Cover Story/War On Terrorism What's In Store? In the aftermath of Sept. 11, U-M professor offers insights into the Mideast's future. HARRY KI RS BAU M Staff Writer It aymond Tanter is confident of the Israel Defense Forces' ability to protect Israel from another Yom Kippur War against Arab states, but he sees the day-to-day conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs as the real challenge. "The IDF will not be able to deter suicide bombers who are willing to die anyway," said Tanter, professor emeritus of political science and research associate at the Middle East Center at the University of Michigan. "They are only relevant against states like Egypt, Jordan and Syria." The American Homeland Defense idea is designed to stop the same type of unpredictable acts of terror- ism in America, he told a crowd of 325 people at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield on Oct. 15. The event was sponsored by the JCC's Institute for Retired Professionals. "America now joins Israel as a vulnerable society," he said. Tanter is a scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington, where he is researching U.S. policy options regarding Iran. He wrote Rogue Regimes: Terrorism and Proliferation (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997) and said he had trouble con- vincing his publisher to put a picture of Osama bin Laden on the cover with Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Libya's Muammar Qaddafi. The publisher thought Fidel Castro would become big trouble in the years to come, Tanter said. The 45-minute talk Oct. 15 included a short his- tory of the Mideast conflict, bin Laden's real priori- ties, the impact of Sept. 11, the different approach- es used against terrorism and future scenarios. Islamists: The Real Enemy Tanter explained the true enemy of the allies are Islamists, not Islam. "[Cult leaders] David Koresh and Jim Jones are to Christianity what bin laden is to Islam," he said. Bin Laden and his followers are Islamists. "Islam doesn't have a hierarchy, so no one can tell Osama bin Laden to shut up, so he issues a fatwa [Muslim reli- gious ruling] to kill Christians and Jews. There's no Muslim authority to put them down, so young, dis- enfranchised suicide bombers in Gaza and the West Bank tend to get their energy from bin Laden." According to Tanter, bin Laden's priorities are the Saudi Arabian peninsula, Iraq and the Palestinians, in that order, with the Palestinians a distant third. "It was something bin Laden never, ever thought about until he began to run from the bombs," he said. "All of a sudden, the Palestinian youths have become a priority." Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who suddenly 10/19 2001 16 took to wearing a white hat by donating blood, is now saying, `Look Osama, don't touch our issue, we don't want anything to do with you.'" The terror attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the downed jet in Pennsylvania have given "a shot in the arm" to an Israeli- Palestinian agreement, Tanter said. "There could not have been a statement by President Bush about a Palestinian state with- out the violence of Sept. 11," he said. The idea was allow- able because Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Raymond Tanter Arafat had no choice but to accept it. "The Palestinians have expressed a willingness to stop fighting. And this is likely to hold because neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are comfortable about being on the wrong side of the U.S. on this issue." What Now? Tanter explained how differently Israel and the U.S. handled terrorism, at least until Sept. 11. The U.S. would handle a terrorist attack as a criminal act; Israel would see it as a threat to national security. The U.S. treated terrorists as culpable individuals, as they did with the Pan Am Flight 103 that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. "[They] indicted two Libyan intelligence agents and got a conviction; they [the prosecutors] were giving each other high fives," he said. "How is this a success when Colonel Qaddafi was • responsible?" The U.S. is now moving • 5 Q away from the law enforcement • approach, he said. "That's why President Bush called it a war on terrorism. To put these characters in jail misses the point. States sponsor terrorism. States should be held responsi- ble for their action, not indi- viduals." Tanter defined victory in the war on terrorism as a set of milestones: Al Qaida, bin Laden and the Taliban — in that order. "Without the Taliban ruling Afghanistan, Osama is home- less," he said. "Terrorists need somewhere to base their operations. Al Qaida means the base, but the base needs a base." The allies should remain in Afghanistan once the Taliban is rooted out, he said. "You can't blow up buildings, kill people, drop food to them and then not try to build the nation back up again. If you have a failed state like Afghanistan, it's going to be like a vacuum clean- er, sucking in the Osama bin Ladens of the world again," he said. "That's why nation building is a corollary of the use of military force." The next steps should be Iraq, then Iran, then Syria, he said. "Iraq is next, and Saddam knows it. Either Iraq will go first against Israel, or Iraq will be hit by the United States and Great Britain." ❑ Donating For Relief Efforts New York/JTA hose wanting to make donations through Jewish organizations to disaster relief in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America can send funds to: T • The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, PO Box 2030, Bloomfield Township, MI 48303 • United Jewish Communities Emergency Relief Fund, 111 Eighth Ave., Suite 11E, New York, NY 10011 • United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Greater New York, F.D.R. Station, P.O. Box 5314, New York, NY 10150 • American Jewish World Service, 45 W 36th St., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or call 1-800- 889-7146 or visit www.ajws.org • Union of American Hebrew Congregations Disaster Relief Fund, Attn: Development Department, 633 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017 • B'nai B'rith International Disaster Relief Fund, 1640 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036 • National Council of Young Israel World Trade Center Emergency Fund, 3 W. 16th St., New York, NY 10011 • Agudath Israel of America Emergency Relief Fund, 42 Broadway, New York, NY 10004.