticized as 'fearless' 'warriors,' willing to die for a 'noble' and 'just' 'cause.'

A neo-Nazi Skinhead or Klansman would beam with delight at the flagrant and egregious pro-Arafat slant at the Gray Lady. The New York Times deserves a yellow journalism award, so appallingly one-sided has been its "reporting" on Mideast affairs.

At the Times, Israel can do no right, "Palestinians" can do no wrong. Arafat and the bloodthirsty goon-squad of hoodlums and thugs he directs are placed on equal moral footing with Israel's freely elected government.

Bigotry, Jew-bashing, hate and intolerance are alive and well on the left.

My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Copyright Enrique N. ©2001

[JohnHuang2]

The 'Who-Gives-A-Hoot?' Democrats
by JohnHuang2
April 2, 2002

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. To some observers, the wonder isn't that it's happening, but that it took so long to begin with.

In Washington, partisan politics has reared its ugly head, yet again. This time the tussle concerns volatile events in the Mideast -- the Israeli-Arab crisis, specifically.

Democrats and their media surrogates are probing for ways to take political advantage of the situation. The wave of deadly suicide bombings and Israel's robust military response have dominated the news of late, even as Afghanistan has fallen off the pages: Clearly, Democrats see it as an opening for them to take potshots at the Bush administration.

So far, they're calling on Bush to 'get more involved', a stealthy way of suggesting the crisis is Bush's fault, without actually saying it and without tendering detail plans nor initiatives of their own.

"I think there needs to be something dramatic done", Sen. Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS' Face The Nation. "The President has to step up his involvement," he added.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who is mulling a run for president himself, told Fox News Sunday that Bush should "ask Secretary Powell... to go to the Middle East."

Terrorists inevitably interpret such fickleness as a green light to continue doing what they're doing. 'Keep bombing crowded Pizzerias and Discotheques, and wait for the Joe Bidens of the world to cave like cheap suits.' The torrent of suicide bombing attacks that have recently rocked Israel are, for terrorists, a pressure tool -- the means by which they hope to extract further concessions from the beleaguered Jewish state.

But for Joe Biden partisans, and Democrat mouthpieces like the New York Times, politics takes precedence over patriotism, any day of the week -- America's or Israel's security be damned.

For partisan Democrats, 'if our words of appeasement send the wrong message -- who gives a hoot?'

'Mr. President, send Colin Powell to wring more concessions from Israel, and if terrorism is ultimately rewarded -- who gives a hoot?'

'Mr. President, have Gen. Zinni exert pressure on Israel, and if suicide bombers are vindicated -- who gives a hoot?'

'Mr. President, offer a bold, new peace initiative, get on your hands and knees and beg chairman Arafat to accept it, and if bloodshed and carnage by Palestinians is validated thereby -- who gives a hoot?'

You've heard of 'Yellow Dog Democrats.' We'll call these the 'Who-gives-a-hoot?' Democrats.

With midterm elections drawing closer, and President Bush's approval ratings still straddling the stratosphere, Democrats are growing increasingly desperate. They do know one thing for sure: Bush's sustained popularity is an obstacle to recapturing control of the House and preserving their 1-seat plurality in the Senate.

But the boiling crisis in the Mideast has given Democrats, at least for now, a glimmer of hope. They see it as a chance to undermine public confidence in Bush as a leader, and knock his popularity down to earth. At every opportunity, Democrats will try to link Bush to every Mideast "setback," big or small, and call it a colossal "failure" of his policies. And if it gives aid and comfort to cold-blooded terrorists -- who gives a hoot?

There's only one itsy-bitsy problem with this strategy: It won't work. But Democrats are too blind, too partisan, too hateful, too bitter, too vicious, too petty, too spiteful, too angry, too desperate to know it just yet. But it'll dawn on them, eventually -- give it time.

My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Copyright Enrique N. ©2001

[JohnHuang2]

New York Times -- Is it Amnesia or Perfidy?
by JohnHuang2
April 3, 2002

Another day, another fit of whiny, cantankerous carping from Big Media handwringers at President Bush over the Mideast situation.

Like a horde of parrots, their crabby bleats sound suspiciously alike -- identical, even, as if the Nattering Nabobs were frantically quoting from the same script.

Illustrating the point, Rush Limbaugh yesterday aired a withering montage unmasking how key buzz-words, like "disengagement," are endlessly repeated to ingrain a false impression among voters that Bush, somehow, someway, is responsible for war flaring up in the Mideast.

Interestingly enough, among the notable voices heard in that montage of Monday's CNN Crossfire was that of (none other than) Democrat political strategist, James Carville, who once famously quipped that "a lie repeated enough times becomes truth."

The guileful Bush-bashers are on message, as ever.

'Dumbya is not up to speed!' they squawk, barely able to contain their glee. 'He's too disengaged!' 'He's too indecisive!' 'He's too inattentive!'

It's deja vu -- the 'no-gravitas' thingy all over again, only the words have changed.

From Bush's shrill critics, you'd get the impression the President, merely by waving his magic wand, could turn waves of suicide bombers into waves of Peace Corp volunteers, Arafat into Mother Teresa and the Mideast into a citadel of brotherhood and tolerance.

Yep, just that like. Piece of cake.

Amid the orgy of advice-giving, the grand prize for the most perfidiously deceitful goes to Tuesday's <i>New York Times</i> lead editorial: To wit, Bush should offer a bold, sweeping "peace" initiative, and get 'both' sides to embrace it.

I call it deceitful for a simple reason: Recent history.

Does anyone honestly believe the all-knowing, all-wise sages at the New York Times innocently forgot the infamous Camp David II?

It slipped down their memory hole, eh? Yeah, right.

We're not talking ancient history, here.

Only 21 months ago, in a feverish scramble to salvage his tarnished "legacy", Clinton brought Arafat and Ehud Barak, then Israeli Prime Minister, together for marathon negotiations at Camp David, Maryland.

Clinton's campaign of "redemption" began in earnest almost from the moment Barak was elected, in '99.

Clinton became obsessed with securing a "peace" deal -- any "peace" deal -- before his term expired. And time was running short.

His overtures to Syria had failed. The Jordan-Israeli peace deal of '94 was primarily the work-product of his predecessor, not his (41's not 42's).

In Clinton's demented mind, to expunge impeachment from his legacy, he badly needed something akin to Carter's history-making '78 peace accords between then Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and the late Anwar el-Sadat, then President of Egypt.

Monica Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Whitewater, Chinagate, Donorgate, filegate, travelgate -- all would be forgiven and forgotten, Clinton thought. Historians would hail him as a "peace-maker".

Clinton was convinced the stage was set. He was more than "engaged"; heck, anymore "engagement", and Clinton would have married Arafat outright.

What followed was one of the most colossal miscalculations in the annals of presidential history.

Clinton was too stupid to realize who Arafat really was. The latter was never interested in 'peace' with Israel. Indeed, the very notion of peaceful co-existence with Jews is anathema to Arafat and his band of bloodthirsty killers. The fact is, Arafat hates Jews with all the vehemence of a Hitler storm-trooper.

Barak went further than any Israeli Prime Minister in history.

He offered Palestinians 95% or more of what they said they wanted.

Bottom line: Arafat was offered everything, but he rejected everything.

Why? Three words: 'Right of return'. It's the one thing Barak could never offer -- nor could any Israeli Prime Minister, for that matter. It would spell the end of Israel's existence, its status as a Jewish state, as a homeland for Jews.

But that's exactly what Arafat had in mind -- the total destruction of Israel. The so-called 'right of return' would be the means to do it.

In short, the fate of the boldest, most sweeping "peace initiative" in Mideast history was doomed from the start.

That was only 21 short months ago.

It stretches credulity beyond the breaking point to believe the editors of the New York Times had somehow forgotten that ignominious piece of recent history.

They didn't, rest assured.

My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Copyright Enrique N. ©2001

[JohnHuang2]

Reaping the Whirlwind
by JohnHuang2
April 4, 2002

In Europe today, there are chilling echoes of 1938.

The infamous pogrom known as Kristallnacht -- "the Night of Broken Glass" -- rocked Germany's Jewish neighborhoods on the nights of November 9th and 10th. Nazi youth gangs destroyed thousands of Jewish homes and businesses and more than a hundred synagogues were razed.

Item: In Brussels, a synagogue on Monday was firebombed by unknown assailants. No injuries were reported, but there was considerable damage.

Item: In Marseilles, the Or Aviv synagogue was destroyed Sunday night. It was burnt to the ground.

Item: In Lyons, during the wee hours of Saturday morning, over a dozen masked youths, in two stolen cars, crashed the gates of a synagogue, setting the cars ablaze in the inner courtyard. Thankfully, in this instance, firemen arrived in time.

But there's more.

Again on Saturday, a kosher butcher shop in Toulouse was fired upon by a gunman, while in Berlin, on Tuesday, two Jewish American tourists were beaten to the ground by a gang of Mideast assailants who first asked the couple if they were Jewish. The attackers remain at large.

In Strasbourg, arson destroyed the wooden doors to a Jewish prayer house, the fifth such attack in four days.

What's happening here?

For years, Europe had fostered a climate of anti-Semitism with its unabashed support for "Palestinian" nationalism and by its relentless Jew-bashing in the press (always, of course, in the clever guise of criticism of Israel).

Europe is reaping the whirlwind for blatant anti-Semitism -- that's what's happening here.

Yet, Europe still doesn't 'get it'. Despite the mounting evidence -- damning evidence -- implicating their darling golden-boy Arafat as a terrorist, they continue to mouth-off worn platitudes about a "peace process" demanding greater 'engagement' from us.

Meanwhile, Europe continues in its orgy of Sharon-bashing, even as waves of suicide bombers attack crowded Pizzerias, malls, shopping centers, buses and night clubs.

"Nie Wieder" is German for 'Never again'. Survivors of the Holocaust vowed that it would never happen again. Auschwitz -- never again. Treblinka -- never again. Birkenau -- never again. Buchenwald -- never again.

Without this historical background, it is impossible to understand Israel's gallant, dauntless determination to survive. Even in the face of international condemnation and censure, this tiny country remains resolute, unwavering, unflinching. Israel has been blacklisted, upbraided, lectured at, reproached, rebuked, castigated and decried, but her people remain tenacious as ever.

In fact, the louder the fulminations -- the more the world gangs up on her -- the stauncher, the firmer Israel's people become.

Small wonder they're not fooled by Arafat in the least. They know that behind that carefully crafted public persona, lies a terrorist.

And how right they are.

Arafat is a murderer, a cruel and pitiless brute bereft of even a smidgen of human compassion. He is the implacable archenemy of peace, if peace means tolerance or acceptance of Jews, whom he loathes with venom -- the poison of a thousand vipers.

Arafat is an insatiable cutthroat, a serial killer, whose voracious complicity in genocide marks him -- not as a statesman -- but an international war criminal, every bit like the cracked Nazi butchers he emulates.

From Arafat's deathly hands, drips the blood of innocents, spilled by a madman's unfettered hate, his animus to rout from his fiefdom all traces of Jewry.

Arafat is ethnic-cleansing-xenophobia personified, whose zero-tolerance vision is of "Palestine" purged of Jewish "infidels" where Jews are told to "get out, and stay out!"

To Arafat, this callous, caustic, cold-hearted fiend, Jews are not human beings.

You heard right.

I'll repeat: Jews, to Arafat, are not human beings.

Arafat is a preacher of hate. Like Hitler, he poisons young minds with fear -- fear of Jews. Like the Nazis, he wraps his "cause" in the cloak of victimization, of nationalist "struggle" against "Zionist" "oppression" -- the Jewish "menance". From Arafat's paranoid rantings, "Palestinians" are molded to think that Jews are "conspiring" to "rule" the world.

He wields this fear and hate as bridges to action. But before he can muster his storm-troopers into waves of suicide bombers, he methodically dehumanizes the "enemy" -- the Jews.

The process of dehumanization is enabled by Arafat's stranglehold monopoly over the media. In the "territories," the airwaves are saturated with torrents of anti-Jewish hate-mongering, laced in the fervor of radical Islam. Propaganda is everywhere. Radio and television, as well as newspapers, books and magazines all reinforce Arafat's message of hate.

Killing Jews is not only sanctioned, it is elevated to an act of religious duty, with promises of rich rewards in the "hereafter".

Bottom line: Israel followed every jot and tittle of the phony Oslo Accords. Israel offered "Palestinians" almost everything they said they wanted. But what did Israel get for her troubles?

Twenty-one months of murder, mayhem, death and destruction -- that's what.

It's not fair, it's not right, it's not moral.

And it will not stand.

Never again.

My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Copyright Enrique N. ©2001

[LarryM]

I don't buy this line. Bush caved; you are just trying to put a pretty face on it. The IDF stated yesterday that they need 4-8 weeks to finish the job. It is far from done. Jenin has not been completely captured; after capture it could take at least 2 weeks more to clean up the area. Bush caved under pressure, thus setting the stage for the next terror wave against Israel.

[uncbob]

In Mideast diplomacy, finesse is the coin of the realm, so a good deal of tactical subterfuge is essential.

Overwhelming military superiority and you don't need this PC BS

If Clinton hadn't screwed up the miltary so much we would be able to tell those Oil owning shieks to get bent.
Tell them they have a choice of backing us or having the OIL FIELDS SEIZED.
And tell those Euroweenies if we SEIZE them the price is doubled to you to help defray the cost of the operation

[uncbob]

It reaffirmed Israel's determination to survive; but more than survive, to defeat -- and defeat decisively -- those who would threaten her, or attempt to drive her from the region.

And if those socialistic Israeli voters hadn't put left wingers ( starting with Peres who resurrected Arafat from the scrap heap ) in power as soon as things got stable they wouldn't be in this mess today

[uncbob]

The Left -- Bastion of Anti-Semitism

And the American Jews are a influencial voting bloc that is part of the LEFT>

NY and FL ( solidily) would be in the GOP camp if it wasn't for their vote