Volume CXXXIII, Number 19 March 29, 2002 f

Israel and the world's need for peace
TODD BUELL

At the beginning of Spring Break, I was moved by a photograph on the front page of The New York Times. It displayed the aftermath of a suicide bombing in a posh neighborhood in Jerusalem. I viewed the shocked and forlorn faces of young Israelis, roughly the same age as most of us, as people attempted to make sense of another senseless and random act of violence. Seeing these seemingly helpless expressions touched me because, at that moment, they symbolized the prospects for peace; stalled and breeding only death and destruction on both sides.

Nearly three weeks later, there has been little progress. Just last Wednesday, 15 Israelis died in a suicide bombing as they celebrated the Passover Seder. Despite the efforts of American special envoy General Anthony Zinni, it is unlikely that a formal peace deal will be reached. The only hope is that America's involvement in the region will mollify extreme actions on both sides of the dispute. Additionally, the Arab League has endorsed a Saudi peace plan that would grant Israel "normal relations" in exchange for an Israeli pullback to the pre-1967 borders. Israel has also withdrawn some troops from Palestinian refugee camps, but is talking about making more serious invasions if the suicide bombers do not cease their indefensible attacks.

America finds herself in a diplomatically difficult position. On one hand, Israel has a right to take preventive actions to defend itself against future terrorist bombings. However, the large numbers of women and children killed in Israeli raids rightfully disturbs us. President Bush declared those Israeli actions "not helpful" earlier this month, and America is seeking to garner Arab support for an attack on Iraq. Arab leaders are understandably reluctant to give such support while there is still daily violence in Israel.

Some American commentators are equating Israel's war with the Palestinians to our own war on terrorism. George Will said on ABC's "This Week" on March 17 that the PLO wants to end Israel's existence. He cited evidence that the first suicide bombing took place in 1965, two years before the current borders were established. William Bennett wrote in the March 20 Washington Post that "...America and Israel's fates are one in the same." He went on to say that both countries are democracies that respect basic human rights and both have a fundamental right to self-defense against those who "rule by bullets rather than ballots."

In many respects, both Will and Bennett are correct. The level of anti-Semitism in many Arab newspapers and schools makes one wonder how seriously some Arab countries, or their populations, would take a formalized declaration of "recognition," "cease fire," or "peace process."

However, in a New York Times Op-Ed piece on March 10, Thomas Friedman explains the necessity of at least attempting a peace process. He mentions three reasons why an "unrelenting" Israeli policy toward the Palestinians is a sure recipe for disaster: Israel's numerous Arab neighbors, a "baby boom" of young Arabs, and the influx of satellite TV that propagates hateful messages from Osama Bin Laden and other radicals. Friedman's article cites as an example an Egyptian student who told his professor that "eight small, suitcase-sized nuclear bombs" could end the problem of Israel.
When young, singularly focused terrorists begin discussing weapons of mass destruction in a tone that is beyond hypothetical, the civilized world must take notice. Though it is true that we cannot acquiesce to terrorists, we also cannot provoke them to manifest their most sinister dreams.

Friedman concludes his piece by saying that if Israel's "uncompromising view becomes dominant in Israel and among American Jews…the country is doomed. Because there are so many more Muslims than Jews to be killed, and weapons of mass destruction are becoming so much smaller and so much cheaper, it won't be long before the student in my Egyptian friend's story gets one of his eight bombs and wipes Israel off the map."

As long as terrorists like Osama Bin Laden exploit the plight of Palestinians to advance their destructive agendas, peace in Israel and in the West will be inextricably linked. Therefore it is time for leaders on both sides of the conflict to dampen down their inflammatory rhetoric and reach a peace agreement. It may not stop all the bombings and attacks, but it is an essential step in the right direction in that it may get previously recalcitrant governments to take positive steps against terrorism. If anything, the events of the last six months have taught us that it is not just the fate of the Middle East, but also the fate of the civilized world that hangs in the balance.