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October 26, 2001/Cheshvan 9, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 7
Double standard marks policy
FARLEY WEISS
Special to Jewish News
In announcing the justification for our war against the Taliban, President Bush succinctly stated that we will treat the terrorists and those who harbor the terrorists as being equally guilty and liable to attack. This past week, on an Arab satellite television station, National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice stated that all terrorism is unacceptable.
However, a clear double standard is being applied when it comes to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority itself, which is unquestionably guilty of giving safe haven to terrorists, including the terrorists whom the State Department has implicated in the murder of Americans. There is no administration call stating that unless Arafat turns over the terrorists then the United States will strike. Instead, the administration is making statements in favor of a Palestinian state for the first time.
Just before the original Oslo Accords were signed Sept. 13, 1993, Arafat had sent a letter to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stating that the Palestinian Authority would forgo all terrorism and resolve all disputes at the negotiation table.
However, past actions by Arafat should have made it obvious that Israel should never have signed the Oslo Accords. Around the time of Oslo, Arafat was asked how would he be able to govern the territories even though he had no experience. Arafat replied that he did indeed have experience since he had governed a large portion of Lebanon.
Before Oslo, an Israeli army study found that Arafat had violated all of the approximately 200 international agreements he had signed. It is not surprising that Arafat, who introduced the world to plane hijackings, would continue his terrorist ways and violate his written commitments. As former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said about some Arab leaders, "a murderer can also be a liar."
It is not possible to have a peace agreement that will be kept with Arafat, just as it is not possible to have one with Osama bin Laden. It is Arafat's PA that began the suicide attacks and his media that broadcast praiseworthy stories of the suicide terrorists. It is Arafat who named a square after Ayyash, who was known as the engineer for his expertise in explosives and being primarily responsible for blowing up buses in Israel. It is Arafat who does not have a single textbook which shows any existence of the state of Israel and whose official insignia is a map of Palestine that encompasses the entire state of Israel. It is Arafat who recently at best condoned - and more likely supported - an exhibit in Nablus celebrating the Sbarro Pizza massacre in which the exhibit had replica body parts and blood on the walls.
Dennis Ross, President Clinton's special envoy to the Middle East, now regrets that he did not do more to stop Arafat's incitement. However, Ross does not state that he regrets not pursuing Palestinian Arab terrorists who have murdered Americans.
The Torah says, 'justice, justice shall you pursue.' The famous commentator Rashi stated that justice is repeated to emphasize that justice can only be achieved by pursuing it in a just manner. In other words, the ends do not justify the means.
Instead of supporting a Palestinian state and bringing Iraq another ally, we should be working toward the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, much like we are working toward the dismantling of the Taliban. Any other policy by the Bush administration is a rejection of the fundamental moral foundation of our war against Bin Laden and the Taliban, which is based upon the fundamental principle that those who commit terrorism and those who give safe haven to terrorists are equally guilty. Without a consistent worldwide policy, we may win the initial battles, but we will not win the overall war against terrorism.
Farley Weiss is the national vice president of the Zionist Organization of America and associate vice president of the National Council of Young Israel.
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