RIYADH — President Bush, you have written and played the lead in a very successful first act of our war on terrorism. I see much that is deserving of applause. First was your call for civility for all nations when deranged people brought about a heinous terrorist attack on your country. I applaud you for translating this strong position into action, freeing the people of Afghanistan from the debilitating leadership of the Taleban and Osama Bin Laden. I also applaud your encouraging the Americans to express their compassion by contributing money to help victims who suffered from war in Afghanistan.
Then came the escalation of terror in the war between Israel and Palestine. I applaud your efforts to use American influence to pressure Ariel Sharon to allow Yasser Arafat to attend the Arab League summit in Beirut. Nor did you waiver when the time came to join with the rest of the UN Security Council in a unanimous vote demanding Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories. And I applaud your willingness to support that vote with your own voice, and that of Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
And finally, I applaud your asking Palestinian and Arab leaders to stand firm against terrorism and act collectively for peace. But, President Bush, it is not applause you are looking for as the second act opens in the war on terror. You are looking for action, for people and nations willing to face the hard realities of sorting out what are acts of terror in a world of peace. And so, I look around to see who has heeded your words and who stands beside you to translate those words into appropriate action.
It isn’t your ally Israel. Instead, what the world sees is a nation which has twice ignored direct American requests for withdrawal from Palestinian territories — requests made in the interest of peace. Worse Sharon has twisted your administration’s words against terrorism into a justification for his reign of terror over the Palestinian lands his nation illegally occupies. Who does support your call for peace between Palestine and Israel? When I look out, what I see are Palestinian freedom fighters. They are giving action to your call on Israel to end its occupation of Palestine. It is the Palestinian freedom fighters, defending their elected leader, who assure that your request for Arafat to remain free from arrest and deportation is carried out. These are not terrorists who resist Sharon’s attack on their homes. They are desperate people confronted by an overwhelming occupying force, fighting to end the occupation of their homeland, fighting to implement UN Resolution 1421 by whatever means are at hand. And, just as the European resistance forces used personal, individual attacks on the Nazis because it was their only available weapon, so too do the resistance fighters of Palestine. Arafat has denounced terror against innocent civilians and has used strong words against suicide bombers.
They are not alone. The Arab states, working together, have called for recognition of Israel in peace and security based on UN Resolutions 242 and 343. It is they who also call upon the compassion of their people, urging contributions to help Palestinian freedom fighters resist Ariel Sharon, reflecting your kindness to victims of terror.
Who will write the words for our second act in the cause of peace and justice? Will it be Ariel Sharon, limiting the definition of terrorists to resistance fighters and ignoring the possibility of state terrorism? Or will we see that terrorism has many faces and many guises, all of which need to be confronted and condemned? The reality of our world is that states can be as much terrorists as individuals and need to be judged equally. When the smoke clears and the funerals are over, what we will find is that Sharon has not dismantled a “terrorist network” but the newly built skeleton of a Palestinian government with democratically elected leaders. That is why, just as you championed the right of the Afghan people to freedom from a terrorist government, so too must you campaign for the fight of the Palestinians against the terrorist actions of Israel.
I applaud the opening act in our search to end terrorism throughout the world. But will it be Ariel Sharon — in the face of world opposition — who pens the words to the second act in our war on terrorism? If so, I fear that the only sound we hear will be the deadly quiet of one hand clapping.
(Hassan Yassin is a Saudi businessman based in Riyadh.)