Reuven Koret is publisher of israelinsider and CEO of Koret Communications.
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Is Sharon following Bush to war?
By Reuven Koret   October 21, 2001

Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seems to have found a formula for fighting his long-deferred war against the regime of Yasser Arafat: Follow the lead of President George W. Bush.

Several previous attempts to identify Israel's fight against terrorism with the American war against terror had failed miserably. Sharon's nicknaming of Arafat as "our bin Laden" was considered by the Bush Administration to be exaggerated and inappropriate. The White House dismissed Sharon's "Czechoslovakia analogy" and took offense at his warning not to appease the Arabs.

But the killing of Minister Rechavam Ze'evi, the first assassination of an Israeli minister by a Palestinian, presented the Israeli leader with the opportunity to advance a more apt parallel: Arafat is Mullah Omar. The Palestinian Authority equals the Taliban regime.

Just as the Talibans support the terrorists who killed five thousands people in America, Sharon's analogy goes, the PA supports the terrorists who routinely kill Israelis. Truth be told, Arafat's own armed militias -- the Tanzim, Fatah and Force 17 brigades -- do more than their fair share of the killing. But that fact isn't even necessary for Sharon to make his case.

Sharon had only to note that the PA refused to arrest more than one hundred wanted terrorists, despite repeated promises (to the Americans as well as the Israelis) to incarcerate them. And the PA indisputably harbored the killers of Ze'evi.

The whole world heard President Bush proclaim that either you're with the terrorists, or you're against them. That those who harbor terrorists are as bad as the terrorists themselves. He demanded the Taliban disarm and expel the terrorists in their midst. He issued an ultimatum that the Taliban must extradite bin Laden immediately and unconditionally, with no half-way steps and no negotiations.

That is exactly what Sharon has done to Arafat. He insisted that all "terrorist organizations operating in the Palestinian areas be outlawed, disarmed and dismantled." He demanded the extradition to Israel of the killers of Ze'evi and the leaders of the PFLP group that took credit for the assassination. He knew Arafat would never extradite the killers, just as Bush knew the Taliban would never turn over bin Laden to the "infidels."

Israeli government spokesman warned that, if Arafat refused the ultimatum, his Authority would be treated as a terrorism-supporting entity, and that Israel would reserve the right to respond to it "according to international guidelines" - a not so subtle allusion to the "guidelines" the Americans and British are now laying down in Afghanistan.

Bush has also helped Sharon in other ways. After the President's comment about wanting bin Laden and his fellow cave dwellers "dead or alive," the State Department is hard-pressed to keep a straight face when criticizing Israeli "targeted killings." As the Americans unload hundreds of tons of explosives on the mud-huts of Afghanistan, it is harder to criticize Israel for using "excessive force" in dealing with its terrorist threat.

It is no coincidence that Sharon's ground offensive against Palestinian terrorist strongholds is timed to coincide with the initial ground operations of American special forces. Our little backwater conflict is demoted to the back pages, and the idea of going into towns and villages to hunt down terrorists doesn't seem so extreme after all.

The Americans continue to ask Israel to use restraint, and complain that the Israeli actions "complicate" the situation. But they are not demanding that Israel stop going after the terrorists. On the contrary, they are demanding that Arafat take tougher steps against the terrorists in his midst. Even the State Department helped the Israeli case when -- the day after Sharon's warning about appeasing the Arabs -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah were all re-listed in the new edition of State's terror group wanted list.

It is becoming clear that Israel's war on terrorism does not conflict with America's campaign against bin Laden and the Taliban. On the contrary, the parallel initiatives by Sharon and Bush underscore the right of all nations to defend themselves against terrorism. Israel does not expect America to fight its battles, and vice versa. In any case, the Arab states are doing precious little to help the United States anyway, so there is no real coalition to upset.

America knows that its offensive in Afghanistan may destabilize the Taliban regime, but that's a chance it is more than willing to take. Israel knows that Arafat is caught between a rock and a hard place, and that military pressure could cause his Authority to crumble from within. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres continues to insist that talks with Arafat are desirable, and that the Palestinian Authority is a preferred alternative to a regime led by Hamas, but an unnamed source in Sharon's office responded tonight by saying that the current situation is one in which the Palestinian terrorists effectively call the shots anyway. The PA, the source said, is already "Hamas in disguise."

The United States clearly does not want to be seen as dictating who should govern Afghanistan, any more than Israel wants to be seen determining the future Palestinian leadership. But both Americans and Israelis have reached the point where they believe the current situation is intolerable, and that immediate and decisive action is required.

One can't help but think back to that helicopter tour that Sharon and Bush, both far from the reins of power at the time, took over the the Holy Land, the Israeli rancher and commando-fighter explaining the strategic significance of the Biblical territory to his Texan counterpart, then a greenhorn in war and statecraft. A decade later, Arab terrorists have unwittingly driven the two cowboys back together. Persistent efforts, including some emanating from the State Department, to drive a wedge between the American and Israeli leadership have proven unsuccessful--so far.

So maybe Sharon is not really following Bush's lead after all. Perhaps the classic Israeli approach to terrorism -- tough and unyielding, pragmatic and improvisational -- is precisely the proven counter-terrorist warfighting model that the leader of the free world has chosen to follow in his bold campaign against the terrorist threat. Regardless of who is leading the way, the "evil-doers" have good reason to run for cover: at last, the two rancher-statesmen are riding in the same posse.

Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.

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