Powell's gamble - meeting as Arafat condemns terror

Israel's right to fight evil

By RICHARD PERLE, Chairman of Pentagon Defence Advisory Board and former aide to President Reagan warns why we can't trust Arafat.

CURRENTLY the Israeli defence forces are in the West Bank.

They're searching out the bases from which terrorists operate.

They're after those behind the suicide bombers, who kill random Israeli civillians whenever they get close enough to detonate the explosives with which they destroy themselves.

The systematic suicide bombings must be dealt with now.

The evidence is pouring out of that campaign, evidence not only of Yasser Arafat's complicity in that campaign, but his direct involvement—signed documents in which he approves the funding of materials for suicide bombers.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched Arafat in his own language in front of his own people.

I have a film on tape that I play sometimes for people who doubt it. It shows Yasser Arafat on a stage on the West Bank three weeks after the famous handshake with Yitzhak Rabin on the south lawn of the White House.

Standing next to him on a platform is the grandmother of a suicide bomber. And Arafat can be seen plainly on this tape saying 'Give me your children, give me all your children, Jihad'.

If anyone doubted where Arafat stands on the use of terror as a political instrument, his management of the Palestinian authority makes that entirely clear.

There is a great deal going on in the world right now.

The world has changed enormously since the days when I was in the Pentagon at the height of the Cold War. My country is a very different place since September 11. September 11 was the product of a succession of very weak responses to the terror that preceded it.

What is going on today in the Middle East is strikingly similar to the American response to September 11.

We went after the Taliban and we went after the al-Qaeda network because they committed acts of terror against innocent civilians.

The Israelis tolerated a great deal before they decided to take military action. They are making it clear that there is a price to be paid for engaging in acts of terror against innocent civilians.

The urgent necessity not to allow terror to achieve a political purpose is made very clear by the admisson that there is a political purpose that lies behind the terror.

And so I think America was right in going after the Taliban. The Israelis were right going after Yasser Arafat's regime of terror.

Whatever the subsequent diplomacy turns out to be, the lesson in both cases should be clear—that if you engage in acts of terror against us you will face a terrible prospect.

On September 11 George W Bush said some very important words that have shaped the American response to acts of terror.

He said we will not distinguish between the terrorists that commit these acts and the states that harbour them. We have taken that war to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and it has been destroyed.

The lessons for other regimes supporting terrorism isn't clear enough yet, so we will need to take the war against terror to other states.

My own hope is that the best candidate for that will be Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He is already in possession of chemical and biological weapons and is working feverishly to acquire nuclear weapons as well.

We can read from our President's suggestion that we are going to take action against Saddam Hussein.

We will not deal effectively with terrorists until they are on the run and until they have to sleep in a different place every night, and work from a different location every day.

Because when they enjoy the freedom of sanctuary, and the freedom to plan and carry out their acts of terror, they pose a threat far larger than I am willing to contemplate.

Wouldn't a more effective demonstration be for the participants to actually wear real bombs, and blow themselves up? They could draw inspiration from those Bhuddist demonstrators back when in South Vietnam, who immolated themselves.

It said: "Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leadership express their condemnation of all acts of terrorism that target civilians, whether Israelis or Palestinians and whether this terrorism was state terrorism or by individuals or groups."

It went on: "We especially condemn the attack that took place against Israeli citizens in Jerusalem."

Actually, he didn't say "acts of terrorism," he said "violent operations." And he didn't say "attack," he accused Israel of a "massacre."

Difference being that they (the Buddhists) did not kill innocent children, men or women...

RE: 10,000 demostrators with strapped on bombs marching in London.

Anyone else see the irony in this?

Well POJ, that should give the Londoners a clue as to the numbers of potential homocide bombers they have in their midst. I hope the Bobbies were taking pictures for I.D. purposes.

Another true martyr in addition to the Buddhists of Viet Nam was the young Czech who immolated hinself after the Soviet put down of Prague Spring in 1968. His name was Jan _____. Anyone remember his name?

Arafat is a mass-murderer!

Official Israeli Defense Force Website, Highly Informative click here