The good, the bad, and the UNattractive
By Ron Dermer

(October 18) The Good - A year ago, Rudy Giuliani's political 
career and personal life were in utter disarray. Stricken with 
cancer and mired in a messy divorce, New York's two-term mayor 
backed out of his Senate race against Hillary Clinton and was 
fading into the political sunset. 

Not that he was unappreciated. Even before the terrorist attack 
last month, Giuliani was destined to take his place alongside 
Fiorella Laguardia as one of New York's two greatest mayors. 
While he had, like all politicians, his fair share of detractors, 
many credited him with turning a crime-infested, dilapidated, 
dispirited city into a safe, clean and bustling metropolis. 

But in the days and weeks since September 11, Giuliani has given 
political leaders everywhere a crash course in crisis management. 
His calm demeanor and informative press conferences continue to 
reassure frightened New Yorkers that their government is handling 
matters as well as can be expected. 

This week, Giuliani showed once again that he was not only cool 
under fire, but also a man of principle. When a Saudi prince 
issued a statement calling on America to "reexamine its policies 
in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance to the 
Palestinian cause" and further claimed that "our Palestinian 
brethren continue to be slaughtered at the hands of the Israelis 
while the world turns the other cheek," Giuliani told his royal 
highness what to do metaphorically with the $10 million check 
he offered to donate to the World Trade Center relief. 

Possessing the same moral clarity that led him to once remove 
Yasser Arafat from a benefit performance in New York City, 
he said "there is no moral equivalent for this attack. The 
people who did it lost any right to ask for justification when 
they slaughtered 6,000 innocent people? Not only are those 
statements wrong, they're part of the problem." 

THE BAD - Unfortunately, Giuliani's clarity and courage is in 
short supply in the American State Department, where for the 
past year officials have been condemning Israel for defending 
itself and have drawn a despicable moral equivalency between 
terrorist and victim. Surely, Secretary of State Colin Powell 
would not take kindly to another country censuring the American 
bombing in Afghanistan for contributing to a senseless "cycle 
of violence." 

While America sees no problem protecting its own citizens from 
terrorism by launching cruise missiles at a country thousands 
of kilometers away, Israel is reproached for making the 
slightest incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory to 
root out terrorism on its own doorstep. The State Department's 
statement calling Israel's targeted killing of one of the 
masterminds of the suicide bombing that massacred 20 teenagers 
in the Dolphinariam Discoteque "excessive" and a "provocation" 
was absolutely revolting. 

It is important to remember that as a percentage of the 
population, 30 Israelis are equivalent to 1,000 Americans. 
There is no difference in principle between assassinating 
Osama bin Laden, who perpetrates his terrorist actions through 
his indoctrinated proxies, and assassinating the planners of 
attacks against Israeli civilians. To suggest otherwise is to 
suggest that American blood is redder than Israeli blood. 

The State Department is bending over backwards today to appease 
the Arab and Islamic world. Numerous diplomatic officials, who 
it is safe to assume have never set foot in a mosque, have 
suddenly become experts on Islam, scarcely missing an 
opportunity to praise the peaceable nature of the faith. 
The pressure being brought to bear on Israel - pressure 
invited by our own foreign minister's and prime minister's 
statements and actions - has become an integral part of the 
overall effort to "calm tensions" in the region. 

The effect of this appeasement will be precisely the opposite 
of the one that is intended. American and Israeli lives will be 
further endangered as Palestinian terrorists hear one message 
loud and clear: when you kill Americans, you will be rewarded. 

THE UGLY - It was touching this week to hear that the Nobel 
Committee had awarded the peace prize to UN Secretary-General 
Kofi Annan and the esteemed institution he heads. Of course, 
one can't help but wonder what action this year clinched the 
victory for Annan and the UN. Was it organizing the brilliant 
Durban conference on racism, voting to put peace-loving Syria 
on the Security Council, or whitewashing the participation of 
its troops in the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers? 

Then again, the decision by the committee will come as no 
surprise to those who have followed its decisions over the 
past few years. Having already awarded PLO Chairman Yasser 
Arafat the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee had long ago turned 
the world's most prestigious accolade into an exercise in 
wishful thinking. 

Perhaps the distinguished Norwegians believe that one day the 
UN and Annan could contribute as much to peace around the world 
as the PLO chairman has to peace in our region.