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President Saddam Hussein and ending
his weapons development programs.
Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Colombia
also are mentioned as potential targets.
Advocates for Israel say Hezbollah,
Hamas and Islamic Jihad should be
among the next groups targeted.
"The administration is just in fits over
what to do next," said Rachel Bronson,
a senior fellow with the Council on
.Foreign Relations. "The definition of
this war on terrorism is really up for
grabs."
How Israel figures in later stages of the
effort remains unclear. As the dust set-
tled after Sept. 11, Israel advocates ini-
tially figured America would now grasp
the Israeli reality.
But that hope quickly faded as
Americans asked, "Why do they hate
us? "
A number of U.S. pundits — and
most spokesmen for Arab- and Muslim-
American groups — blamed much of
the anti-American animus on
Washington's allegedly unwavering sup-
port for Israel against the Palestinians.
Israel was marginalized as Washington
courted the Arab world for its coalition
against bin Laden and his Al Qaida ter-
ror network. Vital links in the coalition,
such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, went
so far as to accuse the Jewish state of
being a "terrorist" regime.
President Bush stressed that the U.S.
campaign would target only those
groups with "global reach," disappoint-
ing many Jewish observers who hoped
the dragnet would include Hamas and
others.
Yet Bush's powerful rhetoric —
including a U.N. address in which he
rejected attempts to condone terror in
the name of national liberation — heart-
ened many Israelis. In fact, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon often adopts
Bush's slogans to describe Israel's own
struggle against Palestinian terror.
The recent Hamas attacks caught
Washington in the throes of another
Mideast diplomatic offensive. Envoy
Anthony Zinni arrived in the region just
last week, and many observers expected
that he would demand from Israel a
political program that offered Palestinian
Authority leader Yasser Arafat incentives
to end the intifada (uprising).
Just as Zinni was beginning his rounds
of meetings, however, the Palestinian
onslaught began.
"The whole subject is very uncomfort-
able for the administration, and it could-
n't have come at a worse time," said
David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the
Washington Institute for Near East
Policy. '`'On the one hand, it would like
Israel to stay off the radar screen. On the
other hand, it can't say, 'Do what I say,
not what I do.' No country would allow
suicide bombers to blow up its citizens
with impunity"
Still, there presumably are limits to
what Washington will tolerate. If Sharon
heeds his right wing and moves to top-
ple Arafat, American sympathy is likely
to evaporate.
"This talk of not having a partner in
Arafat is counter-productive, because the
administration looks at Arafat as the
only one to work with," Bronson said.
Moreover, Washington's basic tenden-
cy toward "even-handedness" is not like-
ly to change.
Secretary Powell may hope that the
Hamas attacks and the large death toll
are just an aberration, a blip that does
not dramatically affect American peace-
making efforts or its war in Afghanistan,
said Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle
East Forum.
Powell's statements this week that
showed greater understanding for Israel
"is not a shift, but a concession," Pipes
said. "The outrage is so evident that he
can't just tell Israel to cool it, absorb it,
and move on. So the secretary of state
cannot apply his outlook on the world
at this time."
Regardless, Pipes said, too much is
made of U.S. pressure on Israel. Both
countries make decisions based primarily
on their national interests, rather than
pressure, he said.
After the latest attacks, though,
Sharon's pledge that Israel will deal with
the Palestinian Authority as America is
dealing with the Taliban — because
both are regimes that harbor terrorists
— may sound increasingly reasonable to
others in Washington.
"They recognize more and more that
this terrorism is an interlocking network,
and killing Osama won't be enough,"
said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice
chairman of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations. "Terrorism must be
fought in absolutes."
To date, Israel's role in the U.S.-led
war on terror primarily has been to pro-
vide intelligence. In the future, Hoenlein
said, Washington may not mind if Israel
takes on the Hamas "portfolio."
"The fact is, Israel is important to the
war on terrorism, because every country
that fights terrorism within its borders or
outside its borders is taking a chink out
of the armor of Islamic extremism,"
Hoenlein said. "Just as Israel benefits
from what America is doing in
Afghanistan, America benefits from what
Israel is doing against terrorism. El
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