Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Bracing for the Next Step

What will Israel do in response to yesterday's terrorist that killed nine Israelis and wounded over 65 at a Tel Aviv restaurant? That's the question of the day. Will military raids be enough? Some analysts don't think it is.

I think speeding up the construction of the security fence, and threatening that for every attack against Israel, Israel will not only move the barrier further into areas that Palestinians might have once called their own had they accepted the 2000 deal at Camp David, but annex such territory as a claim of right under international laws of war as being part of the next step. Military action is a given, and the range of targets should be more than just the bomb factories. Terrorist leaders have gotten used to the fact that they can get away with whipping their followers into a frenzy without facing the repercussions of their actions. That has to change. Threats to Israel's security should translate into action against the terrorist leadership directly.

Hamas has declared war on Israel - and has done so not only as a terrorist organization, but as the head of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas needs to be taught that their actions bring serious repercussions and the lesson must be unequivocable and thorough. Half measures and giving Hamas and the Palestinian Authority any kind of break is a losing strategy. After all this time, Hamas still thinks it can win and destroy Israel. They must be disabused of that notion, along with all the other terrorist groups operating in the territories. Jay Tea also notices.

Meanwhile, Norway is looking to recapture its Oslo glory by playing host to Hamas. Inexcusable. The only dialogue that should be going on is demands on Hamas to unconditionally surrender or face destruction of the Palestinian Authority and all the terrorist organizations once and for all. Giving into the demands of a terrorist group will lead to no good. There is no way to negotiate with such a group - they do not bargain in good faith, and their ultimate goal is the elimination of Israel and reestablishing an Islamic state where Israel once stood.

UPDATE:
This NY Sun editorial wraps up the events of the past 24 hours quite nicely. Starting with the bombing in Israel, it wends through the anti-Semitism and terrorism apologists to the Sami al Arian case.
Anyone with doubts about Hamas's intentions can consult its charter, which contains such gems as "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors." Or that "enemies... used the money to establish clandestine organizations which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests. Such organizations are: the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B'nai B'rith and the like. All of them are destructive spying organizations...Their scheme has been laid out in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Or they can consult the words of one of Hamas's financial backers, President Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Iran was just voted vice chairman of the United Nations Disarmament Commission, Fox News's Brit Hume reported last night.

The Times ad claims "Many Americans do not understand that Hamas is a typical anti-colonial insurgency responding to an Israeli occupation and what amounts to government terror against Palestinian civilians. It is not at all related to al-Qa'ida or 9/11." In fact Hamas represents colonialism by Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank and Gaza. Its ideology reeks of Al Qaeda and bin Laden. Americans don't need the New York Times and Hamas to tell them what they don't understand. They know that the victims slain yesterday at a felafel restaurant in Tel Aviv are no different from those slain on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center. They are casualties in a war being levied by an enemy that aims to reestablish the caliphate and enforce Islamic law worldwide, an enemy that kills civilian women and children while Western sympathizers make ill-timed excuses.

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