Chickens Have “Wings”; Governments Have Partners in Crime
We’ve written often about the symbiosis between terrorists and governments – each has resources the other needs to be effective. Terrorists receive money and sanctuary from governments. Governments have found plausible deniability for mayhem by blaming “terrorist wings.” Arafat was the grand master of it and the American government would inevitably take the bait, intoning that “terrorists” should not be allowed to derail the “peace process.”
We’ve written often about the symbiosis between terrorists and governments – each has resources the other needs to be effective. Terrorists receive money and sanctuary from governments. Governments have found plausible deniability for mayhem by blaming “terrorist wings.” Arafat was the grand master of it and the American government would inevitably take the bait, intoning that “terrorists” should not be allowed to derail the “peace process.”
After 9-11, President Bush announced a new policy – governments that harbored terrorists were themselves terrorist, subject to retaliation. It worked in Afghanistan.
The election of a Hamas government in the Palestinian Authority prompted a flash of horror from the U.S. and the EU, but when two soldiers were killed and a third kidnapped from inside Israel in June, the “military wing” of Hamas claimed credit and the “political wing” of Hamas was begged for “assistance”. The Washington Post editorialized that it was “time for Hamas to prove” that it was a responsible governing partner by severing its association with its own terrorist “wing”. Israel was urged by the Administration to separate the “Palestinian people wing” from the “government-they-elected-wing.” This led to the anomaly of our receiving e-mails from the Israeli Embassy about the “humanitarian aid” they are funneling into Gaza even as they search for Gilad Shalit, Israeli civilians dodge Kassam rockets in Sderot and Ashkelon, and Hamas makes more demands (proving, perhaps, that even the Israeli government has wings).
Now Hezbollah has crossed the international border between Israel and Lebanon – demarcated by the UN – fired Katyushas on civilians, killed seven soldiers and kidnapped two others. Was it Hezbollah’s “terrorist wing” operating in southern Lebanon, managing the missiles sent and operated by the Iranian Republican Guard? Or was it Hezbollah’s “political wing” with a minister in the government in Beirut?
Who cares? Chickens have wings; governments have partners in crime.
Prime Minister Olmert called it an act of war, an unprovoked assault by one sovereign nation against another. Let’s not entertain rubbish about poor Beirut not controlling the southern part of Lebanon. They don’t control it because they chose not to dismantle Hezbollah in the face of Iranian, Palestinian and Syrian opposition and they thought they had plausible deniability for the havoc Hezbollah would wreak in Israel.
France, Great Britain, Japan, Germany and the EU indeed balanced their denunciation of Hezbollah with calls for Israeli restraint (the EU warned Israel to respect the international border). Our own government was better, holding “Syria and Iran, which have provided long-standing support for Hezbollah, responsible for today’s violence … Hezbollah’s terrorist operations … are an affront to the sovereignty of the Lebanese Government.” Almost right, but Hezbollah’s very existence is an affront.
Once again, Israel is serving as the point country in dealing with terrorist and the states that harbor and support them.