But then, in October 1970, this gang kidnapped two government officials, and murdered one of them. That one attack resulted in the entire state suspending democratic norms and declaring marital law, calling the army out into the streets to maintain order. I wasn’t quite born yet at the time, but in speaking to people who were around in Montreal in 1970, I have been told that they never felt so secure as when they glimpsed army snipers on rooftops overlooking a normally peaceful city. And when a reporter asked the Prime Minister just how far he was willing to go to restore order and defeat the terrorists, Pierre Trudeau responded, “Just watch me!”
In the past 40 years, a gang of terrorists intent on rending the State of Israel apart has engaged in a sustained campaign of terrorism not only in Israel, but throughout the world. The Palestinians have taught the world how to hijack planes and busses. They have turned the kidnapping and murder of government officials into an art form. They have developed a science out of blowing up busses and perpetrating suicide attacks on crowded city streets in Israel, Argentina, Berlin, and other places. Palestinian terrorism makes the FLQ’s campaign look like a Sunday picnic.
For close to 30 of those years, at least some Israeli government officials have sought to appease these terrorists by giving them the independence they supposedly crave. Ehud Barak went so far as to offer them all they ever dreamed of. And the response was a renewal of the violence on a scale heretofore unprecedented.
The violence, which has now lasted more than 14 months, has featured the lynching of IDF troops, drive-by shootings throughout Judea and Samaria, suicide bombings with increasing regularity, and the deaths of over 220 people, including an Israeli cabinet minister. And when I see IDF troops in position anywhere in the country, my first reaction is not one of calm and security, but rather to get away from an obvious target.
One week ago, a series of suicide bombings and shootings claimed the lives of 26 people and injured 224 in a space of 14 hours. Prime Minister Sharon happened to be in the US at the time, and met with President Bush urgently to discuss the situation. Upon Sharon’s return to Israel, it seemed that Bush had agreed to whatever measures Israel saw fit to take in response. Sharon urgently called the cabinet into session, a cabinet that by all media reports was evenly split over the question of whether to eliminate Yasser Arafat, the terrorist mastermind who had been behind the past 40 years of violence.
The result of the cabinet meeting was that Israel has officially declared the Palestinian Authority to be an “entity that sponsors terrorism” – the worst crime imaginable in today’s lexicon. Israelis cheered. Finally, the government was going to get tough about terrorism. How far would Israel go? Well, we are still waiting to find out.
In the five days following Monday night’s cabinet meeting, the IDF has been allowed to blow up a few previously evacuated buildings, bomb a few helicopters belonging to Arafat, and plow under the runway at the Palestinian airport. All the while, Israeli security officials have been meeting their Palestinian counterparts in an effort to bring the violence under control (no one speaks of ending it). Such, apparently, is the way terrorist sponsors are to be dealt with in the new world, just as in the old. Coddle them, preach to them, but don’t even think of seriously attacking them.
Based on this week’s events and declarations, it seems to me that Ariel Sharon, the swashbuckling general who made a career out of winning on the battlefield, is no Pierre Trudeau. When Trudeau was faced with exploding mailboxes and one single murder, he exerted all the force at his disposal and put an absolute end to the terrorism within a couple of weeks. When Sharon is confronted with serious violence, he suffices with causing a few empty buildings to explode.
Neither Sharon nor any other Israeli leader is prepared to adopt the “Just Watch Me” attitude. As a result, we are still watching – and waiting – for some indication that the Israeli government actually perceives terrorism as the evil it is rather than a political nuisance they can virtually ignore.
Copyright 2001. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
