By: Tashbih Sayyed, Ph. D.
Good news appears to be on the horizon for the global jihad. Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is ready to throw in the towel. He is determined to relinquish the historical Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria in order to appease those who are faith-bound to destroy the Jewish state of Israel. Of great significance, the Arabs are achieving their long-awaited goal of gradually reducing Israel to nonexistence. It is remarkable that they are accomplishing this without as much as a promise of formally ending terrorist activities in addition to their continued refusal to even recognize the state of Israel. Moreover, they will be able to keep their primary goal alive, the destruction of the "Zionist entity" and the acquisition of all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Olmert plan could not have come at a better time for the Hamas and their ilk. It has confirmed the belief reigning supreme in the Muslim Street that Judeo-Christianity is on the retreat. The global jihad is riding a crest of successes on all fronts of their war against the Zionists and the Crusaders.
The Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has gained significant momentum and territory; they are now confident of recapturing the capital, Kabul in the very near future. Schools are being attacked, women are being harassed and government authorities are being murdered on a daily basis.
Al Qaeda, its allies in Pakistan and the Jihadis have already succeeded in establishing a Khilafah (Caliphate) in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan where they have imposed very rigid and strict Wahhabi laws. Anybody who dares to disagree with the Wahhabi clerical establishment is lynched publicly. Dead bodies of those who have challenged the Wahhabi clerical domination have been dragged through the streets and then left to rot.
In Bangladesh, radical Islamists are in full control of the Administration and the Judiciary. In the capital city of Dhaka, the government finds it very difficult to function without the cooperation of the Islamist political parties.
Iran has unequivocally become the ultimate symbol of anti-Semitism and a source of power and inspiration to the global jihad. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become the supreme provocateur of the global jihad.
Recent developments in Turkey - the murder of a secular judge by a soldier of Allah and the Islamist Prime Minister of Turkey's open support for Islamist activism-has accentuated the duplicitous grasp and depth of jihad.
With Aiyan Hirsi Ali's departure from the Netherlands, the march of radical Islam in continental Europe and the United Kingdom has conquered new ground.
These Islamist gains in the global jihad have helped establish the creation of a psychological environment of invincibility in the radical Islamist world. Arabs in Palestine have never been so confident of their success. Olmert's "Convergence" plan, which is in reality is an expulsion plan, has further consolidated the belief that their campaign to destroy Israel is moving in the right direction. There is a feeling of euphoria among the radical Islamists that terrorism, which they call legitimate resistance against the "occupation" has clearly succeeded in achieving its intended goal - breaking the Israeli will.
Firstly, Olmert's Convergence plan will, without doubt, help Arabs and radical Islamists in a myriad of ways. In my view, the most significant consequence of this plan will be the emergence of the Arab fifth column inside Israel. Convinced that their brothers on the other side of the fence are winning, many Arabs in Israel will work fearlessly to subvert the Israeli society. Such a conviction will serve to encourage and facilitate an escalation of terrorism against all Israelis.
Secondly, the plan will sow the seeds of discord within the Israeli society. The Israelis uprooted from the lands that were rightfully theirs, will form a very powerful block of citizens who will be distrustful of any peace plan. Such distrust will remain the cause of destabilization for a very long time.
Thirdly, giving away the Jewish lands which were regained after thousands of years of Jewish sacrifices will dishearten Israeli citizens, officers and soldiers of the IDF. It will amount to the dishonor of the many Israelis who perished as a result of years of Arab aggression and terrorism. It will demoralize the core of the Israeli defense forces, discouraging them from offering themselves for elite duties. In fact, many in the IDF have requested not be a part of the latest expulsion plan.
Olmert's plan ignores the fact that not a single inch of Israeli territory has been regained without extraordinarily painful concessions. Jews have paid in blood to control what was rightfully theirs to begin with. To relinquish this hard-earned land to the enemy is a betrayal of the highest level. It creates the perception that the Israelis themselves, do not consider Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem Jewish enough to hold on to it.
Most people realize that the Arabs do not want peace with Israel; they want Israel's complete and utter destruction. This is the only explanation as to why they launched an unrelenting campaign of terror against the Jewish state instead of accepting the Camp David summit in 2000, which promised them the entire Gaza Strip and 91 percent of the West Bank in exchange for full recognition of Israel and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Anyone with knowledge of the Islamist mindset would acknowledge that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Convergence plan will only serve to empower the Islamist terrorists. The Arabs will gain control over the entire Gaza Strip, the West Bank and a portion of Jerusalem without recognizing Israel, and without putting an end to the ongoing terrorist attacks.
Olmert's Convergence plan will be a victory for Hamas's strategy of waging a war of terror. It will allow Hamas to obtain a full strategic resolution against the state of Israel. The radical Arabs will view this plan as an invitation to continue their work toward the elimination of the Jewish State.
The consequence of Sharon's plan that gave the Arabs a chance to prove to the world that they sincerely wanted to live in peace, side by side with Israel resulted in destruction, anarchy, weapons smuggling, a porous Egyptian border, massive infiltration and daily rockets into Israel.
The Gaza and northern Samaria disengagement was seen by the Arabs as a reward for their terrorist campaign and resulted in the Hamas victory in the elections. Olmert's Convergence plan will also reinforce the radical belief that homicide bombings work. A Palestinian state established on the foundation that terror wins will be an armed and militant anti-Semitic state.
With Olmert's Convergence plan, Palestinians have not been asked to give up any of their demands - Right of return for refugees, acceptance of the right of the Jewish people to their historical lands and the recognition of the state of Israel - The Palestinian leadership will be able to recruit many more homicide bombers to realize the radical Islamist goal of wiping the Jewish State off the map totally and completely.
Olmert's plan will further undermine U.S. efforts to establish democracy in the region by laying the foundation for an undemocratic, fascist Islamist state that will devote itself to the destruction of the only working democracy in the Middle East - Israel. A Palestinian state will destroy all chances of a permanent regional stability. An Islamist state that causes the subjugation of Zionism will naturally become an inspiration for the radical Islamists in countries like Iran, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunis, Morocco and Algeria. Olmert's plan will lead to a destabilization of the Middle East, pose a serious threat to Jordan and threaten US interests throughout the Arab world. It will, without doubt, create a large, terrorist infrastructure in a region where we are trying to achieve peace.
The convergence plan involves an Israeli pullout from 90 to 95 percent of the West Bank and from several neighborhoods in Jerusalem by the end of 2007. Under this plan, almost 100,000 Israeli civilians will be expelled from their homes in the West Bank, 50 to 100 Israeli towns and villages in the area will be destroyed.
Israeli military forces will be withdrawn to garrisoned locations in proximity to Israel's security barrier which will encompass the remaining 5 to10 percent of the West Bank territory located along the 1949 armistice lines that constituted Israel's national boundaries until 1967. This will be a disaster for Israel in security terms. The removal of Jews from the West Bank will certainly expose the heart of the country to many future enemy attacks.
It is exceedingly difficult to view this plan as a convergence, since the definition of convergence is the process of coming together, or the state of having come together toward a common point. Based on the underlying concepts of this plan, it is likely that the only convergence will be one of terror, not one of coming together in peace. Appeasement didn't work in Gaza and it will not work in the West Bank.
(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.)
(Thanks to Margo Itskowitch for her contributions to this article)
