Jewish World Review Dec. 6, 2005 / 5 Kislev, 5766

Time for more than lip service

By Dan Abrams

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Why does it seem so difficult to get the government to take the fight against terrorism seriously right here in the United States?

Today, what was the bipartisan 9-11 Commission issued a final report. And it's bleak, giving the United States more F's than A's in 41 different areas, from the sharing of intelligence by government agencies to the failure to curtail the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The group, now working as a non-profit, says the government has failed to make the necessary changes.

In 2004 President Bush called the Commission's recommendations "constructive." Well, it's time for more than just lip service.

The report was issued on the same day that a suicide bomber tried to attack an Israeli shopping mall. Police said the bomber blew himself up on a line of people going through a security check at the mall's entrance. A guard spotted the bomber and as he approached him, the bomber blew himself up. Five were killed, 35 wounded. No question many, many more would have died if the terrorist had made it inside or targeted an American mall for that matter. There would have been no security line, no customary security check, and likely no guard to notice someone suspicious.

What does one have to do with the other? Well Israel is a lesson in what a nation can do to combat terror. To date, there has never been a successful breach of an Israeli shopping mall by a suicide bomber, despite more than a hundred attempts. And while setting up security checkpoints at shopping malls was not on the 9-11 commission's list of recommendations, many more obvious and basic recommendations were, such as creating one comprehensive no-fly list to keep terror suspects off planes, as opposed to each agency keeping a separate list. Or making sure emergency responders have radio communication capabilities...or allocating homeland security money to states based on actual risk, as opposed to how powerful a state's senators are.

Since 2002, Israel's security measures have prevented 95% of Palestinian terror attacks. And while they have a unique issue, we've been lucky that the attacks of 9-11 have not been repeated. Yet just about everyone agrees that it is not a matter of if but when. Don't let it take another attack on U.S. soil to convince the administration and Congress that preventing terror at home should be priority number one.

The 9-11 Commission was bipartisan for a reason. So people would listen without the roar of politics being heard in the background.