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COMMENTARY
October 8, 2003
Cowardice costs
Israel's weekend attack on the Islamic Jihad camp near Damascus was an act of cowardice properly considered. The target was legitimate enough and the best proof of this was the immediate Syrian effort to seal it from journalistic inspection; together with Hizbollah reprisals along the Lebanon frontier. Had the target been the mere hiking trails Syrian propaganda described -- and which liberal media immediately swallowed whole -- it would not have had the kind of fencing and gates around it that at least one enterprising journalist observed. Moreover the Syrian authorities would have led a media parade through the bombsite. The regime of Bashir Assad in Syria knows what I know about the Western media: you don't have to show them a thing for they'll quote you uncritically. The only credential you need is animosity towards the U.S. and Israel. Whereas they will not even condescend to read David Kay's remarkably damning and elaborately proven report on Saddam Hussein's illegal weapons programmes -- fully vindicating the Bush and Blair positions that led them into Iraq. Once again I must say -- without qualification -- that our mainstream media are despite their protestations of innocence and "objectivity" objectively working for the enemy. And having their effect as Israel's action showed. Prime Minister Sharon chose the Syrian target as an alternative to acting against Yasser Arafat -- either by exiling him or as was originally proposed by killing him. Under domestic political pressure Mr. Sharon was choosing the lesser way to make the point that "Israel will not stand for this anymore" -- in response to an horrific suicide bombing in Haifa. He was boxed in by media-led world opinion. He goes on to hunt Islamic Jihad agents in Jenin and Nablus who the Israelis sincerely believe themselves ultimately report back to Arafat' s surrounded compound in Ramallah. In making his lesser point Mr. Sharon was providing an ineffective deterrent. He knows Arafat is informed before the fact of all organized terror strikes against Israel and his intelligence services believe on evidence repeatedly shown to the U.S. that Arafat personally orders most of them. The Haifa bombing was done through Islamic Jihad instead of through a Fatah branch or Hamas to make the greatest possible distance from Arafat's chain of command. For Islamic Jihad has become so closely affiliated with the Iranian- and Syrian-sponsored Hizbollah as to be practically their "diplomatic representative" within the Israel/Palestine theatre. Mr. Sharon had implied that the earlier Israeli cabinet authorization to remove Arafat would be acted upon after the next major bombing. He was thus hoping to hold Arafat hostage against new terror incidents. But the tactic risked backfire if there were a major incident and Arafat remained untouched. Now this has happened. In effect Arafat has been able to show his people and the Arab world generally that he can continue the bombings with impunity -- that the Israelis will always look elsewhere to settle scores not having the courage to go for him directly. He has thus once again successfully raised the stakes -- so that his authority continues to be restored over West Bank and Gaza and his prestige throughout the region. Instead Israel has been compelled against its immediate interests to open a second front of contention. Mr. Sharon has triggered border incidents along Israel's northern frontier and mutual mobilization of Syrian and Israeli armies. He may think there is an advantage to Israel in re-opening the Syrian can of worms which previously Israeli governments had gone to lengths to close. Instead he has created a distraction that Arafat can better exploit than can he. Arafat was even able to use the incident as cover for the emergency swearing-in of his new cabinet under Ahmed Qureia boldly moving before disputes were settled with his new interior and health ministers about the scope of their authority. World opinion has Israel boxed in yet paradoxically as the temperature rises world opinion will have less and less influence over Israel's defence. The proverb As well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, begins to apply here -- for it is not as if Israel ever gets praise for its restraint or any other privilege it could risk losing. The only foreign power that retains real power over the decisions made by Israeli politicians is the United States because it is in a position to cut substantial military and civil aid. But Egypt gets the same aid and if Egypt's Hosni Mubarak can't be punished for providing the Syrian regime with its Arab League cover Ariel Sharon can't be punished for taking potshots at known terrorists. The cowardly course invariably leads to the bigger catastrophe. If the Israelis shot Arafat there would be days even weeks of Arab rage and international condemnations. But this would most likely be followed by -- nothing except the implosion of the Palestinian Authority and thus the removal of the political cover it offers to Palestinian terrorists. Whereas hitting a site in Syrian territory brings on balance less rage; and more chance of hostilities across international borders that could spread rapidly through the region. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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