After the Passover Massacre, in which yet another Palestinian
suicide bomber killed yet another crowd of innocents, the Israelis
finally decided to rid themselves of the terrorists’ godfather who
directs the attacks against them every day. The Friday morning raid
into Yassir Arafat’s Ramallah compound is undoubtedly aimed at two
objectives: seizing the treasure trove of intelligence there, and
capturing this bloody-handed terrorist alive, so he can be
deported.
As Benjamin Netanyahu reminded us on Friday, Arafat was offered
a Palestinian state, and East Jerusalem for its capital, twenty
months ago. Israel’s then-prime minister, Ehud Barak, staked his
political life on Arafat and Clinton, and lost it. Arafat’s
response to that offer is today’s daily slaughter.
Initial reports said that the Israeli Defense Forces raiding the
compound were more interested in grabbing every piece of paper and
computer disk than in grabbing Arafat. Whether he lives or dies in
the final act is important only because if he dies at Israel’s
hand, he will be another hero to the Palestinians, rather than
being deported in shackles and disgrace. The wealth of intelligence
information gathered, which may contain lists of terrorists and
suicide bombers already on the loose, as well as their contacts and
support network, may lead to the most widespread damage to the
terrorist network that has occurred in decades. The Israelis will,
we hope, share much of that information with us. We would do well
to use it quickly.
The attack on the Ramallah compound came just after the Passover
Massacre in Netanya, and during the Arab league’s Beirut Summit.
The outcry from the assembled was what we should expect. Saudi
Crown Prince Abdullah — who just the day before was playing
kissy-face with the Iraqi veep — immediately condemned the
Israelis. The rest followed, and the U.N. Security Council met in
emergency session. At the end of that meeting on Friday night, the
Council passed a resolution calling on both the Palestinians and
the Israelis to cease fire and to cooperate with our “peace envoy,”
Gen. Zinni. It also calls on the Israelis to withdraw from
Palestinian cities. The fact that we joined the likes of Syria,
China and Russia to urge Israel to back off was outrageous, and
completely inconsistent with what Mr. Bush had said before.
The vote seemed a shocking turn-about for us. Was Colin Powell
off the reservation, or was Dubya falling prey to the hubris that
led Jimmah Carter and Billy Boy to think they could make peace in
the Middle East? The answer, fortunately, is neither. In his press
conference Saturday, Dubya reaffirmed his commitment to let the
Israelis defend themselves. The Prez knows that clear signals are
all people can understand. For a few hours, the message was badly
muddled. But not anymore. We’re back to serious — as opposed to
United Nations — business. Gen. Zinni is no fool, but he’s on a
fool’s errand. He should be called back while we concentrate on the
methods and means of our defense, and the Israelis’.
First, Arafat and his band of thugs must be thrown out of the
West Bank area, and kept a long way away. Too bad the French don’t
have Devil’s Island available. The essential element is to deprive
him of the ability to control his terror attacks in the West Bank
and Gaza. It’s a simple matter of disrupting his command and
control, which is the first thing you do to any enemy. If he and
his network of funds and guns are disrupted, Israel — and everyone
else — will be safer. Make no nevermind about what Arafat says his
intentions are. His business, like the “poverty pimps” in this
country, cannot continue without the problem he shouts about. Peace
puts him out of business, which he can’t tolerate. The Israelis are
right to see him only as an enemy, and an obstacle to peace. We
cannot say otherwise.
The intelligence information the Israelis obtain in Ramallah
will almost certainly implicate Iran, Syria and Iraq. It may show
that the Saudis are directly involved in terror, not just financing
schools for it. This information needs to be digested not only by
the Israelis, but also by Dubya, Dick and Don. When they have it,
and if they conclude that it is good enough to act upon, they need
to do two things, and pretty quickly.
First, all who are not willfully ignorant know which the
terrorist nations are. All the evidence we need to act has been
known for months, if not years. The Beirut Arab Summit proved —
again — that the Arab nations are not on our side, and will not be
regardless of diplomacy. The only way those nations will join us is
if they’re convinced it is the only thing they can do to save their
own hides.
Those nations that are sponsoring or conducting terrorism need
to be labeled publicly, again and again and again. Forget U.N.
resolutions, which are subject to veto by the bad guys themselves.
Send Colin and Condi off on a diplo-blitz, showing the NATO
countries and those such as Japan, India and Pakistan just what we
have and ask them to join us in the next round. Make very clear
that we will act with them or without them. Show some of the
information to the Saudis, the Egyptians, and the Jordanians, one
or more of whom are sure to leak it to the terrorists. Tell them
they had better get on the train or risk getting run over when it
pulls out of the station.
Next, we need to do the job. Iran, Syria, Iraq and the rest need
to be dealt with in a manner that ends the terrorist threat to us,
and to our allies including Israel. The longer we wait, the more
our enemies will mistake caution for inability, and diplomacy for
vulnerability.
Jed Babbin was a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense in
the first Bush administration and now appears occasionally as a
talking warhead on the Fox News Channel.
