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Jewish World Review August 1, 2003 / 3 Menachem-Av, 5763 Tabling the Truth By Jonathan Tobin
Treatment of scholar and whitewash of Saudis sends wrong message on terror
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
How long ago was Sept. 11, 2001? According to the calendar, the terror
attacks on New York and Washington occurred a little more than 23 months ago. But if
you listen to much of what passes for discussion of security issues these
days, you would think it happened 23 years ago.
In the immediate aftermath of those atrocities, Americans hungered for expert
advice on the Islamic extremists who committed these crimes, in addition to
the worldview that animated them. These were issues that had long been ignored
by politicians, the media and most of academia. But after 9/11, we wanted our
leaders to draw hard conclusions about the threats we faced.
President Bush answered this need with ringing rhetoric about a fight against
terror and action that put an end to the evil regimes of the Taliban in
Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. And, for the first time, America supports
the expansion of democracy in the Arab world rather than merely backing
authoritarian regimes.
But if you're still looking for moral clarity on this issue from the Bush
administration, you might be disappointed.
WHITEWASHING THE SAUDIS
Why? We can't know for sure, but even the most sympathetic interpretation of
this incident shows the Bush administration is simply incapable of dealing
honestly with our Saudi "allies." Bush and his top echelon are thoroughly
committed to the relationship with the Saudi monarchy. And they are prepared to
ignore a great deal — including suspected links between prominent Saudis and the
Al Qaeda terrorist network — to preserve it.
There is a concerted effort in Washington to downplay the truth about Saudi
funding of extremist Islamic groups and schools all over the Middle East and
elsewhere. Since such teachings are the building blocks of terrorism, this shows
that the administration is still reluctant to engage our enemies on an
intellectual basis.
That's where Daniel Pipes comes in.
Pipes, the director of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum and a scholar
of the Islamic world, has become the symbol of the administration's confused
thinking about terror.
He was a lonely voice of reason in the years before the 9/11 attacks as he
urged Americans to take the threat of Islamism seriously. His nomination in
April by Bush for a seat on the board of the U.S. Institute for Peace seemed to
solidify the administration's credentials. But since then, his membership on
this otherwise obscure board has become a significant political battleground.
APOLOGISTS FOR TERROR
This backlash against Pipes should have been dismissed, but as Bush and the
rest of his staff refused to stand up for his nominee, it has gained traction.
Editorial pages at The Washington Post and the Dallas Morning News have
foolishly echoed the libelous assessments of Pipes put out by groups that approve of
murderous attacks on Israelis and oppose America's war on terror.
Via e-mail:
Senator Kennedy (D) Ranking Member
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6300
(202) 224-5375 - voice
(202) 224-1975 - TDD
Majority Staff #: (202) 224-6770
Minority Staff #: (202) 224-0767
Democrats on the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee who must approve his nomination also oppose him. Led by Sen. Edward Kennedy
(D-Mass.), they have accused him of having "one-sided" views about the Middle
East because he opposes American appeasement of Palestinian terror. They also
cite with disapproval his Campus Watch Web site, which provides vital
information about anti-Israel activity in academia.
In response, the administration has backed away from Pipes and done nothing
to work for his approval. Republicans on the committee were unprepared to
defend him when it met last week to consider his nomination. A vote was postponed
due to a lack of a quorum, effectively tabling the nomination for the time
being.
What brought this about?
For one thing, the administration is still unwilling to directly engage the
Islamist lobby in this country. Afraid of being tagged as anti-Muslim or of
feeding a mythical anti-Arab backlash, Bush and his people are kowtowing to the
extremists at Cair, and allowing them to set the tone for this debate.
Another factor has to do with Pipes himself. He's no politician, and has a
paper trail of columns that can be dissected and used against him. He's no foe
of Islam, but he honestly discusses its history and the extremists in this
country who speak in its name. That makes him politically incorrect.
Pipes is also an opponent of the latest version of the Middle East peace
process that Bush has championed. In the February 2003 issue of Commentary
magazine, Pipes rightly contended that Israel didn't need "a plan" for peace so much
as it needed a military victory over the terrorists.
Indeed, Pipes even publicly opposed President Bush's June 24, 2002, policy
speech on the Middle East that was much praised by supporters of Israel,
including this writer. In it, Bush attached conditions to the creation of a
Palestinian state (Arafat's ouster and renunciation of terror). But Pipes foresaw the
road map plan that has rewarded terrorism as coming out of the speech.
Even worse is the reported formation of a new State Department advisory group
on American relations with the Muslim and Arab worlds. It is being filled
with some of the same discredited scholars and diplomats who led us to the
pre-9/11 complacency about Islamism that Daniel Pipes deplored. As Caroline Glick
wrote in The Jerusalem Post last week, "this new panel is infinitely more
influential on U.S. policy than the board of directors of the Institute for Peace."
It may be that the White House now regrets ever getting involved with Pipes.
But by abandoning him to the mercies of partisans and Islamic extremists who
would like nothing better than to collect the scalp of their most potent foe,
the administration has shown just how muddled its thinking is.
It's not too late to save his nomination, but perhaps a man like Pipes, who
understood the Islamic threat before 9/11, still has no place in Washington
even at an insignificant post such as the U.S. Institute for Peace. If that is
so, then it appears our leaders are still unready to learn the lessons of one of
the darkest days in our history.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. JWR contributor Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. Let him know what you think by clicking here. This past month Mr. Tobin won first places honors in the American Jewish Press Association's Louis Rapaport Award for Excellence in Commentary as well as the Philadelphia Press Association's Media Award for top weekly columnist. Both competitions were for articles written in the year 2002.
© 2003, Jonathan Tobin | ||||||||||||||||
