So let us see if we can sum things up. It is the position of the world that the only acceptable manner in which Israel should be permitted to deal with nazi terrorists is through agreeing to their demands and through appeasing them. The Israeli Left, led by Meretz and the Labor Party and Haaretz and the rest of the media, entirely agree.

Moreover, the world insists there should be a distinction between natural and unnatural political behavior in the Middle East. The "natural" state of affairs is for Arabs to murder Jewish children indiscriminately and to conduct mass murders of civilians. The world will of course click its tongue in sympathy after each one, while noting carefully how Israeli obstinacy and insensitivity, not to mention settlement building, are the underlying causes of Arab barbarism. Then, if Israel responds to the atrocities by killing someone associated with their perpetration, this is unnatural. It needs be condemned in no uncertain terms as an act of Israeli nazi barbarism and war-seeking. It violates the natural order of things, whereby Jews sit back and allow themselves to be butchered while seeking to deter the murderers through appeasement.

Last night, the PLO fired mortar shells into the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. One shell hit a school and one landed on the roof of a daycare center for children. The reaction of the US State Department was to demand that Israel remove those checkpoints and positions it has set up inside "PLO territory" in the villages next to Gilo. Now the fact that the mortars were fired even AFTER the Israeli tanks had entered Beit Jalah proves that the tanks did not enter far enough nor take over enough of the "PLO territory" to prevent the mortar atrocities of the PLO. One might expect the State Department to demand that Israel move FURTHER into PLO territory to stop the shelling of Jerusalem. I mean, let us recall how Reagan responded to a single Libyan bomb aimed at US GI’s in Germany!

But you see, THAT would be unnatural. The State Department did not even condition its calls on Israel to retreat from "PLO lands" upon a seven day total-tranquility period, of the sort Sharon is demanding before implementing the Mitchell Appeasements Accord. After all, total tranquility where the PLO and its front groups are not murdering Jews would be unnatural. The anti-Jewish newspaper Haaretz’ leftist spin doctors are insisting that Arafat is TRYING to get the shooters of the mortars to stop but he cannot cause they are so darned angry at the Jews, and besides not shooting mortars at Jews would be unnatural. The solution is to seek talks and a "deal" with the PLO to stop the mortars, after the signing of which the mortars will of course be fired continuously. And besides, Jerusalem is holy for the Palestinians which is why they feel they have to fire mortars at children in it and set off car bombs therein. And to top things off, the BBC ran its evening justification of the natural murders of Jews by Palestinians, referring to Gilo as an illegal Jewish settlement on Palestinian lands.

Now, since George W. and Unc Colin seem determined to restore things and get Israeli troops out of Beit Jalah so that the PLO can resume the natural serious business of firing at Jerusalem children with no disturbances, it occurred to me that the least Sharon can do is condition any withdrawal from Beit Jalah on proper terms. The terms should be that if, after Israel withdraws from Beit Jalah on the weight of US State Department assurances that no mortars will be fired into Jerusalem any more, then each time the PLO DOES fire a mortar or gun into Jerusalem, the US military must be obliged to fire the same ordinance immediately into Georgetown in Washington, DC. (Georgetown is where all those Congressmen and senior bureaucrats live.) Then we shall see if the Arabists at the State Department still think that the proper response to atrocities in one’s Capital should be seeking to resume talks.

Meanwhile, with each passing day, it becomes more and more clear that there does not exist any alternative for resolving the current situation other than R&D - Re-Occupation and Denazification. EVERY other alternative is wishful thinking and delusional. As long as a single acre of land is under PLO control and holding PLO stormtroopers, it will be used to fire mortars, rockets, bombs and send out murderers and bombers to attack Jews. It will continue until the PLO presence is eliminated altogether.

The idea that leaving Arafat alive serves some sort of purpose is absurd. Sharon is kidding himself that after sufficient shows of force, Arafat will conduct negotiations in good faith.

Killing Arafat would make it clear to all, and most important to Israelis, that there is no PLO "Oslo Option". The only feasible option is to deal with the PLO the same way Sharon dealt with it in Lebanon in 1982. Olso must be taken off the table once and for all and killing Arafat would do so. One of Sharon’s mistakes in 1982 was in NOT killing Arafat. (At one point an Israeli sniper had Arafat in his sites in 1982 and was ordered to let him go, no doubt in the hope that he would evolve into a nice peace partner.)

True Sharon has begun to show some common sense, especially in his assassination campaign against Palestinian nazis, including the Deactivation of the "Activist" (in BBC lingo) head of the PFLP this week. But it is too little and too late. The time has come to take the "ass" out of assassination and do the job right! When Israel "returns fire to the source of the Palestinian fire", this must mean Arafat himself.

Finally, on a minor note, Haaretz, the informmercial of anti-Jewish extremist leftists disguised as a newspaper, today carried a headline in its book review section "The Crimes of a Nobel Prize Winner". What, thinketh I in naivete, Haaretz is attacking the Palestinian Fuhrer or maybe his Israeli spin doctor Shimon Peres?

Well, as it turns out, the article is an attack on Henry Kissinger. It is an enthusiastic review of a new book by Christopher Hitchens on Kissinger, naturally calling Kissinger all sorts of names. The reviewer of the book is Israeli Far-Leftist Yosef Algazi, who heads a communist-front organization for peace funded by the New Israel Fund. He practically wets himself in his love of the book.

Only one itsy-bitsy problem with all this. Christopher Hitchens, the author HAARETZ so loves, is one of the planet’s leading Holocaust Deniers and groupie of David Irving, not to mention someone who makes no secret of his desire to see Israel eliminated, a fact never mentioned in the review nor something Haaretz editors think is worth noting.

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission