Who is With Whom?

President Bush said, “You are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” It sounded quite definitive to us. But clearly we, and perhaps he, underestimated the ability of the State Department to find “wiggle room” in the tightest linguistic construction.

President Bush said, “You are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” It sounded quite definitive to us. But clearly we, and perhaps he, underestimated the ability of the State Department to find “wiggle room” in the tightest linguistic construction.

For months, Secretary Powell barely noted Palestinian terror against Israel but called even Israeli political retaliation “excessive” and “provocative,” and Israel’s policy of targeting terrorists to prevent them from carrying out their murderous plans was met with outrage. (But admit it, Mr. Secretary, don’t you wish American agents had engaged in a round of terrorist targeting last month?)

Mr. Powell has ignored Arafat’s anti-American record, his terrorism directed at Americans before Oslo (Khartoum, the Achille Lauro, Gail Rubin, the invention of airplane hijacking, etc.) and after Oslo; his financial and political support of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as stealing American government funds; the participation of his forces in the war against Israel; and his refusal to arrest men wanted for terrorist activity. Worse, since 11 September, Mr. Powell has been on a campaign to press Israel to resume a thoroughly discredited “peace process.” This week, he asked Sen. Feinstein to withdraw legislation that would require sanctions on the PA if it does not meet its commitments to fight terrorism, in order to bring Arafat into “the coalition.”

Doing anything that requires so much willful blindness seems to us not worth doing.

“The Palestinian compliance legislation … would be counterproductive to our coalition-building and peace process efforts and we would like to see it withdrawn,” Mr. Powell wrote. “The bottom line is that we agree with the need for the Palestinians to comply with their commitments and control the violence … But… I ask you not to … restrict our ability to engage with both parties to help achieve these goals.”

So, he agrees the Palestinians haven’t been complying and controlling violence. Why does he NEVERTHELESS want them in the coalition? Why DESPITE their terrorism, can they be on our side? Why, REGARDLESS of their violence, would we have them as our partners? Terrorism is terrorism and the Palestinians are guilty of it. They are not with us. To ignore their behavior mocks the President’s determination that terrorism is indivisible and that we will punish the practitioners and their supporters.

The Secretary of State is on extraordinarily thin ice.

The last time the U.S. was in a coalition-building mood, Israelis were asked to sit quietly in their sealed rooms and wait for the Scuds. The government of Israel was told by people named Bush (OK, not the same one), Cheney and Powell not to protect its own people lest it damage the coalition we had built to save the world. The world needs to be saved this time, too, but not at the expense of American principles.