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COMMENTARY
April 6, 2002
Call to action
"What do you make of Bush's speech? Cave in? Or prelude to something bigger?" This was the question flashed at me by an American blogger within seconds of President Bush concluding his address on Thursday. The speed of modern thought is astonishing impressive. I took a minute to make up my mind almost fearing someone else might hit the buzzer first. But having now slept on it I'm sure the answer is: "Continuation of something bigger." On the face of it you would expect a speech that once again told Israel to pull back from its present military operation to destroy as much as possible of the terrorist infrastucture in the West Bank would demoralize U.S. allies Israel in particular. Nothing but happy noises from there so deep as I am able to plumb Israeli officialdom. Qualified approval from the Arab world. Whether more or less "moderate" every Arab government agreed that the part about Israel pulling back was "encouraging". They then ignored or mildly rebuked the long and rather feisty sections about aiding and abetting terrorism. In other words the parts addressed to them. The timing was notable as an example of diplomatic craft for the speech was made the day before Tony Blair the British prime minister set out for Mr. Bush's ranch in Crawford Texas -- in the awkward position of trying to support Mr. Bush while being obliged to tell him about opposition to his policies from many European colleagues. And the day after Romano Prodi president of the European Commission had publicly told the U.S. to step out of the "peace process" and let the European and "moderate" Arab states step in to the task of grinding concessions out of Israel. I rather think Mr. Bush relished driving his truck over Mr. Prodi's foot. Europe is in pain the more excruciating because it cannot be discussed in the candour with which I will now discuss it. In France especially but also right across Europe there has been an extraordinary series of attacks on Jewish synagogues schools businesses community centres and individuals. These appear to be still escalating a new Kristallnacht in which Jews across Europe are now beginning to seek cover and once again finding little sympathy from their non-Jewish neighbours. France with its four-million-plus Muslim population mostly from former colonies in North Africa is especially buffeted. The French state has long pursued a foreign policy favourable to Israel's Arab enemies and the unofficial attitude of a French ambassador in London (who memorably called Israel "a shitty little country" when he thought he could trust that no one around him would repeat it) expresses something I have myself frequently encountered when dealing with present-day "sophisticated Europeans" particularly those from the countries of the old Axis core. I tend to call them "fashionable anti-Semites" on the grounds that a spade resembles a spade but have had the charge very earnestly rebutted. The reality is that Europeans are increasingly afraid of their Muslim immigrants. They see what is happening now in the West Bank and Gaza and they genuinely fear it may explode in Europe's face -- that the suicide bombers will soon be crashing into their coffee shops their discos their pizzerias. It is the fear that these attacks on Jews by youth gangs from Europe's impoverished Muslim ghettoes are the dreaded precursor of a far worse "clash of civilizations" to come. (The Islamist imams who continue to arrive with Saudi-financed mosques do after all cry "holy war" against Jews Christians and atheists alike.) So it is not anti-Semitism though some of the old "aristocratic" distaste for Jews certainly adds to the flavouring. Rather it is the old European instinct to appeasement. If the existence of Israel so antagonizes the Arabs then why must we think about this "shitty little country"? Why won't Israel just go away? If the existence of the Jews antagonizes our Muslims then why won't the Jews go away? ("Surely there are wide open spaces for them in Wyoming as one correspondent unselfconsciously explained.) That the great majority of Arab and other Muslims came to Europe to escape the oppression of their own societies, and that they share in the dread of the Islamist agitators, should go without saying. They are the first to realize that the fire has begun, that it will take tremendous will now to douse it. And yet they are themselves easy to intimidate within their own ghettoized communities; and they watch their children carried away in the Islamist breeze. One of the ways we have had in North America of coming to terms with racial and cultural tensions, is to talk about them openly within our melting pot". If a single synagogue were firebombed here it would be on the front pages. But if you look through the European press you find little desire even to report on such distasteful occurrences. News of the new Kristallnacht is played down as if when no one notices it will go away. In the middle of the present French presidential election there is what appears to be an unspoken pact between the two leading candidates not to let a few dozen burning synagogues and other attacks on Jews become a campaign issue. It is not just the desire to capture the large and growing potential Muslim vote. It is a real fear that anything done on behalf of the Jews may further inflame the radical Muslim constituency. The mood is Leave us out of this. Instead the effort is invested in trying to bring Israel to heel through a more comprehensive "peace process"; in demanding that the Israelis tame their inflammatory habit of trying to defend themselves against the terrorist onslaught. President Bush's speech Thursday more than any made before was addressed to the Europeans and Arabs. He knows already that the Arabs will be deaf to anything he says on the subject of terrorism; he is hoping the Europeans will listen. He has the unenviable task of trying to wake old Europe of saying: "Look we cannot stand for this." He is saying (and I paraphrase): "Look let's put all our cards on the table. Let us confirm one last time in clear public view whether Mr. Arafat will stop inciting suicide bombers whether the moderate Arab states will acknowledge Israel's right to be whether they will unambiguously condemn the massacres of Israeli civilians in their state-controlled media whether in fact we have anything to talk about. We need perfect clarity on all these points and then we'll take it from there." This is not a new departure from established American policy. It is a development of the policy heralded a fortnight ago when the vice president Dick Cheney invited Yasser Arafat to meet him in Cairo -- on the condition he first publicly condemn in Arabic all terrorist strikes on Israel -- an invitation that Mr. Arafat then nervily declined. Mr. Bush is in effect repeating the question and concentrating everyone's attention on Mr. Arafat's reply. I should think that Mr. Bush by now is convinced that he will give the wrong answer; but wants everyone to hear before he proceeds. Even two weeks ago Mr. Cheney and the U.S. were thus stepping between Mr. Sharon and Mr. Arafat taking the next dance as it were. Even yesterday the U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni was reminding Mr. Arafat of the new context in which he is viewed -- that his known alliances with international terrorists and with regimes such as those of Iran Syria and Iraq were making him into a direct enemy not just of Israel but of the United States. Mr. Cheney dropped this card everywhere he went on his recent tour of the Middle East and it is still being assimilated. With his speech Thursday Mr. Bush began to make the case at large. One of its subtexts addressed to the "moderate Arab states" and by extension to the Europeans who implicitly agree with them was How can I take seriously your demands that I restrain the Israelis, when you either won't or can't restrain the Palestinians, and Mr. Arafat can't even bring himself to stop inciting suicide bombers? The speech would certainly have been a cave-in if there had been any indication that the U.S. was actually twisting Israel's arm. The most intrusive demand on Israel that it stop extending settlements in the West Bank and Gaza had already been accepted by the Sharon government. The hourglass was set on the present Operation Defensive Wall which may now have only several days to run before the secretary of state Colin Powell arrives in theatre. But this operation has already achieved most of its objectives in a surprisingly short time thanks largely to the preparatory work of Operation Root Treatment before it. There have been huge intelligence hauls in Ramallah and elsewhere weapons collecting on an unprecedented scale and a breakthrough round-up of wanted terrorists. The feverish Palestinian executions of "collaborators" are among several indications that they too give the Israelis high marks. At the time of writing the operation still had not extended into the Gaza strip. I believe the reason is that the whole thing was aimed at Arafat's own terrorist infrastructure. With the isolation of Arafat in Ramallah Gaza has increasingly become Hamas territory to be dealt with separately and less urgently since Hamas is clearly on the U.S. State Department's list of international terror organizations and hitting it will raise fewer objections in future. The specific vexing question What to do with Arafat? will thanks to Mr. Bush's present posture become more and more a public one. Just earlier this week according to my information both the Israelis and the Americans were secretly negotiating with Morocco's King Mohammed about his future digs. (The king first saw this as an opportunity to ingratiate himself with both Yankees and Islamists but unfortunately came to his senses after that.) Mr. Bush is now putting this question squarely before the Europeans the Arabs and the world: "We have to do something. Don't pretend we can look away." David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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