Negotiating with Terrorists (1/7/03)
by Dean Hartwell
President Bush has sent troops to
the Persian Gulf on a seemingly daily basis. He
has also had some harsh words for North Korea, which has
threatened to make nuclear weapons.
Where should the Bush Administration be focusing its
efforts in foreign policy?
The Middle East. Among these three places, only
the Middle East has had casualties in recent months.
And yet, President Bush has had little to say about a
place where people die from acts of violence so often
that it no longer qualifies as news.
Critics of United States foreign policy have complained
that we favor Israel too much over its enemies, such as
the Palestinians. They have a point: the State
Department recently said it would provide $2.16 billion
in military aid to Israel next fiscal year.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, we give
more money to Israel than any other nation.
The biggest supporters of Israel in the United States
are the Jews. Right behind them are evangelical
and conservative Christians. Though many
Christians support Israel because they believe they
share each other’s values, a good many do so because
they believe the Messiah will arrive there.
Last October, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Jack Hayford
and other well-known evangelists asked their
congregations to join in a day of “Prayer for
Israel.” A letter they signed stated that the
state of Israel was God’s gift to the Jews and that
its survival was “threatened,” presumably by
Palestinians. Left out of the letter was any
acknowledgement that many Palestinians are Christians.
Undoubtedly, some Palestinians are terrorists and do
threaten the lives of Israelis. But Israel, by
building onto territories they seized in wars, is a part
of that problem. Many believe that the United
States’ continued support for Israel fuels the
terrorism.
I propose the United States can do better than
supporting Israel unconditionally.
First, it can offer to gradually reduce its aid to Israel in
exchange for the terrorists to stop their use of
violence. If they do not stop, it would show that the
United States’ support for Israel does not incite
terrorists. We would then understand our
limitations in resolving the problems in the Middle East
and resume aid.
But if the terrorists stopped for a significant period of
time like one year, the United States would achieve two
goals: saving money, and, more importantly, stopping
terrorism.
Once the acts of terrorism
tapered off, the U.S. should give an equal amount of aid
to Israel and to Palestine per capita. Any acts of
violence from this point would result in more United
States aid to the harmed party.
The United States has an important card to play in the
Middle East. By calling the terrorists out and
forcing them to reveal their true motivation, the Bush
Administration can bring peace to a troubled region of
the world.