Op-Ed Articles

Israel's Fight For Survival
April 19, 2002 | Beverly Hills Weekly

By Henry A. Waxman

Israel is engaged in a fight for its survival. On the eve of the 54th anniversary of the establishment of the State, Israeli citizens have been embattled for months by daily terrorism.

The reason there is no cease-fire is that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat supports the violence. He was unwilling to stop Hamas and Islamic Jihad and he actively endorses and funds the terrorist activities of his Fatah militias - the Tanzim, Force 17, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which was recently added to the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

The root cause of Palestinian terrorism is not settlements. It is the exhortation by the Palestinian leadership for its youth to sacrifice their own dreams of statehood to Arafat's quest for martyrdom.

The underlying source of Palestinian hatred is not Israel's acts of self defense. It is anti-Semitism indoctrinated by Palestinian textbooks and television shows that glorify murder and exalt suicide bombers who target families at pizza stores and mothers pushing their strollers outside synagogue at the end of the Sabbath.

Unfortunately, those who so harshly judge Israel are quick to overlook the terrorist history of Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which is now manifested in the current wave of bus bombings, sniper attacks, and suicide assaults against pedestrians and cafes.

Have the Europeans who embrace Arafat forgotten the 1972 Munich Olympics when the PLO massacred Israeli athletes? Do they remember the frequent PLO hijackings staged at European airports, like the 1976 Air France flight whose passengers were freed only when the Israeli army staged a rescue at Uganda's Entebbe airport? Do Americans who vilify Sharon look back at the Achille Lauro, a cruiseship hijacked by PLO terrorists who shot-to-death and drowned a wheelchair-bound American passenger named Leon Klinghoffer simply because he was Jewish?

As we go to battle against Al-Queda, we cannot ignore the fact that the concept of an international terrorist network was first conceived when the PLO and the Japanese Red Army teamed up in the early 1970s to perpetrate the Lod Airport massacre, which killed 26 tourists and wounded 76 others.

The war between Israelis and Palestinians is not about Arafat and Sharon. It is about the refusal of a democratic society to reward terrorism with territory. It is about a civilized society unwilling to legitimize suicide attacks as a form of political negotiation. It is about an instinct shared by every American in the aftermath of September 11.

If Arafat can succeed, then Bin Laden can succeed. Not because they share the same goals, but because they share the same tactics.

That is why it is so critical that the United States stand with Israel in this time of crisis, strong in our resolve against those who support and justify terrorism. Israel as a sovereign nation has the right to take all measures necessary to defend its citizens, and it is in the interest of the United States to support its ability to do so.

Although President Bush has dispatched CIA Director Tenet, Senator Mitchell, General Zinni, Vice President Cheney, and now Secretary Powell to try and restore security and stability, it is clear that no one will succeed unless Chairman Arafat renounces terrorism and starts preparing the Palestinian people for peace instead of war.

As long as Arafat harbors terrorists, praises their tactics, and fuels their attacks, the United States has no choice but to consider him an opponent of our efforts for peace and our war against terrorism.