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From Ariel to Tom Dear Tom, I see you’re doing your open-letters-in-the-names-of-world-leaders shtick again, this time addressed to me, so I thought I’d reply. Actually, I was a bit disappointed to see that some of the phrases you put in the mouth of George Bush were copied and pasted from your previous columns. Writer’s block, Tom? Or have you always been trying to be the President’s mouthpiece? So please forgive me if I speak to you as if you’re not the President but in fact a journalist who thinks he should be. And I’ll confine myself to responding to your personal questions to me. (Arafat can fend for himself.) So let's start with your comment that I can't make up my mind about who Arafat is. I have said that he is "our bin Laden" and I don't feel bad about that. The man, as founder and leader of the umbrella Palestinian terrorist organization is responsible for killing more Jews than any other man since Hitler. Indeed, he is the father of modern terrorism, the godfather of bin Laden, the man who made hijacking and exploding airplanes fashionable. He has never made a secret of what he means by "liberating Palestine." Contrary to what you and other well-meaning people wanted to believe, he continues to work, in phases, for our destruction as a nation. Maybe you're late in coming to that realization, but don't hold it against those of us who knew it, and said it, all along. It's true that I have sent my son to negotiate with the man. And, against my better judgment, I have also sent my Foreign Minister. You know well how much pressure the Americans are putting on us to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians. And, in the name of maintaining our precious national unity, I have gone the extra mile, many times over, to give Arafat chances to prove he can actually take serious steps to prevent terror against Israelis. In the last two weeks, after terrible attacks against Israel following the last Peres meeting, and after Palestinian security forces assisted the murder of a minister in my Government, Arafat has still done nothing to arrest the assassins whose names we supplied, nor does he lift a finger to prevent planned terrorist attacks against our citizens. There will be no more meetings with my son or my foreign minister. You don't like the comparison of Arafat to bin Laden, and you probably don't like my comparison of the Palestinian Authority to the Taliban regime either. You are right that I no longer hold out hope for Arafat, and that the status quo of his Authority serving as a mask and a shield for unending terror against Israel cannot continue. But you are wrong in asserting that this should complicate the American fight against terrorism. You say our self-defense "inflames the Arab-Muslim world" and "will be seriously undermining our coalition against bin Laden. And whoever undermines that coalition undermines us." We are inflaming the Arab-Muslim world? Last time I checked, the Arab-Muslim world was, literally, inflaming yours. They mass-murdered thousands, and, they are planning repeat performances! They are burning your flags, and your leaders in effigy, along with ours. Do you think that our fighting terrorists will inflame them to hate us, or you, less? On the contrary, your misguided pressure on Israel teaches them that terrorism works! As for your Arab-Muslim "coalition" -- where is it? It seems that the Arab states are perfectly happy to see Americans and British sons fight to protect their corrupt and undemocratic regimes, while they give precious little in return. You don't need them to destroy bin Laden and al-Qaeda. You will certainly lose them if you do as you say and turn your attention to the other states that support terror. Where will your coalition be when America attacks Iraq? We know where we'll be. We'll be taking missiles, possibly with chemical or biological warheads, from Saddam. You fear, Tom, that I am unaware of "how serious this war is for America?" Listen, you arrogant and puffed-up scribe, what do you know about the seriousness of war? I've been through six, lost more comrades in battle than you've lost pens in your lifetime. Today I am responsible for protecting my nation from neighbors that want to destroy her. I send the boys to war, and I visit their families if they don't come back. I know well how serious this war is, for America, Israel, and the entire free world, that we are stunned at the criticism that we get from the State Department and, with all due respect, from armchair critics like you. If I haven't said this before: "it's survival, Tom." We in Israel are, as always, struggling not for "our way of life" but, very simply, for our lives. And so is America and every other non-Islamic nation. "Ariel," you scornfully ask, "don't you get it? We know bin Laden didn't attack us to liberate Palestine. We know the roots of this story are in the anger of Arab citizens at their own bad regimes. We know the roots are with the fanatics who want to twist Islam into a religion of anger and martyrdom. These truths are too big to hide -- unless you get in the way and make Israel the story." Yes, Tom, we get it. The problem, if you haven't noticed, is that they have already made Israel the story, and you and your State Department friends, and much of the liberal media, have gone along with it. You say: "Get off the radar screen! Our resolve is now being tested by our enemies - we don't need it tested by our friends. If you do -- especially after Americans start dying in Afghanistan -- it will seriously damage the special U.S.-Israeli relationship." And I say this to you, Tom. It is the danger of Islamic terror that was off your radar screen -- until those unidentified flying bombs slammed into your cities with such terrible effect. Even though the United States has been the frequent victim of Islamic terrorists, Israel and its citizens are dealing with it day after day. When Israelis were dying daily, what we heard from you and your friends at State was criticism: of our targeted hits against terrorists and their cowardly dispatchers, of claims of excessive force when civilians, occasionally and to our great regret, got caught in the cross-fire of our counter-terrorist actions. Arab/Islamic terror has always been on our radar screen, and now you are realizing that our approach to fighting it is the right one -- except when we are the ones who are doing it. Listen, Tom, with respect: it is people like you who damage the special U.S.-Israel relationship. If you want to be constructive, what you could say, as an American and as a Jew, is what we Israelis are hearing now from so many others, especially, Christians: the Jewish State, when it comes to fighting terrorism, is truly "a light unto the nations": a shining example of how to maintain decency and humanity in the face of terror. I believe the real President of the United States knows this, in faith, in his heart and his soul. Our small democracy has been forever fighting a wanted list of evildoers who want to wipe us out. Now, more than ever, you should appreciate what we have been doing and stand with us, as we stand with you, and as we protect our citizens. If America's so-called "allies" in the Arab and Islamic dictatorships don't like it, they had better get used to it. We're on the radar screen to stay. Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
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