OVER THE past few months, the specter of impending terrorism has been hanging over the world. After the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, the world realized that no one, not even the globe's lone superpower, is immune from the fanatic intentions of extremists. Not being able to tolerate any other attacks of this nature, the United States launched an offensive against the Afghan strongholds of the al-Qaida network.
This American operation has been successful so far in that it has killed or imprisoned several terrorists who could have been potential attackers and has destroyed a portion of al-Qaida's network. In the same vein, the current Israeli offensive on Palestinian towns and camps should be seen as a justified and necessary defensive measure as opposed to an attack against the Palestinian people.
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When the United States was faced with the devastation of Sept. 11, a main concern was that this attack was not to be an isolated incident, but rather the beginning of a terrifying new future. The U.S. attack against the Afghan Taliban, which was playing host to al-Qaida, was seen as justified after the Taliban refused to hand over those responsible for the attack. If those who had planned out the immense measure of destruction in September were allowed to continue operations unfettered, what was to stop them from plotting out another terrorist nightmare? To ensure that such a scenario would not become a reality, Operation Enduring Freedom was launched to root out terrorists. Although it cannot be ascertained that Enduring Freedom has been completely successful, the fact is that there have been no more violent terrorist attacks against the United States since the infamous attacks of Sept. 11.
Israel, unfortunately, has not been as lucky. They have endured terrorist assaults for decades, and in the past year such attacks have been on the rise. However, they also have been involved in the peace process with the Palestinians. Wishing to show trust in the Palestinians' authority, they called on Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, to quell the terrorist element among his people. In recent months, however, the violence only has increased and the Israelis' patience with Arafat's inability or possible inaction in shutting down terrorism has been drastically cut. Israel began to put a great deal of pressure on Arafat to stop the terror through coordinated military strikes, but after six bombing attacks in seven days that began with the Passover massacre two weeks ago, Israel could no longer tolerate such direct assaults on its people. In self-defense, the Israelis began the full-scale military operation known as Defensive Shield.
So far, Israel has claimed success through its operation. It has arrested over 1,200 Palestinians in relation to terrorism, several hundreds of whom were on their wanted list for engaging in or aiding terrorist activities.
Tragically, their military success has not been free of heartbreak; as with the U.S. operation in Afghanistan, innocent Palestinian civilians have been injured and killed. Unfortunately, military operations usually exhibit such casualties. Our hearts should go out to those that are grieving loved ones who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
By the same token, however, we should feel equally sorry for the friends and families of the victims of Palestinian suicide bombing attacks. Although the Palestinian extremists claim that Israel is indirectly responsible for these kamikaze attacks because of its treatment of the Palestinians, the fact is that the suicide bombings are irrational acts of violence. These acts are committed against civilians who most probably have nothing to do with the plight of the Palestinian people. Such acts of terror are aimed at communicating the political messages of extremists by inspiring panic among the Israeli people and government, in order that they act on the terrorist's demands. The Israeli government has stated that they will not deal with terrorists, and in that case, the message from the casualties of suicide attacks - no matter how atrocious - will go unheard.
Israel has the same right to defend itself against terrorists as the United States has demonstrated in its war against its own terrorist threats. Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have proved that they are largely ineffective in containing the extremist factions of their people and safeguarding the security of Israeli civilians. After taking more casualties than they could deal with, and seeing that they could not trust the Palestinians to restrain themselves from killing more Israeli civilians, Israel decided to take matters into its own hands and arrest or kill terrorists that were threatening their populations as the United States did in Afghanistan. Because of this aim, Israel's intent is solely self-defense. And although it is tragic that innocent Palestinians have gotten caught in the crossfire, any country - not just the United States or Israel -should _be justified in acting out in defense of its people.
(Alex Rosemblat's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at arosemblat@cavalierdaily.com.)