By: Tashbih Sayyed
There are always four players in any conflict; the aggressor, its partners, the victim and the facilitators of aggression. The Middle East conflict presents the best example of the four. The Palestinians are aggressors, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and other Arab countries are their partners, the U.S., Israel and most of the democratic world are the victims and the organizations like European Union, United Nations, countries like France, and Germany and left leaning groups and liberal minded individuals, who believe that the best way to solve the Middle East conflict is to appease the Arabs and condemn the victim are the facilitators of aggression.
In my view, the way to peace in the Middle East, is not in appeasing the Arab demands or condemning the acts of self defense of Israel but in finding the ways to stop the countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria from facilitating the terror by funding, sponsoring and encouraging terrorist groups like Hamas. Also, I do not see any possibility of a peace in the Middle East, in near future, so long as; the United Nations finds itself in bondage of undemocratic states. Since most of the Muslim states, represent radical Islamist agenda, they will continue to use the UN to support and back Hamas, Hezbollah, martyrs Brigades and their likes. In such a situation, the victim has no choice but to act alone in self defense.
When a tragedy occurs, peoples, instinctively start looking for the causes of the tragedy. They often end up assigning the responsibility to the one found holding the gun. But a conclusion reached on the basis of the obvious is generally wrong and becomes the part of the problem instead of a solution.
For example, whenever Israel tries to protect its citizens either by launching a pre-emptive strike against its sworn enemies or retaliates against the sources of terrorism or acts in self defense by eliminating the leadership that incites, exhorts, plans and perpetrates aggression, the myopic appeasers of aggression find it easy and expedient to criticize Israel. They deliberately ignore the compulsions that forces Israel to act. For Israel, it always comes down to making a choice between death and defense. It is high time that the appeasers should discard such a naïve strategy and act responsibly. Because unless, the civilized world takes it upon itself to find, punish and condemn the real culprits, the world will remain at the mercy of terrorists.
If the civilized world would have recognized its responsibility and acted in real terms to stop countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria from funding the radical Islamists and Palestinian terrorists, Israel would not have been forced to kill the instigators of terror. If the international bodies like the European Union and the United Nations would have acted in time to uphold their charters, there would not have been any need to kill Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Rantissi.
The harbingers of terror have always acted in plain view of the world and yet the world always chose to look the other way. When Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was issuing threats, no body raised a finger to stop him. And when Rantisi declared that he will not sit in peace until every Israeli is dead none of the appeasers thought it fit to act to show their disapproval. And now when Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal is once again exhorting the Arab and Muslim states to join hands to destroy the United States of America and Israel, there is a total silence - a silence that will only break when the victim or the designated victim will react or act to pre-empt it.
Khaled Meshaal on April 19, called for an Arab and Muslim alliance to defeat the United States and Israel. He told hundreds of people at the al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus, "Our battle is with two sides, one of them is the strongest power in the world, the United States, and the second is the strongest power in the region (Israel)."
He said, "That is the caliber of the battle. We will not be victorious unless the other side of the battle is Arab and Muslim. All of the Arabs and Muslims." The Hamas politburo chief vowed Palestinians would "turn Earth on their heads, God willing."
Khaled Meshaal urged the leaders of 52 Arab and non-Arab Muslim countries to "make an alliance, even a temporary one...to combine capabilities against the enemy." He pointed out, "The problem is in us and not in the balance of power...if the (Islamic) nation would fight the same way (Palestinians and Iraqis) are fighting in Rafah, Jenin and Falluja then by God we will defeat both the United States and Israel." Arab and Muslim people "have a great duty and I do not want to tell them what to do... God will ask Arabs and Muslims what are they doing while the sons of Palestine are doing their duties," he said.
The failure of the United Nations to act in defense of its mission and the tendency of the European Union to allow it to be driven by short term selfish policies of funding the terrorist organizations to gain favors of the Arab investors has pushed this world on the brink of another holocaust. In real terms, it is the European Union and the United nations that must be blamed for the killings of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's and ' Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi.
The world should have listened to the US National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, who had urged the European Union and Arab countries to block all funds to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups, as far back as in June 2003. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria should have been condemned for encouraging Hamas, Hezbollah, Martyrs Brigade and others. A US court had ruled in September, 2003, that Iran must pay more than 420 million dollars to 12 US victims of a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem carried out by the Iran-supported Palestinian militant group Hamas.
According to an AFP report, the court awarded 123.34 million dollars for physical and emotional damages to the plaintiffs, four of whom were not present at the bombing but whose relatives were affected, and 300 million dollars in punitive damages against the government of Iran. In its ruling issued September 10, the court said it arrived at a "default judgment" since the defendants—the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS) and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards—failed to attend a January hearing.
The case stemmed from the September 4, 1997 suicide bombing at the Ben Yehuda Street pedestrian mall in Jerusalem that killed five people and wounded nearly 200 others, including eight of the plaintiffs who filed two separate lawsuits in 2000 and 2001 which the court later consolidated. Three suicide bombers—each carrying bombs "with nails, screws, pieces of glass and chemical poisons,"—were involved in the blast. Two Hamas operatives were arrested and convicted in the attack. The court, based on past court rulings in similar cases, concluded that Hamas "has a close relationship with Iran" and that "Iran provides ongoing terrorist training and economic assistance to Hamas." Experts at the hearing testified that Iran's MOIS "spends between 50 million and 100 million dollars a year sponsoring terrorist activities of various organizations such as Hamas"—up to 25 percent of its annual budget.
David Aufhauser, U.S. Treasury department's general counsel, said in September 24 testimony before a House of Representatives Financial Services subcommittee that blocking the flow of money to terrorists may be one of the best ways to stop terror altogether. But making progress in the fight against terrorist financing is difficult without international cooperation because the "overwhelming" bulk of terrorist assets reside and flow beyond U.S. borders.
Aufhauser said that while the Bush administration has been successful in securing international cooperation to restrict the flow of funds to al-Qa'ida and other
Islamic terrorist organizations, it has been less so in its attempts to interdict the funds flowing to a Palestinian terrorist organization, HAMAS. "Many of our actions ... have dramatic impact only when we can convince the rest of the world to act with us," he said.
Aufhauser cited the distinction made by some countries, including European and Persian Gulf nations, between the political/social and military wings of HAMAS as a major obstacle in financial actions against the organization.
He said that as much as half of HAMAS' income is obtained from the Persian Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia—according to sources he did not identify—despite a May 2002 decree ending official Saudi support for the group.
U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens/L.I.) on September 24, 2003, challenged the Bush Administration to confront Saudi Arabia over its continued unwillingness to block the transfer of funds to the Palestinian terrorist group HAMAS. Ackerman, speaking at a hearing of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, warned Administration officials that failure to stop Saudi funds from reaching HAMAS could obstruct U.S. efforts to settle the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Ackerman, who is also the top Democrat on the House International Relations Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, pressed officials from the Treasury and State Departments to justify the Bush Administration's failure to use all the political, legal and diplomatic tools at their disposal to block financial support from going from Saudi Arabia to HAMAS, and to punish Syria for its support of Hezbollah.
Observing that Saudi pressure on the Bush Administration had helped to stimulate the now dormant "Roadmap" peace plan, the Congressman asked why the Administration had failed to insist that Riyadh completely cut-off HAMAS as a precondition for the Administration's peace initiative.
Noting that he had met with the Saudi Crown Prince only weeks before the September 11th terrorist attacks, Ackerman pointed out that "the very top of the Saudi government recognizes that Palestinian terrorism not only destabilizes the region, but legitimizes the methods of al-Qaeda with Saudi Arabia."
"Despite this understanding, the Saudi government has continued to act as though contributions to HAMAS have had no other effect besides assisting genuinely needy Palestinians."
Ackerman added, "Nothing, of course could be further from the truth. The idea that HAMAS can be neatly segmented into parts which are safe and parts which are unsafe is ludicrous. HAMAS is a terrorist organization, overtly committed to wiping out the State of Israel through the use of indiscriminate violence."
Describing HAMAS as "a political tumor which threatens the entire Palestinian body politic," Ackerman concluded "Support for HAMAS is, by definition, harm to legitimate Palestinian aspirations."
This establishes beyond any doubt that the support provided by countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria has contributed in the evolution of terrorism in the region, forcing Israel to eliminate the threat by whatever means it can muster. The real murderers of innocent Israelis are these states without whose active support the Palestinians would not have been able to kill. The blame for the killing of Yassin and Rantisi should be placed at the door steps of these states not Israel.
Whenever a homicide bomber killed and maimed innocent Israeli citizens by exploding himself or herself in a total disregard of human values, nobody was surprised. Everyone was aware that the homicide bombers representing Hamas, Hezbollah, Martyr's Brigades and their likes are just following their constitution that has a declared objective of destroying the state of Israel and killing every Israeli.
The awareness and knowledge of Palestinian state of mind, prepared the world to expect the worst in terms of Palestinian terrorism. But Saudi Arabia, continued to fund these terrorists. Iran persevered in its strategy of backing Hezbollah and Syria remained adamant in providing shelter, protecting supply routs and expressing solidarity with the anti-U.S. state of mind.
Everybody knows that Hamas wants to establish a radical Islamist state on all of historic Palestine, leaving no room for the state of Israel. But no one does anything to force these sworn enemies of civilization to close their shops. Encouraged by this tacit and not so tacit support, Hamas, unleashed a deadly campaign of driving Jews from the region. Taking advantage of the already hate filled social environment; Hamas was able to become a grass-roots organization - with a political and a military wing. It succeeded in recruiting tens of thousands of supporters and sympathizers.
According to BBC, up to 40,000 people rallied in Gaza in December 2002 to mark Hamas's 15th anniversary where they heard the now assassinated group's leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, predict Israel's destruction by the year 2025. He declared, "The march of martyrs will move forward... Resistance will move forward. Jihad will continue, and martyrdom operations will continue until the full liberation of Palestine."
Neutral observers wonder as to why the United Nations and the European Union has never thought it appropriate to express their disapproval of such an open threat to a people. They say that in the absence of any condemnation of terrorist threats to Israel's existence and its citizen's lives, Israel has no choice but to act unilaterally.
On the other hand, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations have benefited tremendously by Saudi Arabia's unflinching support for radical Islam. Palestinian terrorist groups and latent anti-US aspirations, Iran's agenda of weakening and hurting the interests of open societies everywhere and Syria's ambitions to establish itself as the main power broker in the region by undermining democratic state has empowered the anti-US ethos. The world has to recognize that all these states share a yearning to destroy the state of Israel as they believe that without destroying Israel they can never stop the democratic trends in the region.
Neutral observers have noted with concern the vital role European Union's financial support has played in encouraging Hamas terrorism in the Middle East. Many experts believe that the domination of the United Nations by the undemocratic states, especially the Arab and Muslim totalitarian regimes has made it impossible for the peaceful nations to play their role in discouraging terrorism in the region. Old Europe's greed for oil and Arab investment has made it forget the lessons learned between the two world wars.
Driven by a desire to undermine the U.S. they are persistently ignoring the threats of Plastinization.
What they refuse to see is the immanency of the ultimate fragmentation along the sectarian and ethnic lines, if they fail to prevent the radical Islamism from taking hold of their societies. France, Germany and Great Britain are already experiencing the dilemma of how to deal with growing influence of Islamism. And the close proximity of radical Islamism to Spain has already shown what it is capable of.
Aware of the threats, the terrorist organization pose to the civilized world, the neutral observers do not find anything wrong or strange in Israeli acts of self defense. They find no justification in criticizing Israeli actions that in many cases resulted in the deaths of Palestinian civilians. They are convinced that the killing of the Hamas leader was justified because he had openly supported and encouraged suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians. And there were indications that Mr. Rantissi was planning a large attack on Israel to consolidate his leadership of Hamas after the killing of Sheikh Yassin.
In view of the proposed Israeli pullout from Gaza, it has become much more vital to curb the Hamas control over the Palestinians. Otherwise, Gaza will definitely become the most potent base of radical Islam. Observers believe that Hamas will move quickly and easily to fill any power vacuum left by an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza given the scope and depth of its support from rank-and-file Palestinians. From Gaza it will launch its terrorist attacks and will work to destabilize the whole region.
The United States understands the situation. That's why it said it wants the militant Palestinian group Hamas shut down and prevented from playing any role in the Gaza after Israel withdraws from the territory.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We're looking for people to put Hamas out of business." He said. "The Gaza pullout is going to go more smoothly and be more successful if Hamas is not around at all."
There should not be any doubt that the radical Islam is waging a war against democracies and civilized values.
Hamas, Hezbollah, Martyrs Brigade, Al-Qaeda etc. represent different battle grounds in this war and the countries, international bodies and human rights organizations that think that by appeasing terror they can keep the flames of this war from scorching their homes should look at what happened in Madrid, Bali, New York, Washington and what happens on a daily basis on the streets of Israel. Instead of siding with Hamas they should align themselves with justice.
(The writer is editor-in-chief of Pakistan Today and Muslim World Today, California-based weekly newspapers, president of Council for Democracy and Tolerance and adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute.)
