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August 24, 2001/Elul 5, 5761, Vol. 53, No.46
George, do it!EditorialIt's time for the United States to stand up and stand down the Palestinians.No more mealy-mouthed moral equivalency. No more double-talk about a "cycle of violence." It's time for the United States to take the high ground, to assert moral authority. It's time for us to tell the world that blowing up innocent men, women and children on Israel's streets is morally reprehensible and must stop. Now. Words are just words, talk just talk. Yet words have innate power to move, to provoke, to mobilize. And when used by the right people in the right places, especially those in high places, they can impel change. This is not a time for the United States to equivocate, to dodge, to waffle. It is not a time for Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Bush to couch the U.S. position in politically correct euphemisms and limp slaps on the wrist. It is not a time to fail to express unequivocal public condemnation of terrorist acts. That said, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not even on the agenda for next week's talks in Washington between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. State Department officials hedge, saying some topics are for public airing and others consigned to private channels. And despite Sharon's commitment to defer peace talks until the violence ends, there is nothing to stop our president from using the prime-time press coverage the talks will ensue to express American outrage. Talks may also be in the offing in Berlin between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. The irony that the meeting will be mediated by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is obvious to many Jews, particularly with memories longer than 50 years. Germany's hosting the occasion further smacks of a disappointing let-Joschka-do-it attitude, revealing a Bush administration hoarding its own diplomatic and political capital while others step up to the plate. It's time for America to show what it means to be a world power, registering our denunciation loudly and clearly. That's what leaders do. That's what George should do. |
