U.S. Should Not Impede Israel's Justifiable War 

Mobile (Alabama) Register
March 30, 2002
Opinion

Wednesday evening's suicide bombing in Israel, which killed 
20 civilians during a peaceful Passover feast, emphasizes the 
point that no gesture of peace from either the Israeli or 
Arab sides can possibly quell the fanaticism of pro-Palestinian 
terrorists addicted to evil. 

Another bombing Friday, at a supermarket, further confirmed that 
conclusion. 

Rather than trying to pressure Israel into a "peace process" 
that will cut Israel into pieces, the United States should step 
aside and let Israel drive out of its territory, by force of 
arms, the entire Palestinian Authority. 

Moreover, the United States should make known that it might use 
its own arms to defend any sovereign state, including Israel, 
which is attacked by any other. 

The message to the Arab states should be clear: This isn't 
their fight. Israel will not make incursions into any sovereign 
state, whether it be Jordan or Syria or Egypt. But the fate of 
the disputed territory of the West Bank and Gaza, all of which 
has belonged to Israel since Israel repelled Arab assaults in 
1967 and 1973, is Israel's alone to determine. 

Those areas never -- repeat, never -- have been a separate, 
sovereign Palestinian state. Continuing Arab terrorism from 
those lands has shown that there is no chance, in the 
reasonably foreseeable future, for such a state to exist 
without posing a mortal threat to Israel. 

In effect, that was the message from the terrorist organization 
Hamas, which quickly claimed "credit" for the Passover massacre. 
Statements issued by Hamas made clear that its goal is to derail 
even the "peace" proposal en dorsed by the Arab League's summit 
meeting this week. 

If even an Arab-designed pseudo-peace is too lenient on Israel 
for Palestinian tastes, then no negotiated peace will work. 
If supporters of Hamas want war, therefore, then the Israelis 
ought to be allowed to give it to them. 

As in 1967 and 1973, the Israeli response should be swift and 
merciless. When it ends, not a smidgen of the Palestinian 
Authority ought to be left intact. 

It's worth remembering that the Palestinian Authority was 
created out of thin air less than a decade ago. In effect, 
it was sheer magnanimity on Israel's part to allow Yasser 
Arafat's organization any autonomy at all on what remained 
Israeli territory -- territory Israel took not through 
aggression, but in the course of self-defense. 

The creation of a Palestinian Authority was part of a grand 
new bargain: land for peace. But with each new grant of 
territory from Israel, the Palestinians have only fomented 
more violence. 

Just as the United States would never, could never, fail to 
respond to terrorist attacks against its own civilians, the 
Bush administration should not ask Israel to turn the other 
cheek when evil strikes. 

The facts are indisputable: Even as Yasser Arafat talks of 
peace, he builds an alliance with radical Iranians to smuggle 
a high tonnage of weapons for intended use against Israel. 
He and his Palestinian Authority are nothing more than 
bloodthirsty tyrants, and they deserve no mercy. 

With Israel's assault Friday against Mr. Arafat's compound, 
the Palestinian Authority may justly be facing its end. 
The United States should not raise a single peep in protest.