USCFL - The Root of Terror, Not the "Root Cause"

Forget the peace process, it´s passé. After six suicide bombings in six days, Israeli PM Sharon has taken action to smash the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, starting in Ramallah. Puzzlingly, there is an outpouring of sympathy not for the innocent Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism, but for the confined arch-terrorist, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, and his fellow perpetrators of violence. His supporters include international peace activists who tried to smuggle highly wanted Palestinian terrorists out of his Ramallah compound.

Sharon´s military incursions alone cannot halt terrorist attacks. The PA, if dismantled, will be replaced by other terror groups, with new leaders capable of committing even worse atrocities. That´s because the root of terror is not in Ramallah, nor is it in Qalqiliya, Bethlehem, Tulkarem or Jenin, but in Islamic terror-sponsoring regimes, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Israel must get to the source and cut off the snake´s head before it sinks its venomous fangs into more innocent victims. For that, the support of the West is needed.

Europeans are not interested in the mounting Israeli death toll, because it does not affect their national interests. Middle East oil, on the other hand, does. It´s in Europe´s economic interest to side with Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich regimes, regardless of their complicity in terror. It seems to be in Canada´s interest as well to side with terror. Canada´s insistence that it recognizes Israel´s right to self-defence is the height of hypocrisy - it has recently condemned Israel for its so-called disproportionate use of military force against Palestinians.

Americans? Many seemed to have forgotten September 11th. They seem to have forgotten that they are fighting the same war as the Israelis, but on a different front. As of now, Israel is receiving U.S. support. Yet as soon as oil prices soar - and it´s starting - U.S. support for Israel will plunge. For the massacres in Israel to have any impact on Westerners, it must be made clear that suicide bombings, the new form of warfare for Palestinians, pose a direct threat not just to Israel, but to the West too. Sadly, if that´s what it takes to force Westerners to open up their eyes to the savagery of suicide bombings in Israel, then so be it.

It must be made clear that terrorism is not exclusive to the Middle East, but is spewing over to the shores of North America, Europe and Asia. Suicide bombers will eventually make their way overseas unless they are condemned and defeated. Doing otherwise merely legitimizes their vile acts, signaling a green light to inflict more Sept.11th-like tragedies on Western shores. It must be made clear that Palestinian terrorist groups have ties with global Islamic terrorist groups that are plotting the demise of the West - groups such as al-Qaeda, whose members are finding refuge in Iran. It must be made clear that Westerners are also being targeted. Hundreds of Americans have been killed overseas by Islamic terrorist organizations over the past few decades. Hundreds more may yet be killed.

Palestinians have become mere pawns used by Arab bankrollers of terrorism to spur on the ultimate clash with the West. It should come as no surprise that Saddam Hussein has recently increased his terror bounty to the families of suicide bombers to $25,000. Saudi Arabia has put aside $400 million to support the families of ‘martyrs’, according to the Saudi Embassy´s web site. According to writer Stephen Schwartz, “at $5,300 per martyr, that works out to about 75,000 martyrs,” suggesting that Saudi Arabia anticipates many more suicide bombings, be it in Israel or overseas.

Until the Western world realizes this and offers its support to Israel, Sharon´s attempts to root out terrorism in the PA-controlled terrorist havens and hotbeds of suicide bombers will be futile in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile there is an escalating conflict at the Lebanese border. Hezbollah terrorists, supported by Lebanon, Syria and Iran, are heating up the northern region by firing mortars and rockets at Israeli positions. For terrorism to halt, it needs to be rooted out from its places of origin.

Saudi Arabia is a good place to start.

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Article:	The Root of Terror, Not the "Root Cause"
Author:	Cynthia Yacowar-Sweeney
Date:	April 2002