Siege Will Not End Violence

The Hartford Courant published one of its typical editorials on September 25, 2002. The editorial shows a lack of understanding of the nature of the Palestinian Authority and terrorism and the need for strong action to combat it.

• Israel will not stop Palestinian suicide bombings by laying siege to Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The humiliation of the Palestinian leader and the destruction of much of his compound during the past few days will only aggravate the situation in the Middle East, as American diplomats at the United Nations cautioned this week.

The Courant editorial makes a bold statement about the uselessness of action against terrorism, but has similarly editorialized against virtually every action Israel has taken without ever producing any realistic alternatives. There is no evidence that the Israeli action will aggravate the situation. Indeed, the much criticized actions of the Israeli government has led to an impressive decrease in the frequency of successful terrorist attacks.

• The Israeli army closed in on Mr. Arafat in retaliation for recent bombings that killed six people in Tel Aviv and northern Israel. But the siege tactic will be fruitless if the objective is to stop the violence. Mr. Arafat, who condemned the latest bombings by Palestinian extremists and asked that they stop, could be confined to his compound, taken prisoner, deported or even killed and it would not bring peace to Israelis.

The Israeli government has made it clear, contrary to the implications in the editorial, that it has no intent to harm Yasser Arafat in any way.

President Bush has stated that anyone who commits a terrorist act, who finances terrorists or who protects terrorists is a terrorist. While Yasser Arafat is no longer pulling the triggers himself, he continues to finance terrorism and is currently harboring terrorists in the Mukata. By President Bush's definition, Yasser Arafat remains what he has been all his life--a terrorist--and he can easily end the siege by simply ceasing to protect the terrorists currently in his compound.

• Instead, the siege feeds extremism. It has provoked Palestinians to take to the streets once again to show support for a leader who otherwise has lost popularity.

The Palestinian Arabs have not needed any incentive for their extremist, terrorist acts. His loss of popularity is a result of Israel's ability to withstand the terrorist war he launched and the way Israel has resisted the counsel of appeasement from many detractors.

• The siege has also caused Palestinians to lay aside efforts to democratize the Palestinian Authority and put an end to corruption.

Since the start of the so-called peace process, every act of terrorism by Arafat's troops has led to a call for restraint by Israel, lest the process get derailed by the unrealistic expectation that Arafat actually adhere to his commitments. It was that advice and the fact that, for the most part, Israel followed that advice, that led to the failure of the Oslo process and the current two-year old wave of terrorism.

If there is to be any democratization of the Palestinian Authority and if there is to be any end to its rampant corruption, it will not be stopped by actions taken to prevent terrorism.

• And Israel's unnecessary show of strength against Mr. Arafat prompted a U.N. Security Council resolution Monday demanding that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon call off his army. It also condemned the suicide bombings. The United States abstained from voting, but pointedly did not veto the resolution.

We have, time after time, criticized Israel's actions only to, in the long run, realize that we have benefitted greatly from them.

Our criticism of Israel for destroying Iraq's nuclear bomb factory in 1981, an action which saved many lives a decade later when we didn't face nuclear weapons during Desert Storm, is only one of many examples.

• Israel has more to gain by using its overwhelming military force to disrupt the bomb factories and headquarters of Hamas or other extremist groups, as it is now doing in Gaza.

The Courant is to be commending for supporting Israel's right to protect its citizens. One hopes that the Courant will now stop criticizing Israel everytime it does just that in the West Bank as well as Gaza.

Unfortunately, the Courant ignores the fact that the most important headquarters of the most important extremist group of terrorists and their supporters is the one which the Courant is criticizing Israel for disrupting now.

• But even that will not bring an end to the decades of violence. That will come when the Israelis and Palestinians each have a state with secure and recognizable boundaries and one does not occupy the other.

The Hartford Courant has the sequence backwards. Israel's intention is to stop terrorism, and only an end to terrorism will make it be possible to negotiate a resolution to the conflict. Yasser Arafat made a solemn commitment to end violence and terrorism in 1993, one for which he won a Nobel Peace Prize but has reneged on ever since.

More than anything else, Mr. Arafat's two-year old terrorist offensive, which builds on the infrastructure he has been building for nine years, in blatant violation of the heart of his written commitments, which was to resolve differences through negotiations rather than terror, should bring home the reality to everyone that only when Israel can have confidence that future agreements will not similarly be violated will it be feasible to negotiate a settlement.

Nowhere does the Courant mention that Yasser Arafat is harboring approximately twenty known terrorists in his headquarters and that this is the reason for the siege of the Mukata. Arafat could end the siege immediately by simply turning over these terrorists, but refuses to do so.