SHALOM

Dear Readers

Everyone knew Ouda, the nice Arab house painter who liked to joke with the students while he worked on a building site near the Frank Sinatra Café at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Like his friends Wa’al Kassam, Wissam Abassi and Alladin Abassi, Mohammed Ouda is an Israeli Arab, a good guy, a nice guy; one that it is politically incorrect to harbor suspicions about; one of those who moves about freely in Israel, who benefits from all the rights and privileges – in a word, a citizen. But like them, Ouda is a murderer – a cold-blooded monster. He is the one who laid and set off the bomb that killed 11 people at the university. He was also directly involved in several other attacks, which cost the lives of 35 Israelis and wounded many others. Each of these Hamas terrorists chose his target based on where he worked. This re-opens the difficult debate on the loyalty of Israeli Arabs to the Jewish State.

The attack at the university is highly significant. For many years this remarkable academic institution has been actively the spearhead against every type of Jewish nationalism. It has opened its doors to students and faculty who are close to the PLO, and it has permitted anti-Israel demonstrations on its campuses; some of its professors have publicly supported soldiers who have refused to serve in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. What is revealing in this attack is that it took place in an environment friendly to the PLO. The Arabs do not discriminate. As far as they are concerned, Israel must disappear and all Jews are enemies, even those who take up their cause. Their approach is directly inspired by Nazi Germany, whose primary objective was to kill as many Jews as possible, while at the same time selecting those whom they could exploit. The leaders of Arab terrorism in Israel have just revived Dr. Mengele’s famous life or death selection process at the entrance to the Camps. At the end of a meeting of the leaders of all the terrorist groups active in Israel except Hamas, they released a particularly “moderate” statement that these organizations had decided to end attacks against Jews – with the exception of the Army and of the inhabitants of Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In this way the anti-Semites have again assumed the right to decide which Jews should live and which should die. Despite their profound wish for peace, Israelis have recognized that the struggle against the Arabs who are trying to destroy Israel with terror must be fought to the bitter end. Neither the brutal deaths of over 600 people, nor the thousands of injured, nor the suffering and family tragedies that have arisen from all this have succeeded in shaking the endurance and the morale of the Israeli population. Its stoicism and courage are like the bravery of the British in the London Blitz during World War II. All Israelis are in agreement that if the army had not gone back into Arab controlled areas in the Territories, if it had not systematically eliminated terrorist leaders, and if it had not captured more than 150 would-be suicide bombers, the number of victims would have skyrocketed. Thanks to Ariel Sharon’s determination, this bloodbath has been avoided, though the series of Arab crimes committed against Jews is far from being over. The bill for the Oslo treachery has still not been paid. Only uncompromising action, without any political negotiations, to finish off once and for all the PLO and the criminal activities of Arafat and his cohorts, will gradually bring peace back to the country. Another strategic imperative is to strengthen the Jewish population centers in Judea, Samaria and Gaza and allow them to flourish.

The steadfastness of the Jewish State is unacceptable to the “right-thinking” world, with the exception of a part of the Bush administration, which was forced by events to become more clear-sighted. Straight after 9/11, when 15 Saudi terrorists had just killed thousands of Americans, the USA’s first reaction was to ask for Saudi Arabia’s support in the fight against terrorism. They could just as well have asked Al Capone to fight organized crime! Gradually a better understanding of the truth about the Saudis seeped into the Bush administration. So long as Saudi Arabia restricted itself to financing Arafat and various terrorist organizations that attacked mainly Israel and Europe, America was not worried. Today, the Riyadh monarchy has become dangerous. Ever since the FSU has opened up its vast oilfields to the West, Saudi Arabia knows that its power, based on the 25% of the world’s oil resources that it holds, is wobbly and that its stability is in danger. Threatened with the loss of this source of extortion against the West, the Saudi kingdom has founded and financed thousands of mosques and Islamic colleges (madrasas) around the world, where the fanaticism in the Koran is taught and the cultural and religious destruction of the West daily preached. It was students who had graduated from these institutions that carried out the attacks of 9/11 and who are ready to be activated at a moment’s notice. In order to succeed in its war against terrorism, it is this double blackmail – economic and terrorist – that America must fight.

Faced with these facts, what can be done – what should be done? In his latest work, Does America need a foreign policy?, Dr. Henry Kissinger pleads the case for a clear, unemotional concept of the national interest, for an America that is true to itself, ready to act alone, without the support of an international consensus, whatever are the painful means that need to be employed.

The fact that George W. Bush has adopted these ideas is an exemplary breath of fresh air for the entire free world. Moreover, the struggle of the Jewish State has become the struggle of the most powerful nation on earth. In this war the Jews are once again in the front line, because the leaders of Arab terrorism in Israel are working hand in glove with those within the Islamic world and at the heart of anti-Semitic movements who want to put an end to the democracies that guarantee individual liberties. The struggle for the survival of these supreme values will only succeed if America continues unceasingly to support Israel, particularly if it decides to attack Iraq alone or to exclude Saudi Arabia from a future coalition. If he fights the good fight to the finish, George W. Bush will be included, like Churchill and like Ariel Sharon, in that line of men across History who have had the courage to say “No”.

Despite all the difficulties and despite the aggression and discriminatory measures Israel has suffered ever since its creation, the Jewish State continues on the path to success. During one of my conversations with the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon told me, “We share a common responsibility: the State of Israel. We Israelis have taken on the major share, but we expect the Jews of the Diaspora to play their part”. More than ever, we must prove our solidarity with Israel, first and foremost by visiting as often as possible, and by investing in the economy in order to create jobs.

It is in this optimistic and constructive spirit that the entire team at SHALOM wishes you an excellent New Year.

Roland S. Süssmann
Editor in Chief – September 2002