Newspaper Article

Bush Also Has to Stop the Israel-Palestinian War

Milton Viorst. Milton Viorst is a Mideast correspondent and author of "In the Shadow of the Prophet: The Struggle for the Soul of Islam." This is from the Los Angeles Times

2002

Overview

No government can do much to change the nihilistic world outlook of a bin Laden. It can only stamp out its murderous agents.To be sure, the apocalyptic vision of Hamas, the organization most involved in anti-Israeli terror, shares some of bin Laden's nihilism. Hamas is not interested in a sensible peace. But it is important to remember that in the years after the 1993 Oslo peace accords, which offered the prospect of a reasonable settlement, support for Hamas was at single digits in Palestinian polls and terrorism dropped dramatically. Only within today's context has Hamas gained support in the polls. In refusing to meet with [Yasser Arafat], [George W. Bush] has instead endorsed [Ariel Sharon]'s declaration that Arafat is \"irrelevant.\" And since Sharon had already said his offer would be much less generous than previous proposals Arafat had already rejected, it was tantamount to no offer at all. Bush, however, seems unable to recognize the differences between Palestinian resistance and bin Laden's pure destructiveness, much less the link that exists between them. Relatively few Muslims identify with bin Laden's extremist ideology, but most identify with what they see as oppression of their own people. Every night, they see on television tanks and helicopters manned by Israelis, built and paid for by Americans. If many indiscreetly cheered when the Twin Towers fell, it was not for bin Laden but for the punishment inflicted on those they consider the oppressors.

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