January 28, 2002

Intolerable terrorism

The terror attack yesterday afternoon in Jerusalem was the third in less than a week in the heart of a major Israeli city - two occurred in the capital and one in Tel Aviv. Add the attack in Hadera, and yesterday's was the fourth in 10 days. All the targets were crowded civilian centers. There is no term to describe these attacks other than terrorism, terror intended by those who commissioned it to kill innocent people and to create mass fear.

Since September 11 last year, the American attitude - and the world's attitude - to such terrorism has changed. There is no longer any readiness to understand it as the weapon of the weak in a conflict, or as a weapon in the hands of a national liberation movement.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's policy of conducting political negotiations and at the same time using terrorism has run aground. His main audience for his activities, the president of the United States, is no longer prepared to let Arafat to go on like this. Without the U.S., Arafat can not threaten Israel with internationalization of the conflict, through hostile decisions in the UN Security Council or foreign forces on a border yet to be determined between Israel and Palestine.

Particularly vociferous expressions of this new fact have been made by various officials in the U.S. administration, led by President George W. Bush. The president, who only a few months ago - before September 11 - spoke of establishing a Palestinian state and called for "applauding" Arafat, now is expressing his personal disappointment in the Palestinian leader, both because Arafat was caught lying, and because of the content of those lies. As Bush said, instead of fighting terror, Arafat is intensifying it.

Bush's statement has wide support in Congress, while U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell publicly demanded that Arafat take aggressive "irreversible" steps (meaning not theatrical, temporary arrests) against terrorism. Retired Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni, the emissary of the president and the secretary, also supported Bush's remarks. During his two visits to the region last month, the Palestinians humiliated him: first with a wave of terror attacks that killed some 40 Israelis in Jerusalem, Haifa and Emmanuel, and then with the Karine A weapons ship affair.

Instead of going ahead with the actions on Zinni's list and progressing toward joint counter-terrorist activity as the start of a political channel, Arafat was caught lying. Zinni has avoided public comment in the press, but off the record, he vehemently spoke out against Arafat and his aides. According to reports in the Israeli press, Zinni referred to the leaders of the Palestinian security services as mafioso and to Arafat as the head of the mafia. That opinion is both a personal and institutional condemnation of Arafat and the PA. It is a sign of the abyss into which Arafat is trying to drag Israel, and possibly the Arab states, and makes clear to Arafat that the U.S. won't be party to such a move.

It is not, however, a blank check for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to fill in with his idea of a grand campaign on PA territory. It can be deciphered to show an expectation of restraint from Sharon and of coordination with Bush during their discussions next week in Washington.

America's stand alongside Israel and against Arafat is a valuable asset that could be compromised if the moderate voices in the Sharon government do not overcome those eager to pull the trigger.