Author: Aaron Lerner
Publication: Imra's Weekly
Date: March 15, 2001
IMRA'S WEEKLY COMMENTARY ON ISRAEL
NATIONAL RADIO - 15 March 2001
(Broadcast in English on Thursday
nights at 10:00 PM on 98.7 FM and on 1539 AM throughout Israel - recording
available on http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com and www.IsraelNationalRadio.com)
How jaded are we?
So far there seems to be next to
no reaction to the news this evening about the Ramallah terror cell responsible
for 8 murders that was prevented from blowing up a car bomb inside Jerusalem.
The closure imposed on Ramallah that was the brunt of media criticism prevented
them from achieving their objective.
The group was coordinated by none
other than Mahmoud Damra, the head of Force 17 in Ramallah.
Force 17 is not a Hamas force. It
is not a group far beyond Arafat's sphere of influence. Force 17 is Arafat's
own elite CIA trained presidential guard. The terrorist cell is also believed
to be tied to Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti.
So much for the spin that Barghouti
and other so-called "loose cannons" are responsible for terrorism. These
terrorists aren't "loose cannons" - they are part of a terrorist force
being coordinated by Arafat's most tightly controlled group.
And if this was not enough, Israel
Television Channel One revealed tonight that it is believed that the orders
Dr. Thabet Thabet gave to armed Palestinian units in the Tulkarm area came
from none other than Yasser Arafat himself. And these were orders to shoot!
When Thabet was shot dead by Israeli
troops in December last year, Israeli peace activists howled that Thabet
was a man of peace. After all, he engaged in many hours of dialogue with
various Israeli peace activists.
Where did the left go wrong? When
they first met years ago with representatives of the PLO they justified
the move on the grounds that "you make peace with your enemies". Yet they
immediately forgot that these people were just that: the enemy.
Here is the point: You can sit for
hours and days in "dialog" with an enemy. You can share tons of humus and
pitas and talk about your families etc. But that still does not mean that
the person you are sitting with is any less an enemy.
In a way, it is the greatest insult
one can give to the Palestinians to think that just because a Jew is willing
to shake their hands and share a meal that this will change their goals.
Their program.
The Israeli leftists were convinced
that the post-dialogue terrorist leaders did not warrant the respect due
an enemy devoted to our destruction. As a result, these Israeli leaders
made no serious effort to address the security disaster that Oslo was creating.
Thanks to years of not recognizing
that the enemy is indeed an enemy, today we find ourselves in an extremely
dangerous situation.
A situation that cannot be addressed
by simply asking for "quiet".
Now that the leadership of the country
recognizes that Arafat is in fact the enemy and not a victim of loose cannons,
a radical change in approach is required. We must do the only logical thing
that a nation does when it realizes that an armed enemy sits within its
very heart. An enemy armed with anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, armored
cars, mortar launchers, etc. It takes action to significantly neutralize
that enemy force. To destroy their weapons store, their bunkers, their
strategic positions.
Simply put, when Israel's leaders
talk today of destroying the terrorist infrastructure they must recognize
that the most dangerous and powerful and significant "terrorist infrastructure"
inside the Palestinian Autonomy is Yasser Arafat's own web of armed forces.
Yes, you need cops inside the autonomy
to maintain order. But there is no resemblance between the lightly armed,
small, police force required to provide traditional police services inside
the autonomy and the huge army that Arafat commands there today.
Ariel Sharon paid a high price to
form a national unity government so th at Israel could do what had to be
done without being undermined by virulent Labor Party attacks against these
actions.
For the sake of the nation I can
only hope that Sharon now justifies the cost of the unity government by
moving to destroy the terrorist infrastructure that threatens our nation
both via its ability to put us under a siege of terror and as an advance
force for invading foreign armies.
Any action short of this means jeopardizing
Israel's security.
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review
& Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-5480092
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6750750 subscriber 4811
Website: http://www.imra.org.il
