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Jewish World Review June 6, 2001 / 16 Sivan, 5761

Cal Thomas

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A coalition of terror

http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THE suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv night club last Friday night, which killed 19 and injured scores of other mostly young people, is the latest in a continuing strategy to exterminate Israel and eliminate every Jew from the area.

A government communique issued Saturday in response to the attack minced no words: "The government of Israel has determined that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Chairman Arafat are engaged in terrorist activity, encourage it and are inciting hatred and violence. The PA has not only violated its obligations and agreements to fight the terrorist and incitement infrastructure, but its members are themselves engaged in terrorism and incitement. The PA has established in its territory a coalition of terror, and is attempting to disguise it with words of peace as lip service to the international community, while continuing to incite its people to hatred and violence.''

Precisely!

Enough of the excuses for Yasser Arafat's behavior. His condemnations of terror mean nothing because he and his cohorts are behind it. Terror is an instrument of their policy. When former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to meet 95 percent of Arafat's demands, it wasn't enough. When the current Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, unilaterally declared a cease-fire in response to PA shelling of Israeli civilians in late May, the violence continued. People who claim that the Israeli "settlements'' in formerly Palestinian territory are responsible for the violence must explain what caused the violence before the "settlements'' started to appear.

The response from Sharon's government to the latest bombing should be swift and strong. Since nothing Israel does or does not do will persuade Yasser Arafat to make peace or dissuade him from making war, Israel should declare war on Arafat and his terrorist brigade. The assaults on PA military and terrorist positions should be total and relentless. Call it a war of attrition until Arafat has had enough and takes concrete, irreversible steps to stop the violence.

It should now be clear that Israel cannot tolerate a huge Arab population within its borders, so a political decision must be made. Most Arabs and Palestinians appear to be nonviolent but it can be difficult to tell the difference. As Middle East analyst Emanuel Winston (a research associate of the Freeman Center for Strategic Studies in Houston) notes in a recent article: "The terrorists sometimes come in with workers, or the Arab community offers safe houses in Israel to protect the terrorists.''

The Jews have misplaced their faith. Gifted with thinking the best about human potential, Jews have made decisions that too often are not in their interests -- such as allowing mortal enemies to live among them and giving up land seized for their own protection after five wars and numerous terrorist attacks.

Israel should declare its intention to transfer large numbers of its Palestinian residents to Arab nations. This sounds radical until one considers that is precisely what Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have done. After the Palestinians assisted Saddam Hussein in Iraq's invasion of Kuwait during the Gulf War (which Arafat cheered while calling on Hussein to shell Israel), Kuwait forcibly evicted and transferred to Jordan about 300,000 Palestinians, labeling them as traitors and a fifth column. Saudi Arabia also recognized Arafat's betrayal of their Kuwaiti hosts by transferring about 350,000 Palestinians to Jordan.

Those diplomats who regularly denounce Israel for any perceived slight against Palestinians were noticeably silent about these transfers. As Emanuel Winston writes in a another commentary: "No Arab country, other than Jordan, trusts or welcomes Palestinians into its country as citizens. Even the radical Arab nations of Syria (and) Lebanon (under Syrian control), Iraq and Iran keep them segregated in squalid refugee camps, knowing full well their reputation for breaking agreements and conspiring against their host government.''

How quickly we forget "Black September'' in 1970. Arafat tried to overthrow King Hussein of Jordan. Hussein killed thousands and drove Arafat and his Palestinians into Lebanon. Arafat, who had broken numerous agreements by then, began a 12-year reign of terror against Christian and Muslim Lebanese. More than 100,000 Lebanese were murdered. raped and tortured by Arafat's Palestinians.

The current model of "land for peace'' is not working, nor can it work given the objectives of Arafat and Israel's other enemies. Eviction is a better avenue to stability. Will it happen? Probably not. Should it? Yes.

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