Mentioning the Elephant

There’s an old adage about polite people talking about everything but the elephant sitting in the corner. We’ve forgotten most of it,but are reminded of the elephant by the Chinese and the Palestinians this week.

A Chinese fighter jet buzzed our surveillance plane over international waters, crippled it and forced it to land, removed the crew, separated the captain, and refused to permit American diplomats to visit American citizens for several days.

There’s an old adage about polite people talking about everything but the elephant sitting in the corner. We’ve forgotten most of it,but are reminded of the elephant by the Chinese and the Palestinians this week.

A Chinese fighter jet buzzed our surveillance plane over international waters, crippled it and forced it to land, removed the crew, separated the captain, and refused to permit American diplomats to visit American citizens for several days. The Palestinians rejected the establishment of an independent state with partial control over Jerusalem, then organized a shooting war against Israel, which only last week included a suicide bombing that killed two boys waiting for a school bus, murdering a baby girl in her mother’s arms, and critically injuring a baby boy with mortar fire.

The Chinese and the Palestinians would now like an apology.

The Chinese demand is in the media. The Palestinian demand stems from an incident last week where Israeli troops exchanged fire with security men in a convoy with PA security chief Mohammed Dahlan. “I will not attend (further security meetings) before all the rules and bases for such meetings are changed and before Israel apologizes,” Dahlan said.

In all of this, the media (and far too many governments) treat Chinese and the PA as if they are the political equivalent of the U.S. and Israel. As if they are democratic. As if they honor international standards and agreements they have signed. As if their demands are within the bounds of reasonable behavior. As if they are aggrieved parties.

Most people have thus far been too polite to mention that both the PA and the PRC are repressive, corrupt dictatorships that consider international agreements and the rule of law useful only if they bring about the desired outcome, but are otherwise simply paper to be trampled. Both engage in violence against their own people and others. Both initiated this trouble and both want someone else to take the blame.

Fortunately, neither President Bush nor Prime Minister Sharon seems inclined to do so. They have bluntly called the elephant an elephant, in stark contrast to their predecessors. President Clinton called China a “strategic partner,” ignoring both internal and external signs that China considered us something else. The Barak government called Arafat its “peace partner,” while Arafat was busily preparing his war against the Jews.

There will be a price to pay for this new bluntness, and it should not be underestimated. In Israel, there is a serious threat of increasing terror, a horror inflicted primarily on civilians. In China, our servicemen are hostages and other Americans have been”detained” by authorities their fate unclear. But the cost of ignoring the elephant is that American and Israeli policy will continue to be built on the insubstantial and dangerous hope of civilized behavior by uncivilized governments. In the long term,the latter price will be the greater one.