(Washington Times)Zalman Shoval - There never has been any real, intrinsic connection between the Arab-Israeli conflict and Islamist terror. The root causes of Islamist terror lie elsewhere, and even if Israel were forced to submit to all of the most extreme Palestinian demands (which would have meant Israel disappearing from the map), worldwide terror would not be eliminated. On the contrary, the terrorists would see this as vindicating and encouraging further acts of terror elsewhere. The Arab-Israeli problem is usually used by Arab regimes as a subterfuge to explain away their own lack of democracy and their rampant corruption - just as some European governments use it to mask their often unholy business and political alliances with those same corrupt and undemocratic regimes. Should there evolve a Palestinian leadership which will destroy the terrorist infrastructure and stop violence, hand over illegal arms, and stop anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement in its media and schools - in short, implement all those measures which had been in previous agreements but were never honored by Arafat - this would be an important step in the right direction.
2004-11-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive