The REAL War! Radical Islam and the Lies About Israel - A View From The Eye of the Storm

Dear Gather Members.

As Winston Churchill famously said, "This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read."

I hope you'll forgive the length - I couldn't figure out how to make it shorter. I also hope you'll persevere and read it - Churchill notwithstanding!

As some of you know, I have a profound interest in the problem of terrorism and terrorists - as well as an equal interest in searching for solutions to combating this threat.

I also feel compelled to provide counterpoint to the many lies told about Israel. Israel's not perfect - who is? This latest warfare with Hezbollah was a debacle. As Churchill also said, "War is mainly a catalogue of blunders." I think it's too early to say what really happened there. (My last article dealt with my theory about Iran being behind the whole thing for its own nauseating purposes. If you'd like to read it, here's the link: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976780785)

The bottom line is too many civilians died - on both sides.

The disproportionate casualties stem from the fact that the Israelis have bomb shelters and don't use their citizens as shields. I don't believe the Israelis purposely targeted Lebanese civilians. I've heard reports they bombed caravans of fleeing civilians but I'd like to hear their side before I pass judgment. Perhaps, weapons were being moved or used amid those fleeing. Or maybe it was another hoax. It's just not clear yet what really happened. If Israel cannot explain itself and callously targeted civilians, they should be punished to the full extent of the law. If innocent, then we should look to those who bore false witness - they should be punished. (FYI, it's Israel's position to apologize first and investigate later. After investigating, they often retract the apology. Apologies are not an admission of guilt.)

One must be willing to recognize that Islamists are prepared to sacrifice anyone for their cause. For them, using human shields is a win-win-win-win because they get to use the inevitable outrage toward Israel, America, whoever, to convert and radicalize more Muslims; to recruit more Jihadists; to further turn the world against Israel; and to "honor" the dead, human-shield civilians as martyrs! (Presumably why they don't mind being used this way.)

Israel is a tiny spit of land, smaller than New Jersey, where Jews have always resided. The conventional wisdom is European Jews populated the new nation after WWII. This assumption is simply not true. Aside from the Jews already there and the small handful of surviving European Jews, Israel was mostly populated by Jews from the surrounding Arab countries. These Jews, roughly 600,000, who'd dwelt in those countries for millennia, were summarily expelled, en masse, and prevented from taking their money or property with them. Land, house, money, possessions - all were confiscated. To this day, none of it has been returned and no one has been compensated. No Arab country has apologized or justified the reasons for their actions. Jordan did invite the Jews back but no Jew seems to have taken them up on the offer. The world, which is now so indignant toward Israel, put up no protest to any Arab nation or tried to stop the expulsion.

These events, of course, don't give Israel carte blanche to do whatever it likes. I just happen to believe it hasn't done most of the awful things it has been accused of. It's not the "Demon Spawn of Hell" that Arab propaganda would have one believe it is. (And I fear a number of you do!) Exactly the opposite, Israel is a HUGE benefit to the region and if the Arabs would only abandon their genocidal ambitions, they'd not only see - but reap that benefit.

The Arabs have always had the solution for peace in their hands - and always will. The moment they decide they want peace, it will happen. Of course, they must recognize Israel's right to exist and it's sovereignty.

I lived and studied in Israel between the intifadas and can speak from experience that the negative descriptions of Israel do not resemble the reality. I met and socialized with Palestinians while there. Went bowling, ate pizza, went to the theatre, had coffee, shopped and chatted in the Shuk with Arab Israeli friends. There wasn't a divide between us and we were always on an equal footing. I also observed Palestinian workmen near my apartment taking time out to perform their afternoon prayers. They took out a small rug and went through their ritual. No one interfered. No one took much notice really - it was just a normal part of the cultural landscape.

Contrast that with the Islamist regimes of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Sudan and Talibani Afghanistan where death - or dhimmitude - is the punishment for not being Muslim (the "right" kind). Just ask the Bah'ai how many have died in Iran because of that? The religious freedom known in Israel is unheard of as well as not tolerated in these countries. The Arabs living in Israel have a much better life and more say in the government than they'd have if they lived in any Arab country. Are there still challenges to an equitable society? Yes. But, like here, Israel is always striving to improve. Given enough peace time and normalization of life, it's likely things would improve immensely.

So I plead with you who feel antagonistic toward Israel to rethink what you believe. You've been lied to so often, I don't blame you for being either conflicted or disgusted. It's difficult to convince people they're being lied to when the lies are so pervasive. There on the BBC, NPR, KPFK, in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Time Magazine, Newsweek, et al. International news is often fed from one central bureau and dispersed to many news and media outlets. The same lie travels everywhere and it travels fast! It's instructive to remember that Muslims are permitted to lie to kuffah's - non-believers. I've seen footage of Nasrallah validating and encouraging Muslims to lie and break promises, agreements, accords, etc. to "Infidels" - without a moment of conscience.

In light of the recent Reuters scandal, I hope what I'm saying will be given more credence. For those unfamiliar with this story, a Reuters photographer was caught after he'd altered, doctored and staged photographs of the war in Lebanon. His sole purpose, since he could just as easily have sold the real photos, was to further inflame the world against Israel. One photo that purported to be a city skyline in flames was, in reality, a burning garbage dump. Others had people posed as dead bodies in the rubble - who, it turned out, were alive and well! To see video of faked photos, use this link: http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp
Or read a second source: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeff_jarvis/2006/08/making_war_look_worse.html

The photographer/perpetrator of this scandal is named, of all things, Hajj - and his photos went out to every news service in the world. They were printed, broadcast and posted. They appeared in The New York Times and on the cover of U.S. News & World Report. Ask yourself, if you didn't know about this, how many others don't either? How many still believe the photos are real?

This incident is not the first time faked photos of supposed Israeli atrocities have surfaced. The "missile attack" on Red Cross Ambulances and the Gaza beach "incident" - both staged, both fake. This is a must see website!! http://www.zombietime.com/fraud/ambulance/

Back to the subject of terrorism. On Thursday, Aug 17, 2006, I went to a screening of a documentary film, sponsored by The Simon Weisenthal Center and Aish, at the Museum of Tolerance here in Los Angeles, called "Obsession, Radical Islam's War Against the West." I HIGHLY recommend everyone see this film. In fact, I can't say enough about the importance of seeing this film!
Follow this link to a page with further links: http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/interviews.htm

We ARE in a war - just not the one we think we're in. The Iraq war is but a skirmish in which we unhappily find ourselves quagmired. No, the REAL war is much, much bigger. The real war is with Radical Islam - and it is now!

On Aug. 18th, a friend sent me the article below by email.

Between Aug. 17 and Aug. 19, I posted these comments. I did this before I read the article. I'd come to my conclusions by watching the actions of Islamists and the media. I feel these comments bear repeating in light of this article and the film I saw. (with some editing and additions):

...Radical Islam has built a house of cards on the premise that the West is trying to destroy Islam. Yeah, there's politics and Moneytheism going on everywhere - even in Islam - but it's utter nonsense that the West was ever trying to destroy Islam. (How could the West possibly accomplish such a thing? There are over 1.5 billion Muslims!!! It makes NO logical sense! Hmm, wonder if they lie about it in order to anger mosques full of devout Muslims and whip them into a frenzy, i.e. turn them into Islamists, so they can be manipulated for Radical Islam's larger agenda - world domination!)

... you can't be swayed or have your values and culture destroyed unless you and/or they were weak to begin with. Strength makes you secure. Your core values cannot simply vanish because you watch MTV, see a movie, wear certain clothes or worship God in your own way. Strength allows other beliefs and ideas to live and let live. Weakness must control everything.

...Have any one of Osama bin Laden's 52 children come forward to be a suicide bomber? How about Zarkawi's kids or Nasrallah's? These mullahs incite and inflame...but that's just for other people's children. The expendables. Anything for their cause - even the ruthless, heartless sacrifice of Muslim children! That's the very definition of hypocrisy.

Here are a couple of quotes from Radical Muslim Clerics.

-Radical Islamist Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris: "We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world, except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relieved of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew."

Fragment above from video clip. TO VIEW CLIP GO TO: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=669

-Syrian-born Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, who said: "We don't make a distinction between civilians and non-civilians, innocents and non-innocents. Only between Muslims and unbelievers. And the life of an unbeliever has no value. It has no sanctity. We will use your democracy to destroy your democracy."

Fragment above from speech. Follow link for more info: http://cedarmailer.com/americancongress/pages/archive/messagedetails.asp?ID=231

That was so unpleasant, I thought I'd finish my part of this article with a few more of my quotes:

...Right at this time in history, good people must stand up against fanatical religionists of all stripes. ...We MUST prevail because Radical Islam's ambitions call for the end of our freedom, our way of life and, ultimately, our very lives. Hitler, too, blamed the Jews for the world's ills and wanted to annihilate them.

...I sometimes wonder if all this trouble might have been avoided if only the fabulously wealthy Muslim countries had cared for the abjectly poor ones - instead of spending their vast wealth on Jihad.

...Radical Islam has reached an inhuman place where death is revered over life! They love death more than they love their children! Their hatred of Jews, America and the West is a poison ingested from childhood. I agree this sort of religion is the co-biggest danger in the world - right up there with Global Warming. (I sometimes wonder which of the two will do us in first?) This sort of "religion" needs to be stopped. They lost me at "We must kill you, kuffah!"
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I hope all will read the following. It's a big wake up call and well worth your time.

A View From the Eye of the Storm
Talk delivered by Israeli scientist, Haim Harari


As you know, I usually provide the scientific and technological "entertainment" in our meetings, but, on this occasion, our Chairman suggested that I present my own personal view on events in the part of the world from which I come. I have never been and I will never be a Government official and I have no privileged information. My perspective is entirely based on what I see, on what I read and on the fact that my family has lived in this region for almost 200 years. You may regard my views as those of the proverbial taxi driver, which you are supposed to question, when you visit a country.

I could have shared with you some fascinating facts and some personal thoughts about the Israeli-Arab conflict. However, I will touch upon it only in passing. I prefer to devote most of my remarks to the broader picture of the region and its place in world events. I refer to the entire area between Pakistan and Morocco, which is predominantly Arab, predominantly Moslem, but includes many non-Arab and also significant non-Moslem minorities.

Why do I put aside Israel and its own immediate neighborhood? Because Israel and any problems related to it, in spite of what you might read or hear in the world media, is not the central issue, and has never been the central issue in the upheaval in the region. Yes, there is a 100 year-old Israeli-Arab conflict, but it is not where the main show is. The millions who died in the Iran-Iraq war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Moslem regime is massacring its black Christian and Moslem citizens, has nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilian in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam Hussein did not invade Kuwait, endanger Saudi Arabia and butcher his own people because of Israel. Egypt did not use poison gas against Yemen in the 60's because of Israel. Assad the Father did not kill tens of thousands of his own citizens in one week in El Hamma in Syria because of Israel. The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel. The Libyan blowing up of the Pan-Am flight had nothing to do with Israel, and I could go on and on and on.

The root of the trouble is that this entire Moslem region is totally dysfunctional, by any standard of the word, and would have been so even if Israel would have joined the Arab league and an independent Palestine would have existed for 100 years. The 22 member countries of the Arab league, from Mauritania to the Gulf States, have a total population of 300 million, larger than the US and almost as large as the EU before its expansion. They have a land area larger than either the US or all of Europe. These 22 countries, with all their oil and natural resources, have a combined GDP smaller than that of Netherlands plus Belgium and equal to half of the GDP of California alone.

Within this meager GDP, the gaps between rich and poor are beyond belief and too many of the rich made their money not by succeeding in business, but by being corrupt rulers. The social status of women is far below what it was in the Western World 150 years ago. Human rights are below any reasonable standard, in spite of the grotesque fact that Libya was elected Chair of the UN Human Rights commission. According to a report prepared by a committee of Arab intellectuals and published under the auspices of the U.N., the number of books translated by the entire Arab world is much smaller than what little Greece alone translates. The total number of scientific publications
of 300 million Arabs is less than that of 6 million Israelis. Birth rates in the region are very high, increasing the poverty, the social gaps and the cultural decline. And all of this is happening in a region, which only 30 years ago, was believed to be the next wealthy part of the world - one that developed, at some point in history, one of the most advanced cultures in the world.

It?s fair to say that this creates an unprecedented breeding ground for cruel dictators, terror networks, fanaticism, incitement, suicide murders and general decline. It is also a fact that almost everybody in the region blames this situation on the United States, on Israel, on Western Civilization, on Judaism and Christianity, on anyone and anything except themselves. Do I say all of this with the satisfaction of someone discussing the failings of his enemies? On the contrary, I firmly believe that the world would have been a much better place and my own neighborhood would have been much more pleasant and peaceful, if things were different.

I should also say a word about the millions of decent, honest, good people who are either devout Moslems or are not very religious but grew up in Moslem families. They are double victims of an outside world, which now develops Islamophobia - and of their own environment, which breaks their hearts by being totally dysfunctional. The problem is that the vast silent majority of these Moslems are not part of the terror or of the incitement but they also do not stand up against it. They become accomplices, by omission, and this applies to political leaders, intellectuals, business people and many others. Many of them can certainly tell right from wrong, but are afraid to express their views.

The events of the last few years have amplified four issues, which have always existed, but have never been as rampant as in the present upheaval in the region. These are the FOUR main pillars of the current World Conflict, or perhaps we should already refer to it as "the undeclared World War III". I have no better name for the present situation. A few more years may pass before everybody acknowledges that it is a World War, but we are already well into it.

The FIRST element is the suicide murder. Suicide murders are not a new invention but they have been made popular, if I may use this expression, only lately. Even after September 11, it seems that most of the Western World does not yet understand this weapon. It is a very potent psychological weapon. Its real direct impact is relatively minor. The total number of casualties from hundreds of suicide murders within Israel in the last three years is much smaller than those due to car accidents. September 11 was quantitatively much less lethal than many earthquakes. More people die from AIDS in one day in Africa than all the Russians who died in the hands of Chechnya-based Moslem suicide murderers since that conflict started. Saddam killed, every month, more people than all those who died from suicide murders since the Coalition occupation of Iraq.

So what is all the fuss about suicide killings? It creates headlines. It is spectacular. It is frightening. It is a very cruel death with bodies dismembered and horrible severe lifelong injuries to many of the wounded. It is always shown on television in great detail. One such murder, with the help of hysterical media coverage, can destroy the tourism industry of a country for quite a while, as it did in Bali and in Turkey.

But the real fear comes from the undisputed fact that no defense and no preventive measures can succeed against a determined suicide murderer. This has not yet penetrated the thinking of the Western World. The U.S. and Europe are constantly improving their defense against the last murder, not the next one. We may arrange for the best airport security in the world, but if you want to murder by suicide, you do not have to board a plane in order to explode yourself and kill many people. Who could stop a suicide murder in the midst of the crowded line waiting to be checked by the airport metal detector? How about the lines to the check-in counters in a busy travel period? Put a metal detector in front of every train station in Spain and the terrorists will get on the buses. Protect the buses and they will explode in movie theaters, concert halls, supermarkets, shopping malls, schools and hospitals. Put guards in front of every concert hall and there will always be a line of people to be checked by the guards and this line will be the target, not to speak of killing the guards themselves. You can somewhat reduce your vulnerability by preventive and defensive measures and by strict border controls but not eliminate it and definitely not win the war in a defensive way. And it is a war!

What is behind the suicide murders? Money, power and cold-blooded, murderous incitement, nothing else. It has nothing to do with true fanatic religious beliefs. No Moslem preacher has ever blown himself up. No son of an Arab politician or religious leader has ever blown himself up. No relative of anyone influential has done it. Wouldn't you expect some of the religious leaders to do it themselves, or to talk their sons into doing it, if this is truly a supreme act of religious fervor? Aren't they interested in the benefits of going to Heaven? Instead, they send outcast women, naive children, retarded people and young incited hotheads. They promise them the delights, mostly sexual, of the next world, and pay their families handsomely after the supreme act is performed and enough innocent people are dead.

Suicide murders also have nothing to do with poverty and despair. The poorest region in the world, by far, is Africa. It never happens there (in non-Muslim countries). There are numerous desperate people in the world, in different cultures, countries and continents. Desperation does not provide anyone with explosives, reconnaissance and transportation. There was probably more despair in Saddam's Iraq then in Paul Bremmer's Iraq, and no one exploded himself. A suicide murder is simply a horrible, vicious weapon of cruel, inhuman, cynical, well-funded terrorists, with no regard for human life, including the life of their fellow countrymen, but with very high regard for their own affluent well-being and their hunger for power.

The only way to fight this new popular weapon is identical to the only way in which you fight organized crime or pirates on the high seas: offensively. Like in the case of organized crime, it is crucial that the forces on the offensive be united and it is crucial to reach the top of the crime pyramid. You cannot eliminate organized crime by arresting the little drug dealer in the street corner. You must go after the head of the "Family."

If part of the public supports it, others tolerate it. If many are afraid of it and some try to explain it away by poverty or by a miserable childhood, organized crime will thrive and so will terrorism. The United States understands this now, after September 11. Russia is beginning to understand it. Turkey understands it well. I am very much afraid that most of Europe still does not understand it. Unfortunately, it seems that Europe will understand it only after suicide murders arrive in Europe in a big way. In my humble opinion, this will definitely happen. The Spanish, London, Delhi and Istanbul bombings are only the beginning. The unity of the Civilized World in fighting this horror is absolutely indispensable. Until Europe wakes up, this unity will not be achieved.

The SECOND ingredient is words, more precisely lies. Words can be lethal. They kill people. It is often said that politicians, diplomats and perhaps also lawyers and business people must sometimes lie, as part of their professional life. But the norms of politics and diplomacy are childish, in comparison with the level of incitement and total, absolute and deliberate fabrications, which have reached new heights in the region we are talking about. An incredible number of people in the Arab world believe that September 11 never happened, or was an American provocation or, even better, a Jewish plot.

You all remember the Iraqi Minister of Information, Mr. Mouhamad Said al-Sahaf and his press conferences when the US forces were already inside Baghdad. Disinformation at time of war is an accepted tactic. But to stand, day after day, and to make such preposterous statements, known to everybody to be lies, without even being ridiculed in your own milieu, can only happen in this region. Mr. Sahaf eventually became a popular icon as a court jester, but this did not stop some allegedly respectable newspapers from giving him equal time. It also does not prevent the Western press from giving credence, every day, even now, to similar liars. After all, if you want to be an anti-Semite, there are subtle ways of doing it. You don?t have to claim that the holocaust never happened or that the Jewish temple in Jerusalem never existed. But millions of Moslems are told by their leaders that this is the case. When these same leaders make other statements, the Western media report them as if they could be true.

It is a daily occurrence that the same people, who finance, arm and dispatch suicide murderers, condemn the act in English in front of western TV cameras, talking to a world audience, which even partly believes them. It is a daily routine to hear the same leader, making statements in Arabic to his people, and the opposite statements in English to the rest of the world. Incitement by Arab TV, accompanied by horror pictures of mutilated bodies, has become a powerful weapon of those who lie, distort and want to destroy everything. Little children are raised on deep hatred and on admiration of so-called martyrs, and the Western World does not notice because it?s not reported and because they haven?t yet learned to be interested. I recommend to you, even though most of you do not understand Arabic, to watch Al Jazeera, from time to time. You will not believe your own eyes.

But words also work in other, more subtle ways. A demonstration in Berlin, carrying banners supporting Saddam's regime and featuring three-year old babies dressed as suicide murderers, is defined by the press and by political leaders as a peace demonstration. You may support or oppose the Iraq war, but to refer to fans of Saddam, Arafat or Bin Laden as peace activists is a bit too much. A woman walks into an Israeli restaurant in midday, eats, observes families with old people and children eating their lunch in the adjacent tables and pays the bill. She then blows herself up, killing 20 people, including many children, with heads and arms rolling around in the restaurant. She is called martyr by several Arab leaders, and activist by the European press. Dignitaries condemn the act but visit her bereaved family and the money flows.

There is a new game in town: The actual murderer is called the military wing, the one who pays him, equips him and sends him is now called the political wing and the head of the operation is called the spiritual leader. There are numerous other examples of such Orwellian nomenclature, used every day not only by terror chiefs but also by Western media. These words are much more dangerous than many people realize. They provide an emotional infrastructure for atrocities. It was Joseph Goebels who said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. He is now being outperformed by his successors.

The THIRD aspect is money. Huge amounts of money - that could have solved many social problems in this dysfunctional part of the world - are channeled into three concentric spheres supporting death and murder. In the inner circle are the terrorists themselves. The money funds their travel, explosives, hideouts and permanent search for soft vulnerable targets. They are surrounded by a second wider circle of direct supporters, planners, commanders, preachers, all of whom make a living, usually a very comfortable living, by serving as the terror infrastructure.

Finally, we find the third circle of so-called religious, educational and welfare organizations, which actually do some good, feed the hungry and provide some schooling, but brainwash a new generation with hatred, lies and ignorance. This circle operates mostly through mosques, madrases and other religious establishments - but also through incendiary electronic and printed media. It is this circle that makes sure that women remain inferior, that democracy is unthinkable and that exposure to the outside world is minimal. It is also this circle that leads the way in blaming everybody outside the Moslem world for the miseries of the region. Figuratively speaking this outer circle is the guardian that makes sure the people look and listen inward towards the inner circle of terror and incitement, rather than to the world outside. Some parts of this same outer circle actually operate as a result of fear of, or blackmail by, the inner circles. The horrifying added factor is the high birth rate. Half of the population of the Arab world is under the age of 20, the most receptive age to incitement, guaranteeing two more generations of blind hatred.

Of the three circles described above, the inner circles are primarily financed by terrorist states like Iran and Syria, until recently also by Iraq and Libya and earlier also by some of the Communist regimes. These states, as well as the Palestinian Authority, are the safe havens of the wholesale murder vendors. The outer circle is largely financed by Saudi Arabia, but also by donations from certain Moslem communities in the United States, by Europe and, to a smaller extent, donations of European Governments to various NGO's (non -governmental organizations) and by certain United Nations organizations, whose goals may be noble, but they are infested and exploited by agents of the outer circle. The Saudi regime, of course, will be the next victim of major terror, when the inner circle explodes into the outer circle. The Saudis are beginning to understand it - but they fight the inner circles, while still financing the infrastructure at the outer circle.

Some of the leaders of these various circles live very comfortably on their loot. You meet their children in the best private schools in Europe, not in the training camps of suicide murderers. The Jihad "soldiers" join packaged death tours to Iraq and other hotspots, while some of their leaders ski in Switzerland. Suha Arafat, widow of Yasser Arafat, who lives in Paris with her daughter, receives tens of thousands dollars per month from the allegedly bankrupt Palestinian Authority, while a typical local ringleader of the Al-Aksa Brigade, reporting to Abbas, receives only a cash payment of a couple of hundred dollars, for performing murders at the retail level.

The FOURTH element of the current world conflict is the total breaking of all laws. The civilized world believes in democracy, the rule of law, including international law, human rights, free speech and free press, among other liberties. There are naive old-fashioned habits such as respecting religious sites and symbols, not using ambulances and hospitals for acts of war, avoiding the mutilation of dead bodies and not using children as human shields or human bombs. Never in history, not even in the Nazi period, was there such total disregard of all of the above as we observe now. Every student of political science debates how you prevent an antidemocratic force from winning a democratic election and abolishing democracy. Other aspects of a civilized society must also have limitations. Can a policeman open fire on someone trying to kill him? Can a government listen to phone conversations of terrorists and drug dealers? Does free speech protect you when you "shout fire" in a crowded theater? Should there be death penalty for deliberate multiple murders? These are the old-fashioned dilemmas - but now we have an entirely new set.

Do you raid a mosque, that serves as a terrorist ammunition storage? Do you return fire, if you are attacked from a hospital? Do you storm a church taken over by terrorists who took the priests hostage? Do you search every ambulance after a few suicide murderers use ambulances to reach their targets? Do you strip every woman because one pretended to be pregnant and carried a suicide bomb on her belly? Do you shoot back at someone trying to kill you, standing deliberately behind a group of children? Do you raid terrorist headquarters, hidden in a mental hospital? Do you shoot an arch-murderer who deliberately moves from one location to another, always surrounded by children? All of these happen daily in Iraq and in the Palestinian areas. What do you do? Well, you do not want to face the dilemma...but it cannot be avoided.

Suppose, for the sake of discussion, an infamous terrorist openly stays in a well-known address in Teheran, hosted by the Iranian Government and financed by it, executing one atrocity after another in Britain, Spain or in France, killing hundreds of innocent people, accepting responsibility for the crimes, promising in public TV interviews to do more of the same, while the Government of Iran issues public condemnations of his acts but continues to host him, invite him to official functions and treat him as a great dignitary.

The problem is that the civilized world is still having illusions about the rule of law in a totally lawless environment. It is trying to play ice hockey by sending a figure skater into the rink or to knock out a heavyweight boxer by sending in a chess player! In the same way that no country has a law against cannibals eating its prime minister, because such an act is unthinkable, international law does not address killers shooting from hospitals, mosques and ambulances while being protected by their Government or society. International law does not know how to handle someone who dispatches children to throw stones, then stands behind them and shoots with immunity - and cannot be arrested because a Government shelters him. International law does not know how to deal with a leader of murderers who is royally and comfortably hosted by a country that pretends to condemn his acts or claims to be "just too weak" to arrest him.

The amazing thing is that all of these crooks demand protection under international law and define all those who attack them as war criminals, with some Western media repeating the allegations. The good news is that all of this is temporary, because the evolution of international law has always adapted itself to reality. The punishment for perpetrating suicide murder should be life imprisonment in solitary confinement. No contact with anyone but jailers. No opportunity to perpetrate another murder - ever! After every world war, the rules of international law have changed and the same will happen after the present one. During this twilight zone, though, a lot of harm can be done.

The picture I've described here is not pretty. What can we do about it? In the short run, only fight and win. In the long run only educate the next generation and open it to the world. The inner circles can and must be destroyed. The outer circle cannot be eliminated by force. Here we need financial starvation of the organizing elite, more power for women, more education, counter propaganda, boycott whenever feasible and access to Western media, Internet and the international scene. Above all, we need a total absolute unity and determination of the civilized world against all three circles of terror.

But before you fight and win, you have to realize that you are in a war - and this may take Europe a few more years. In order to win, it is necessary to first eliminate the terrorist regimes, so that no Government in the world will serve as a safe haven for these people. I do not want to comment here on whether the American-led attack on Iraq was justified from the point of view of weapons of mass destruction or any other prewar argument, but I can look at the postwar map of Western Asia. Now that Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are out, two and a half terrorist states remain: Iran, Syria and Lebanon, the latter being a Syrian colony.

Perhaps Sudan should be added to the list. As a result of the conquest of Afghanistan and Iraq, both Iran and Syria are now totally surrounded by countries unfriendly to them. Iran is encircled by Afghanistan, by the Gulf States, Iraq and the Moslem republics of the former Soviet Union. Syria is surrounded by Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel. This is a significant strategic change and it applies strong pressure on the terrorist countries. It is not surprising that Iran is so active in trying to incite a Shiite uprising in Iraq. I do not know if the American plan was actually to encircle both Iran and Syria, but that is the resulting situation.

In my humble opinion, the number one danger to the world today is Iran and its regime. It definitely has ambitions to rule vast areas and to expand in all directions. It has an ideology, which claims supremacy over Western culture. It is ruthless. It has proven it can execute elaborate terrorist acts, using Iranian Embassies, without leaving too many traces. It is clearly trying to develop Nuclear Weapons. Its so-called moderates and conservatives play their own virtuoso version of the good-cop - bad-cop game. Iran sponsors Syrian terrorism, and is certainly behind much of the action in Iraq. It is fully funding Hizbulla and, through it, the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It performed acts of terror in Europe, South America and probably also in Uzbekhistan and Saudi Arabia. It truly leads a multinational terror consortium, which includes, as minor players, Syria, Lebanon and certain Shiite elements in Iraq. Nevertheless, most European countries still trade with Iran, try to appease it and refuse to read the clear signals.

In order to win the war it is also necessary to dry the financial resources of the terror conglomerate. It is pointless to try to understand the subtle differences between the Sunni terror of Al Qaida and Hamas and the Shiite terror of Hizbulla, Sadr and other Iranian inspired enterprises. When it serves their purposes, all of them collaborate beautifully. It is crucial to stop Saudi and other financial support of the outer circle, which is the fertile breeding ground of terror. It is important to monitor all donations from the Western World to Islamic organizations and to monitor the finances of international relief organizations. We must react with forceful economic measures to any small sign of financial aid to any of the three circles of terrorism. It is also important to act decisively against the campaign of lies and fabrications and to monitor those Western media who collaborate with it out of naiveté, financial interests or ignorance.

Above all, never surrender to terror.

Is the solution a democratic Arab world? If by democracy we mean free elections but also free press, free speech, a functioning judicial system, civil liberties, equality for women, free international travel, exposure to international media and ideas, laws against racial incitement and against defamation, and avoidance of lawless behavior regarding hospitals, places of worship and children, then yes, democracy is the solution. If democracy is just free elections, it is likely that the most fanatic regime will be elected, the one whose incitement and fabrications are the most inflammatory. The Iranians, the Lebanese and the Palestinians voted exactly that way. We've also seen it in Algeria and, to a certain extent, in Turkey. It will happen again, if the ground is not prepared very carefully. On the other hand, a certain transition democracy, as in Jordan, may be a better temporary solution, paving the way for the real thing, perhaps in the same way that an immediate sudden democracy did not work in Russia.

I have no doubt that the civilized world will prevail. But the longer it takes us to understand the new landscape of this war, the more costly and painful the victory will be. Europe, more than any other region, is the key. Its understandable recoil from wars, following the horrors of World War II, may cost thousands of additional innocent lives, before the tide will turn.

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MUST-SEE WEBSITES

www.noniedarwish.com

Nonie Darwish's father headed the Egyptian military in Gaza and the Sinai when Gaza was under Egyptian control in the fifties. He was appointed by Egypt's President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, to head the Fedayeen operations against Israel. He was also a founding members of the PLO. In 1956 he was killed in the Jihad against Israel and became a national hero, a "Shahid." In 1978, she emigrated to America. After 9/11 she realized that her culture of origin is in a head-on collision with the rest of the world, and started speaking out against terrorism and the underlying culture that produced it. She is featured extensively in the new documentary, "Obsession, Radical Islam's War Against the West." She speaks extensively, and is currently writing her first book: "Lifting the veil; by the daughter of a Shahid." She is married and the mother of three.

Nonie's other website: www.arabsforisrael.com

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