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Jewish World Review Oct. 16, 2003 /20 Tishrei, 5764 Will the Gaza roadside bombing be the last straw? By Steve Goldstein
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
(KRT) The roadside bomb that killed three U.S. private security guards traveling in an official convoy in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday may also have claimed another casualty: the argument that Palestinian militant groups are distinguishable from terrorist organizations.
Palestinian officials denounced the attack, and the militant groups denied responsibility. But members of Congress and terrorism analysts said the attack is likely to increase pressure on the U.S. government to treat Palestinian groups as kin to al-Qaida and its anti-American brethren.
"All of these groups -- Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad -- these are all rogue elements, all anti-U.S. entities and all have hatred for our values and they are targeting U.S. citizens," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., called on the Bush administration "to get serious about the next phase of the war on terrorism."
Until now, U.S. policy toward these groups has been influenced by the European view that Hamas, particularly, is a social welfare group fighting for the liberation of Palestine.
Graham said Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad share the characteristics of receiving support "from a state that possesses weapons of mass destruction, they have a history of hating and killing Americans, and they have the ability today to strike within the United States of America."
Hezbollah, said Graham, "is the A team."
Some U.S. intelligence officials said they doubt Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad has the kind of network in Gaza needed to conduct the attack and that the Gaza-based Hamas was the leading suspect.
But President Bush, in a statement, sent an unmistakable signal to the Palestinian Authority that it was ignoring the terror pedigrees of all three groups and their possible use as tools for the goals of al-Qaida.
"Palestinian authorities should have acted long ago to fight terror in all its forms," Bush said.
Bush forcefully criticized Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and implicitly gave Ahmed Qureia, the new prime minister, a strong directive to crack down on the three groups.
Harvard University lecturer and terror expert Jessica Stern said that the United States will be compelled to pay more attention to Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
"The attack will strengthen the hand of those who have long seen these groups as a threat to international security," said Stern, author of the recently published "Terror in the Name of G-d," which examines the aims of religious militants. "If anyone still viewed the situation between Israel and the Palestinians as (an internal one), that view has almost certainly been altered forever," she said.
Coincidentally, the House of Representatives passed the so-called Syria Accountability Act, which directs the president to impose severe economic and diplomatic sanctions unless Syria ceases its alleged support for terrorism, ends its occupation of Lebanon and stops any development of weapons of mass destruction.
The bill passed, 398-4, after the White House withdrew its initial objection.
The bombing is also likely to increase tensions between the United States and Syria. Ros-Lehtinen, who sponsored the Syria Accountability Act, noted that all three groups have presences in Syria.
"Syria has not improved its behavior," Ros-Lehtinen said. "It's become more of a problem in that volatile region."
Former National Security Council official Daniel Benjamin, now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., cautioned that the United States has "limited options" for dealing with the three groups.
One possible outcome will be "fewer calls for restraint" on the part of the Israelis, who will be seen as fighting the war on terror in its own backyard.
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© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. | ||||||||||
