Alan Perlman, a resident of the community of Carmel in the Hebron Hills region, is a technical writer. Perlman has a master's degree in social work. He can be reached at ahperlman@yahoo.com.
More from Alan Perlman
	Peres's push for a Palestinian State
	Confidence game
	America at the Crossroads
	The nature of the beast
	Hijacking at Durban
	New, improved Oslo snake oil
	Mideast theater of the absurd
	Arafat's battered wives

From this epiphany, President Bush arrived at a simple truth: You are either for or against terror, and anyone who performs, supports, or provides a safe haven for terror is a terrorist. Sometimes a truth can be over simplistic, and one must be cautious in its application. The real world, after all, has shades of gray, not just black and white.

But some simple truths are so completely true despite their simplicity that they serve as a guide and moral compass when we have our most important decisions to make. When we forget these simple truths, we lose our way.

Mr. Bush forgot his own simple truth, and strayed from the path of the good fight, when he demanded that Ariel Sharon immediately withdraw the Israeli Defense Forces from the Palestinian autonomous areas.

His mistake is correctable, and as it happens, Colin Powell is on his way to Israel to meet with Sharon. What remains to be seen is whether Bush will reaffirm his simple truth or continue down the wrong path.

In anticipation of Powell's visit, I would like to repeat some other simple truths that are obvious, yet easy to forget.

1. Israel is America's one true ally in the war against terror, and the only country to completely agree with the American definition of terror.

Europe, by contrast, steeped in moral relativism and having no absolute sense of right and wrong or good and evil, equivocates under the notion that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Arab countries, guided by an Islamic-absolutist sense of right and wrong, ironically come to nearly the same conclusion. Terror is wrong, but Muslim attacks against Jews and other infidels aren't terror.

America would do well to remember how Muslims the world over, including the Palestinians, danced with joy at the collapse of the World Trade Center.

2. Israel is the only country to fully agree with America's position that the Saddam Hussein's Iraqi terror machine is a major world threat that must be eliminated.

Here again, the Europeans equivocate. And the Arab states showed overwhelming support for Iraq at the summit in Beirut.

3. Moderate Arab regimes need America.
Like the classic cartoon image of the elephant standing in fear of a mouse, so America's concern for Arab outrage (stemming from her support for Israel's battle against terror) seems greatly exaggerated and misplaced.

Despite the hugs and kisses at the Beirut conference, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan need American protection from Iraq. Egypt's Mubarak depends on American aid to keep himself and his country afloat.

And certainly both Egypt and Jordan are themselves at war against Muslim fundamentalist terrorism.

By contrast, though the support of these countries in America's war against Iraq would be nice, it is certainly not essential.

The moderate and not so moderate Arabs states need America far more than America needs them. Instead of pandering to unreasonable Arab demands, America should send out the following message loud and clear to the Arab countries: "Israel and her security are non-negotiable, even for your support in the war on terror. Your choices are either to support America's war against terror or to not support it. And if you choose not to support it, expect no protection or aid from America."

4. Israel's battle with terror is here and now. America's battle against Iraq can wait a few weeks.

America's upcoming battle against Iraq is no less important to America than Israel's battle against Palestinian terror is to Israel. But the threat to Israel is immediate.

In the month of March alone, terrorists killed over 130 Israelis. As a proportion of population, this is double the American loss in the World Trade Center. The worst terror attack of the Oslo war was perpetrated against Jews sitting down to the Passover Seder, simply because they were Jews sitting down to observe the Passover Seder. And there was not just one, single Passover attack. Rather, as Charles Krauthammer noted, it was a Passover pogrom - seven suicide attacks in seven days.

Furthermore, Israel has already gone to war. Handcuffing Israel in the midst of battle is morally untenable. You just don't do that to an ally, to someone fighting the good fight alongside you. It would also be foolhardy, making a mockery of and undermining Bush's own war against terror.

By contrast, America has already put completion of its war against Iraq on hold for 11 years. If Israel needs four more weeks to root out the terror infrastructure in the Palestinian "territories," America can wait those four weeks before building its coalition against Iraq. Even following the World Trade Center attack, America waited several months before responding, ensuring that the offensive against the Taliban was prepared.

5. The war against terror requires a total military victory.
When your enemy determined to fight to the end, total military victory is required before peace can be achieved. This was true in the war against both Germany and Japan. And it is all the more true in the war against terror.

Peace will never be achieved by returning (or trying to return) to Mitchell, Tenet and negotiations before destroying the terrorist power base. This simple truth is merely a restatement of Bush's own simple truth that terror is evil and must be utterly destroyed. America must allow Sharon to finish the job if true peace is to be possible.

6. True friends and allies can disagree.
Allies are sovereign states, and at times they will disagree. There is nothing wrong with this. However, care must be taken not to turn a disagreement amongst friends into a contest of wills.

If Mr. Bush feels that Israel's war against terrorists negatively impacts the war on terror, there is no problem with his voicing his opinion. He can voice opposition to Israeli military presence in the Palestinian autonomous areas, and he can tell the world that he does not think it is helpful.

Mr. Bush, however, made a mistake by turning his desire for an Israeli withdrawal into a demand that must be implemented immediately. Sharon cannot comply -- not because his pride cannot let him back down in a contest of wills, but simply because he would harm Israel terribly if stopped the offensive now.

At this point, Mr. Powell should continue to back peddle on the demand. He previously stated the U.S. recognition that the withdrawal must be orderly. He should proceed along these lines, and allow Israel to finish the job.

But most importantly, we should all recognize and take comfort in the fact that even when a disagreement morphs into a contest of wills, it cannot shake a rock-solid relationship like Israel's relationship with Mr. Bush and America. The disagreement is fleeting, and it too shall pass, and the relationship between America and Israel will endure. And that is its true strength.

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

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