Ok, so let us see if we can sum up where things stand this day before Yom Kippur.

George Bush, the American Administration and the rest of the West have suddenly adopted a new grand strategy based on the old "Good Cop-Bad Cop" routine familiar from every police drama on television.

The difference is that this one is based on "Good Terrorist-Bad Terrorist". According to this, there are certain bad terrorists, like Osama bin Laden, and - if you are British - the IRA. ( If you are American, Puerto Rican terrorists are not only good but downright useful, especially in helping get Hillary elected if Bill releases them all.) To fight these bad terrorists you need to conscript for your cause lots of good terrorists, including Syria, Iran, the Saudis, and of course the PLO. SO never mind that Iran blew up a building full of Argentinian Jews. Never mind Syria’s track record, including massacring 10,000 of its own civilians in Hama, and never mind its running Hizbollah. Never mind the Saudis fund the Islamist Palestinian terror. (You know, Saudi Arabia, where you can be executed for celebrating Christmas.) And never mind that the PLO is the winner of the world’s terror tournament title.

And as part of Good-Terrorist-Bad Terrorist, Israel is expected to parley with the PLO despite the fact that PLO atrocities continue every single day, because the best way to reward terror and encourage it is to meet its demands. And even as the PLO continues to murder Jewish civilians every day, Israel - under US pressure - will meet with the PLO to discuss implementing the Mitchell Commission appeasements, the latest reincarnation of the Munich agreements, in which Israel will reward a year of nonstop PLO atrocities with agreeing to freeze "settlements", including in Jerusalem, whose neighborhoods will be acknowledged by Israel as "settlements".

And then there is the sudden morphing of Ariel Sharon, who seems to have become the new Ehud Barak without all the elocution. Not only did Sharon give an interview this week in which he announced that yes Israel would be happy to give the PLO its own state. He then agreed to forego his demand for a seven day complete tranquility before letting Uncle Shimon run to Munich, exchanging that for a two-day tranquility. When it became obvious that Arafat had no intention of delivering a two-day tranquility, this became a two-day period of significantly reduced violence. And what is a significant reduction in violence? When ONLY a couple of Jewish mothers are murdered. Sharon then congratulates Arafat publicly on "really really" making a serious effort to stop the shooting. And sounds more and more like Yossi Beilin by the hours.

Yeah, sure, of course Arafat is really doing his best.

Meanwhile, the Labor Party First Amendment, also known as the Bibi Netanyahu First Amendment, continues to be practiced by Sharon, under which right-wing Jews must be arrested for incitement, even while Israeli Arabs can cheer on bin Laden, demand that Iraq exterminate all the Jews with chemical weapons, and otherwise express their yearning for peace. Because in the latter case, this is protected speech. Well, it seems a few Kahanist/JDL types in Jerusalem have been passing out leaflets urging that if it is ok to have "continued low-level PLO violence, but at reduced levels" in order to have Israel parley with the PLO, and if Peres insists Israel should give up its silly demand that no talks be held while Jews are under fire, then Peres should volunteer to be the next Jew shot as part of the significantly reduced level of PLO violence. The McCarthyist Attorney General is not amused, and wants the Kahanists rounded up and arrested. And I expect Israel will ask the Bushies to add the Kahanists to the list of bin Laden terrorist organizations whose funds will be frozen.

Meanwhile the Palestinian Authority has been telling everyone how Sharon’s nixing Peres’ pow-wow with His Ugliness last week was a snub and humiliation of Arafat, which is as good a reason as any why such a policy should continue. But no, Sharon has agreed to let Peres meet with Arafat, where the Palestinians will be represented by both Peres and Arafat and Israel will have no representative present. Peres has already announced that his meeting Arafat is "not dependent on the course of events", giving Arafat a green light to go out and kill as many Jews as he pleases this fine morning (Haaretz Sept 26, 01). And yesterday the PLO resumed its mortar shelling of Jews, from its Reichlet in the Gaza Strip, as part of its significantly reduced violence A Palestinian poll published in Haaretz says 85% of the Palestinians support continued violence and atrocities against Jews. Collective punishment for collective guilt anyone?

Meanwhile, the Herald Tribune reports that Reuters has decided to drop the term "terrorist" when referring to the people who destroyed the World Trade Center. You see, Reuters believes one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, and so it wishes to maintain its objectivity and not take a position on the question of whether the attackers of the World Trade Center were heroes or terrorists.

And at the same time the media are reporting that George W. had some business deals with Osama bin Laden’s brother back in Texas in the 1970s.

Could all this be part of some divine plan to show how awful things can really get just before Yom Kippur, to get us all to do our spiritual homework?

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission