Posted on 07/30/2002 5:32:06 AM PDT by iav2
US talk-show host Alan Keyes: Killing Shehadeh was justified
By ELLI WOHLGELERNTER
The IDF's bombing of Hamas commander Salah Shehedeh in Gaza City last week, which resulted in civilian casualties, was fully justified in the fight against terrorism, and no different than America's bombing in Afghanistan which also killed civilians, according to US talk-show host and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes.
"To ask whether or not terrible as it may seem I'm going after this critical element of this enemy's war-making capacity, and in order to achieve that, I will take the risk of these civilian casualties, I don't believe as an American I can impose a burden on Israel greater than I would impose on my own country," said Keyes, former US assistant secretary of state for international organizations.
"And in Afghanistan we dropped some fat, terribly destructive bombs in the suburbs of Kabul and other places, and I think we can be reasonably sure it claimed along with the lives of the terrorist cadre some lives of non-terrorist combatants. Were we justified in doing so? I believe we were. And if America was justified in doing that, then I must acknowledge that Israel was justified in the action it just took."
Keyes, who also served as US ambassador to the UN Social and Economic Council, said at a news conference yesterday that killing Shehadeh was very important in the war against terrorism. "The most important element of the terrorist infrastructure is people, and the most critical element amongst those people is the leadership that actually forms, inspires, encourages, and inculcates those who conduct the acts of terror."
Keyes, who is in Israel as a guest of The Media Line, said Nazi Germany had also located military facilities next to civilian population centers, in the hope that it would deter Allied bombings. "I think the problem that we have here is that if we're not careful, we will allow decent societies to be endlessly vulnerable to terror, precisely because of the unconscionable wickedness of the terrorist."
He said that when an individual or group adopts a policy of placing innocents at risk, it "of course places a terrible burden on their enemies. But if in conducting a war you allow an enemy that has no conscience in this regard to then dictate your strategy, so all the most critical elements of their war-making capacity are protected in this unconscionable way, then you're going to lose the war. And it seems to me that you [Israel] can't afford that."
The former host of the Alan Keyes Is Making Sense talk show on MSNBC said he is here on a fact-finding tour because while many talk about the Middle East, "it is one of the classic cases where you cannot go on talking about it for very long if you don't periodically refresh yourselves what things are really like on the ground."
Keyes said September 11 gave Americans an understanding of the real meaning of terrorism, the violence it implies, and the disruption of ordinary life it entails, which "can be known, sadly, in no other way. In that context, I think a lot of folks have begun to appreciate the real threat that terrorism poses in the world."
"People who talk of peace and then make excuses for terrorist tactics in the pursuit of peace are either hypocritical or simply disingenuous and naive. The first prerequisite for the future is the end of all terrorism. If that is not produced, then all talk of peace is simply sanctimonious hypocritical gesturing."
Keyes said the Palestinian people are suffering because of their leadership, which has abused them.
"You know the worst kind of situation I can imagine? Being ruled over by thugs. I don't care whether they are thugs of a different race or my race, thugs of a different religion or my religion."
Or, et tu, Mssr. Keyes?
I hope another network picks up Alan.
I say, Keyes for VPOTUS, then POTUS.
W, the wimp, however, would never tolerate being upstaged by this sterling individual.
Which would happen on a daily basis, were Keyes VPOTUS and w POTUS.
I'm out of here.
Richard F.
Well I guess some of us want a Christian in the Whitehouse and some want someone who talks about Christianity in the Whitehouse.
God Bless george Bush.
Yep. He's got every thing he needs. Except VOTES.
Darn.
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