(Boston Globe) - Jeff Jacoby The suicide bombings in Tel Aviv this week were the third worst terror attack in Israel in the past quarter-century, and Arafat's spokesman issued a statement in English expressing ''total condemnation of these terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.'' But at about the same time, the Fatah Web site posted another statement - in Arabic - celebrating the attacks: ''With faith in the calling of holy jihad,'' it said, ''two suicide attackers...succeeded this evening to infiltrate the Zionist roadblocks and to enter the heart of...Tel Aviv....We swear before our people that additional suicide operations will occur.'' To demand ''restraint'' of Israel now - to insist that it voluntarily suppress its right to self-defense - is to make bloody atrocities like last Sunday's not less likely but more so. Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Palestinian Authority and the murderers it has supported must be crushed. That is the plain meaning of the Bush Doctrine and the essential first step to peace.
2003-01-10 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive