Don't feed Israel to the beast 

Debra J. Saunders
http://www.jewishworldreview.com 

IF the United States were to walk away from Israel, would Osama 
bin Laden and terrorist networks back off, as some San Francisco 
Chronicle readers apparently believe? 

Big No. 

First, bin Laden hates the United States more than Israel. 
As Afghanistan specialist David B. Edwards of Williams College 
noted: "The biggest issue for Osama bin laden isn't Israel. The 
biggest issue is the U.S. troops in the (Persian) Gulf, near 
holy places." Bin Laden readily admits that he turned against 
America after U.S. troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1990. 

"If Israel had never been created," asserts pro-war activist 
Clifford May, "we'd still be going through this." Former GOP 
Gov. Pete Wilson, now a member of the Bush administration's 
Defense Policy Board, adds, "If Israel had not existed, Iraq 
still would have attacked Kuwait." 

Or take the word of bin Laden himself: "The call to wage war 
against America was made because America has spearheaded the 
crusade against the Islamic nation, sending tens of thousands of 
troops to the land of the two Holy Mosques," he told Time 
Magazine in 1999, referring to the Persian Gulf War deployment. 

Two, you don't appease mass murderers. 

"The people who say that (America should abandon Israel) are 
precisely like the people who said back in the 1930s that if we 
just let Hitler have Czechoslovakia, he'll be satisfied. It doesn't 
take very much research to understand that these militant Islamic 
terrorists want much more than the destruction of Israel. They seek 
the destruction of America and the West." Said Wilson: "There is no 
appeasement. Appeasement does not do more than gain a small amount 
of time at a great cost, because it encourages aggressors to expand 
their evil efforts." 

Edwards, who thinks to the left of May and Wilson, has a different 
take, but ends up at the same place: "There is no doubt that as 
long as the Palestinian-Israel situation festers, there is going 
to be terrorism. There's going to be a deep-seated mistrust of the 
United States." But, "If we were to suddenly drop our support of 
Israel, it would be tremendously destabilizing, and a sign of 
weakness." 

Three, if America ends its alliance with Israel, more blood will 
flow, not only here, but also in the Mideast. 

The only question is whose blood, and for that there is no good 
answer. Wilson fears terrorists "would try to murder every last 
Israeli. They would try to literally destroy Israel. May believes 
"if Israel is destroyed, it will only whet their appetite." 

Edwards has a different take: He fears that in an isolated Israel 
"the temptation would be much greater to use nuclear weapons if 
need be to protect themselves. I'd hate to see the Masada complex 
come to life again." Masada is the high mesa on which almost 
1,000 Israelis killed themselves rather than submit to a Roman 
army in 73. 

Four, free people must defeat murderous thugs. 

Many times I've heard people wonder out loud how it is that the 
world could turn a deaf ear to Hitler's well-aired genocidal plans. 
Of course, it's easier to accept murderous intent when other 
people are the target. But also, the answer can be found today 
when well-meaning people say that they need to understand the 
motives of the terrorists, as if they is some mystery (there 
isn't), or worse, some redeeming cause behind the slaughter. 
Some, to their discredit, see Israel as the sop to throw at 
Terror. 

They do not understand that they can't feed Jews to Terror, 
and then expect Terror to not crave other Infidels. They do not 
understand that peace and terror cannot coexist. They do not 
understand that sometimes people have to fight for freedom, 
or that freedom is worth fighting for.