Since the road-map was implemented on June 29, 7 people have been killed – a drastic reduction from the rates that were being recorded beforehand. The number of attacks has fallen off as well, though the number of attacks prevented by the IDF has remained steady – in the dozens. The number of attacks prevented by the Palestinian Authority has also remained steady – zero.
Yesterday, the first mass-casualty attacks since the cease-fire took place. Two suicide bombers were driven by the same man to two separate sites. The first exploded in a Rosh Ha’Ayin shopping center. The second exploded an hour later at a bus stop outside Ariel. Two people were killed, and twelve were wounded.
The position of the Bush Administration has long been that the biggest mistake the Clinton Administration made was ignoring the repeated and total Palestinian violations of the Oslo Accords and all the deals that came afterwards. Those violations included mass terror attacks as well as a refusal to end incitement in Palestinian schools and media outlets, the refusal to limit the Palestinian security forces to the numbers prescribed in the Oslo process, and the refusal to confiscate illegal weapons. In short, every major issue discussed and included in the accords was disregarded completely by the Palestinians.
Bush and his advisors readily admitted this failure of American policy, and they were commended for this frank admission by all concerned. When they finally came out with the Road-Map, Ariel Sharon’s government approved it with 14 amendments that were meant to ensure that the same mistake would not take place again. Every step of the Road-Map was to be contingent on the total and absolute fulfillment of the previous steps to everyone’s satisfaction.
The first stage of the Road-Map called for an immediate cease-fire, and this has more or less been the case for 45 days. Until yesterday.
But following yesterday’s attacks, it seems the US administration is back to their old tricks. Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that the Road-Map is still on track, despite the attacks. He even went so far as to warn that peace would not be achieved as long as terrorist attacks continue and Israel retaliates, committing the second gravest mistake of the Clinton Administration: prolonging the fallacy that there is any equivalence between terrorism and defensive measures against terrorists.
State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker sounded a bit more rational in his comments, saying that, "There can be no excuse for the violence and terrorist attacks that the Israeli people have been forced to endure."
As an absolute statement, this is exactly on the mark. Of course, past experience tells us that there will be excuses, and that those excuses will enjoy some attention in Washington and in Europe.
George Bush has a good understanding of what the war on terrorism means. His understanding is perhaps better than that of any president before. But the will to act decisively on that understanding is fast waning. American campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq have not yet had the complete results that were intended – the removal of despotic, terror-supporting regimes, and their replacement with democracy. And terrorism in other countries is still being allowed to run rampant. Attacks continue in Saudi Arabia, the largest state-sponsor of terrorism – Syria – is now the President of the Security Council, and Palestinian terrorism has not ceased for one minute. Through it all, Bush is not prepared to face Syria or the Saudis – or the Palestinians.
US policy makers such as Colin Powell must actually learn the lessons of the past, and not just pay them lip-service. They must hold the Palestinians responsible for every breach of their diplomatic agreements they commit, and punish them accordingly.
Terrorists and those who support them must be made to pay. American policy can ensure this. Instead of ignoring US law in the name of “National Security interests”, President Bush should immediately move the US embassy to Jerusalem. This would show that a proposed Palestinian state built on terrorism – which is in effect what the Road Map calls for – is not a legitimate expression of Arab nationalism. Instead, continued terrorism should invalidate any claim the Palestinians have to a state in Israel.
The biggest lesson of the Clinton Administration is, in fact, that terrorism cannot be allowed to pay any dividends to the terrorists. And this is a lesson George Bush and his team have, unfortunately, not yet internalized.
Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. Yehuda Poch is a journalist living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission of the author only.
