We Still Don’t Care What They Believe

“However long the Israeli incursions continue… the problem will still be there – a people who need to be brought into a negotiating process that will lead to peace… (W)hen it’s over there will still be people who… are willing to post suicide bombs… And that violence and that anger and frustration which fuels it will be there unless we find a negotiating process that both sides have confidence in and a negotiating process that will lead to what the Palestinian people want – a state where they can raise their children and design their own future living side-by-side with Israe

“However long the Israeli incursions continue… the problem will still be there – a people who need to be brought into a negotiating process that will lead to peace… (W)hen it’s over there will still be people who… are willing to post suicide bombs… And that violence and that anger and frustration which fuels it will be there unless we find a negotiating process that both sides have confidence in and a negotiating process that will lead to what the Palestinian people want – a state where they can raise their children and design their own future living side-by-side with Israel.” Secretary of State Powell, 4-11-02

So many problems. Where to start?

With the pretense that the “negotiating process” leads to “peace”?

With the pretense that this is about what “the Palestinian people want” and that Arafat’s support of suicide/homicide* bombers is the position of a leader responding to the best aspirations of his people? No. If Yasser cared what “the people” want, he would use the enormous slosh of funds provided by the world to better the lives of those people, not to kill Jews. He wouldn’t spend their (our) money on the Karine-A, bomb factories, $25,000 payments to the families of bombers, stipends to clergy who spew Jew hatred, the ruin of Palestinian children and the execution of “collaborators.” (See JINSA Report #203 and #204) They are thus “designing the future” they appear to want.

With the pretense that suicide/homicide* bombers simply want an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel? No. PM Barak and President Clinton offered the state two years ago, and President Bush solidified the offer in a UN Security Council Resolution only weeks ago. If statehood next to a secure Israel were the point, they would be flying flags now instead of blowing up Jews.

We start with the fact that everyone thinks he has a grievance. Everyone believes he is right. The Palestinians certainly do. So does Osama. So did the Emperor of Japan, Hitler and Vlad the Impaler. Throw in the Khmer Rouge, Stalin, Mao, Cortez and the Roman Legion. They all believed. Torquemada believed in the Spanish Inquisition.

So what?

We don’t care what they believe. We care what they do. Their beliefs can be wrong but harmless. Their actions kill people. Osama believes the US defiled Saudi Arabia and it is his duty to kill Americans to make the point. He is wrong. Palestinian suicide/homicide bombers plus part of the Palestinian “leadership” believe they can eradicate Israel. They are wrong.

In neither case are the free powers of the world likely to change minds, but we have a duty to ensure that they don’t have the means to continue the carnage.

* We will be replacing “suicide bombers” with “homicide bombers” at the suggestion of Ken Adelman, who made the excellent point that killing themselves is secondary to murdering Jews.