|
|
By Bruce S. Ticker
March 2, 2004
It is approaching two years since the great Jenin "massacre." The "apartheid wall" is on trial and on Ash Wednesday Israel committed the notorious Ramallah "armed robbery." Of course, these are terms dubbed by Arabs and their supporters.
Just what do these events have in common? These are the kinds of situations which prod the Arabs to scream the loudest. These are also the very kinds of situations where they are at their most vulnerable. Coincidence?
That the extremists and their supporters are crying most over such matters should send a message to Israelis: They have touched a nerve with the terrorists. These guys are scared.
Of course, there was never a massacre at Jenin. The most significant achievement of the raid on Jenin was exposure of an extensive terrorist lair right under the nose of a United Nations agency which operated the refugee camp at Jenin.
The incursion proved that the terrorists are well organized and obviously have financial access to sources with deep pockets. All the while, the UN tolerated this conduct because the agency there was not even reporting the terrorist activity to the UN.
The Arabs called the raid a massacre before the facts emerged and many people still believed the terrorists.
Who can blame the extremists? Breaking up a terrorist camp interferes with their murder spree.
The barrier separating Israel proper from the West Bank for which the World Court at the Hague is sitting in judgment will devastate the West Bank Arabs without firing a shot should Israel ever decide to make the barrier permanent to separate itself from the Arabs.
First, it will minimize the level of terrorism. If they cannot fight the Israelis, they will be left to fight each other, which is likely to happen because extremists want to run things.
More important, it will starve the Arabs. How can they possibly conduct business? They are landlocked. The West Bank borders only Israel proper and Jordan. Prince Zeid al-Hussein of Jordan buttressed this prospect when he told the World Court that "with the exception of the Palestinians themselves, we feel we Jordanians are the ones who could be most affected by Israel's decision to place the wall where it has and where it intends to do so in the near future."
An Associated Press report explained that the Jordanian government fears West Bank Arabs will be so hardpressed that they will flee into Jordan, and then strain Jordan's resources and upset its delicate demographic balance.
Yes, Arabs are concerned about the route of the barrier through the West Bank, but my educated guess is that they would protest the barrier anyway for the reasons cited above. Terrorists and their supporters are probably overjoyed that the government extended the barrier to the West Bank so they would not need to argue their real objections.
And on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, Israeli forces seized $6.7 million and $8.9 million from three West Bank banks which Israel claimed is intended to finance terrorism, the Associated Press reported.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei declared, "It's like the Mafia." Qurei does not endear himself to Italian nationals and Italians in the United States when he employs that term. Out of respect alone for my Italian friends, I use the word "Mob" when referring to organized crime.
All the same, Qureia should be plenty familiar with organized crime. If he does not engage in it himself, he has so far been incapable of controlling it considering how Yasser Arafat and his underlings have possibly diverted as much as $1 billion for their own mysterious uses. How can Israel trust Qurei, no matter how well intentioned, to ensure that no money is funneled to terrorists?
If we must use the term "Mafia," Qurei's associates in the Palestinian Authority are continuing a long tradition that transcends ethnic groups. Not only was there the Mafia (read: Italians) Mafia but also the Jewish Mafia, the black Mafia, the Chinese Mafia, the Hispanic Mafia and so on, but now in Qurei's backyard...
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
