We Don’t Tilt
Like lemmings, newspapers this week trumpet a “pro-Israel tilt” in the Administration, and Arab enemies of Israel – including Arafat himself – bemoan the same. Admitting a pleasant thrill at the photo of President Bush in front of the Israeli flag, in fact, the US is tilted neither toward Israel, nor away from the Palestinians.
The United States doesn’t “tilt,” it takes sides.
The US stands, as it should, on the side of democracies over tyrannies. With free countries over those who would abolish freedom.
Like lemmings, newspapers this week trumpet a “pro-Israel tilt” in the Administration, and Arab enemies of Israel – including Arafat himself – bemoan the same. Admitting a pleasant thrill at the photo of President Bush in front of the Israeli flag, in fact, the US is tilted neither toward Israel, nor away from the Palestinians.
The United States doesn’t “tilt,” it takes sides.
The US stands, as it should, on the side of democracies over tyrannies. With free countries over those who would abolish freedom. With people who protect their children and mourn the death of other people’s children over those who put their own children in harms way by teaching them to seek martyrdom, and revel in the death of other people’s children – or other people’s parents. With people who use their economic capabilities to produce goods and services over people who spend their national treasure and the world’s largesse on private bank accounts and private armies.
The United States and Israel are on the same side.
In 1993, in a moment of stunning generosity, Israel (fully backed by the US) invited the Palestinian leadership to be on that side as well.The Oslo (and subsequent) Accords were a plea for Arafat to put the Palestinians on the democratic, productive, law-abiding, civilized side of humanity.To join the good guys – no tilting required. And the biggest Palestinian failure, their real Naqba so to speak, was to misunderstand the offer.
The United States was never committed to the creation of Palestine.It was committed to supporting Israel’s belief that Palestinian nationalism could be a force for the true liberation of the Palestinian people – like Zionism was for Jews. And that the creation of an open, democratic, forward looking Palestine would – by its nature – provide long term security for Israel.
Instead, the Palestinian national movement defined itself by what it opposes- Israel. Check the Reuters photo website and see beautiful preschool children holding guns, marching in uniform and stomping American flags under the watchful eyes of adult men. Check their schoolbooks at the MEMRI website and understand that the requirement to establish Palestine in place of Israel is the subtext of every math, science and social studies lesson.The next generation of Palestinians is ill-prepared for anything but its own destruction.
It takes time to create a democracy, and good government doesn’t come easily. Israel, the US and the Europeans provided money, help and the offer of more in the future. But Arafat turned what could have been Palestine into a terrorist swamp that cannot be accepted by the US or Israel as the precursor to an independent state. The Bush Administration has acknowledged the reality of the Palestinian failure. And in so doing, it stands where America has always stood, with Israel. No tilt.