DEMOCRATIC TERRORISM

[Just after Rena Cohen wrote this on July 12, she learned of a Moslem terrorist attack in Netanya, Israel, killing two and wounding several others. Her daughter is spending the summer in Netanya and was nearby when the suicide bomber hit. Thankfully she was unhurt.]

Before our horrified eyes, terrorism has just struck again in London, killing and wounding scores of innocent civilians, as terrorism always does. The pictures of bloody carnage are now becoming so familiar, from New York to London, from Jerusalem to Madrid, from Baghdad to Moscow, from Riyadh to Kashmir, from Bali to Manila.

Just a few short days ago on July 4th, the American people celebrated freedom, and honored the courage of the men and women who have given so much to keep it and to protect our country. That same day, a deadly charade was being carried out in another part of the world under the banner of democracy.

While Israel is pulling out of Gaza and parts of the disputed territories of the West Bank to foster peace, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its allies are preparing for the next terror war.

On July 4th, the PA, under elected leader Mahmoud Abbas, announced that talks about a “unity government” with Islamic Jihad and Hamas would begin. Hamas reportedly rejected Abbas’ overtures. Whether or not the “wedding” is consummated is completely irrelevant. The very fact that Abbas proposed says it all.

What is in place in Gaza and the West Bank is a total violation of the first essential conditions of the “Roadmap for Peace.” Hamas and Islamic Jihad want Israel destroyed and an Islamic state created in its place. They are on the USState Department list of terrorist organizations because they have murdered Israelis and Americans.

Progress on the “Roadmap” is entirely premised upon dismantling the terrorist organizations that the PA has fostered since Fatah forces were brought to the disputed territories in 1993 as a part of the failed Oslo Accords. Yasser Arafat played a key role in expanding the rule of terror in the area as long as he was in command.

Following Arafat’s death, a much-touted “new window of opportunity” opened with the election of Abbas. Abbas’ history as a staunch anti-Jewish and anti-Israel campaigner and his longtime association with Fatah and its terrorist activities were pushed aside.

Western governments, the Western press, as well as many shell shocked Israelis rushed to embrace this “opportunity,” hoping to snatch peace from the jaws of terror. Unfortunately, they are simply being led on.

The Americans and Israelis want to see democracy flower in the bloody sands of the Middle East. However, in reality there has been no dismantling of the terror cells, no cessation of the vitriolic anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-Western propaganda in PA controlled territory, no cutoff of financial and material support for terror by sponsors in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran or elsewhere, and no recognition of Israel’s right to exist by the Arab states.

This is not progress toward eventual peace. This is a clear disregard of reality in favor of the ideal—or the politically convenient.

Since taking control of the PA, Abbas, whether out of real or feigned weakness, has made no serious effort to disarm the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades terrorists within his own Fatah party, let alone the blood-drenched ranks of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and – thanks to generous funding from the mullahs of Iran – the latest entrant to the Gaza scene, Hezbollah.

Instead, terrorist cadres are being invited to Gaza, there are more rocket factories being built to attack Israeli towns, and more attempts being made to kill Israelis. As noted in a Hamas website article on July 4th, “The distance between Kalkilya and Tel Aviv is 7 kilometers, the distance between Tulkarm and Netanya is only 4 kilometers. Ramallah and Bethlehem are also close to Jerusalem. All of Israel will be within our reach.”

Sad as it is for both the Israelis and the people living in Gaza and the West Bank, it is clear that in Ramallah democracy has become merely another tool in the hands of the merciless. History has shown that elections are not a sanitizing process.

Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany after winning a plurality in the January 1933 elections and being “democratically” selected to form a government. Elections cannot make a terrorist into a democrat anymore than awarding Arafat the Nobel Prize made him into a peacemaker.

If America’s democracy is to be safe, the US cannot allow the PA, which is willing to forge an alliance with Islamist terrorists, to play the democratic game. The US Congress should not fund the PA until the terrorist infrastructure is fully dismantled.

The credibility of America’s foreign policy in the Middle East stands at grave risk. The Bush Administration should reconsider its plans to hand out its promised $300 million to Abbas unless all terror organizations are banned and neutralized.

The G-8 should come to its senses and face the ugly reality: terrorism’s sources are not poverty or frustration or a desire to kick the US out of the Middle East or force Israel to relinquish land. Terrorism is rooted in a lethal combination of unbridled hatred and unbending will to power – whether it is carried forward under the banner of jihad or nationalism.

Terrorists will only be encouraged if the G8’s promised $3billion gift is handed over to the PA in the wake of the London bombings. The last thing to do is put more money in the hands of those who push terror in poor neighborhoods. The money would be better off spent providing viable alternatives to terror’s would-be cannon fodder.

These need to include high quality alternative media that can provide a platform for progressive Moslem and Arab voices rather than abandoning hearts and minds to the tender mercies of the hate-filled PA controlled mosques, radio and TV, or the slanted coverage of Al Jazeera and Al Manar (Hezbollah’s TV outlet).

As for Israel, it is probably time for the internal fighting over the Gaza withdrawal to take a back seat to unity, sanity and self-defense.

Under the circumstances, the original security-based argument for the pullout appears to be groundless. As to giving peace a chance—a unity government of Fatah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad would create the perfect hydra of terror and carnage.

Whether or not such a “national unity government” emerges, however, is not the point. The point has already been made—the PA is willing to ally with any and all terrorist comers.

So whether it is a “unity government” or a collection of organizations ranged against Israel and free to blame each other (or take credit) for whatever acts of terrorism may come in the future, the time to exercise extreme caution—not make concessions—is now.

Rena Cohen is an independent analyst and anti-terror activist in Washington DC