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The reality is no one on earth is
going to try Arafat for his crimes.
All of the governments recognize
him as the leader of the Pales-
tinians and have only a margin-
al interest in whether he fulfills
his commitments.
If Arafat can be tied to contin-
uing terrorist attacks against
Jews, the U.S. Congress, at least,
would be inclined to take action;
that is, withhold aid to the Pales-
tinians. The determination of
Arafat's responsibility inevitably
will be made by the Israeli gov-
ernment.
This is not new. What Amer-
ican Jews know about the PLO's
activities is based almost entire-
ly on what the Israelis tell us.
When a terrorist incident oc-
curs, we have no independent
way of learning who was re-
sponsible. We have always sim-
ply believed the Israeli
government when it announced
the perpetrators were PLO,
Hamas or whomever.
I don't recall any American
Jew questioning the Israeli line
— until now. Opponents of the
peace process are so determined
to undermine the government,
and so convinced of its treachery,
that they accuse it of lying. Be-
cause of a desire to demonize the
PLO (to the extent it needed
help), the government always
had an incentive to blame Arafat
for terrorism.
Arafat is like the
genie who escaped
from the bottle. It's
no use wasting time
trying to shove him
back in.
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Today, the motives are the re-
verse. Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin wants everyone
to believe Arafat is sincere about
peace, so his government blames
every attack on Hamas. Is this
the truth? How should I know?
Israeli opponents of the gov-
ernment can certainly accuse it
of lying, but they would have a
tough time proving it. American
Jews can take a similar position,
the problem is that many simul-
taneously claim they really sup-
port the peace process and don't
oppose or criticize the govern-
ment. Sorry, you can't have it
both ways.
I'm reminded of Amnesty In-
ternational's routine condemna-
tions of Israel. Amnesty can at
least carry out an investigation
and offer some evidence before it
makes its charges. Do you believe
Amnesty or the government? I
guarantee the American Jews
who believe Mr. Rabin lies about
Arafat would trust the prime
minister given that choice.
Who commits a terrorist act
and which organization is re-
sponsible should be a simple
question of fact, but for Ameri-
can Jews it is not. It is really a
matter of faith. Do you trust the
Israeli government or not?
Congress can hold hearings
and investigate, but it is not like-
ly to unearth independent infor-
mation. Unless the CIA
interrogates the suspects and has
infiltrated the terrorist cells, it
also has to rely heavily on what
the Israeli government says.
If we don't know who's re-
sponsible for terrorism, what can
the United States do about it? We
can blame Arafat, as the com-
pulsive PLO-bashers would like,
and try to punish him by with-
holding aid.
That is not going to happen be-
cause the Rabin government
views him as its peace partner
and maintains Arafat has taken
steps to reduce the violence. The
Clinton administration believes
this as well. Moreover, the ter-
rorists are doing fine without aid
now. If other Palestinians see no
improvement in their living con-
ditions (the purpose of the aid),
they will be more likely to turn
to terror.
So long as Jews live in the Is-
lamic world, radical fundamen-
talists will attack them. Israel
has to improve its security and
compel Arafat to take sterner
measures against Hamas and
other opponents of peace by ty-
ing implementation of the Dec-
laration of Principles to his
behavior.
Mr. Rabin is doing this. The
United States has limited options
for helping, but the president and
Congress are taking the appro-
priate steps by looking for ways
to prevent Americans from send-
ing money to the terrorists and
working to minimize Iran's abil-
ity to support them. U.S. rela-
tions with Syria also must be tied
to Syrian President Hafez al-As-
sad's actions to prevent terror
from Lebanon and willingness to
expel terrorists from Damascus.
Arafat is like the genie who es-
caped from the bottle. It's no use
wasting time trying to shove him
back in, so let's focus on measures
the United States can take to
stop terrorism. El
Mitchell G. Bard is a foreign
policy analyst and author of
The Water's Edge and Beyond:
Defining the Limits to Domestic
Influence on U.S. Middle East
Policy.
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