[(Continued from p.11)]
which have weakened and harmed Israel irreparably while ignoring the real threats to America, and, in fact, the entire Western world.We wish President Bush every success.
Some American legislators are obsessed with what they, and a large segment of the public, refer to as "hate" crimes -- those committed against an individual or group based on racism and bigotry. This is silly, since all crimes are really "hate" crimes, and all violators should be effectively and summarily punished.
In Israel, they have a different category...those crimes committed against innocent civilians by murderous thugs who have been emboldened by the surrender of Oslo. These injuries and deaths caused by murderers and terrorists hell bent on the destruction of Israel, have elicited only what our friend Steve Plaut calls a "limp wrist."
The perpetrators are Israel's so-called negotiating partners, and the victims have been called casualties of "peace." That's positively Orwellian. These crimes are "peace crimes" perpetrated by implacable enemies against innocent civilians while effete legislators, journalists, and "intellectuals" continue to refer to this outrage as a "peace process."
Successive American administrations have differed in style and substance on their respective approach to international crises. The only constant has been an obsession with the Israel-Arab conflict, fueled by the delusion that a "peace agreement" between Israel and the Arabs will be the ultimate jewel in the crown of policy. Each president has sought to put a personal imprimatur on what originated as the "Rogers Plan" -- the conviction that a return of territories by Israel would placate her enemies.
An examination of the history of the region will disclose that not one single signed agreement, armistice, cease-fire, or accord, either between Israel, or among the Arab nations has been respected and sustained. As Donald Rumsfeld, our putative secretary of defense has said, "weakness is a provocation" and nowhere is this more evident than among the Arab nations.
The problem is that the demands for Israeli concessions continue to be ratcheted up, while the demands on the Arabs are muted and disregard the flagrant violations of all existing agreements. With the exception of Israel, thugs and dictators run every single state in the Middle East where abuse and terror against their own populations is systematic and routine. And, successive American administrations have been supplicants to these dictators, at the same time that they have bullied Israel. This, of course, has been made even more complicated by the compliance of Israel itself in policies that are suicidal.
We earnestly hope that the incoming administration will conduct a serious reassessment of our failed and ruinous policies with respect to the Israel-Arab conflict.
Ruth King is a member of the executive committee of Americans For a Safe Israel.
Americans For a Safe Israel
1623 Third Ave. (at 92nd St.) - Suite 205
New York, NY 10128
Outpost - 12 - January 2001