E. Secular Arabs vs. "martyrs for Allah"



Dear Friends, 
Mr. Arafat, one of the most secular of Arab leaders
-- something of a modernist-- has accused  bin Laden 
of exploiting the Palestinian cause to justify his acts 
of terrorism. Radio France Internationale commented on 
how this validates the Bush policy of recognizing a 
Palestinian State. 

Perhaps many in the West are congratulating themselves 
for this coup of diplomacy. But alas, it comes a bit late, 
for Mr. Arafat is a shaddow of a leader and had lost his 
stature and prestige when he literally "chickened out" 
at the last Camp David negotiations. Since them, as in 
ALL Muslem states of Asia and the Middle East, the Mullahs 
of Iran have, through Hamas, extended their dominance in 
the Palestinian lands in the name of spiritual over political. 
When boys and young men accept suicide missions, they are 
not going to be stopped because Arafat decides to pay the 
US back for promises of recognition. Arafat is still playing 
in the shaddow world of indecision and fluidity where "yes" 
is only an answer from the Chashire Cat. But "no" means a 
lot more. That is the answer the Muslem World is giving us 
to our demands for justice. Whether our "allies" or foes, 
the leaders of Moslem nations are either taking advantage 
of us or baitting us. The reason for that is simple: ALL 
MUSLEM FAITHFUL see bin Laden as a holy man. They are, 
therefore, not about to turn him in to us. ALL Moslem 
states fear being charged with a role in his demise. 

And so, they give us words of encouragement and support 
and give him information and sanctuary. For Moslems, 
no uniting force as strong as that initiated by Khomeini 
has ever existed since the 12th Century. Thus, none would 
go down in history as the Judas that contributed to bin 
Laden's demise. 

We must show mercy; we must show magnanimity and we must 
recognize that he who sleeps with flees ends up scratching 
maddly. In other words, we must accept Muslem diplomacy 
for what it is and we must protect ourselves from terror 
penetration by the new Muslem religious movement. Towards 
that end we must constantly assay the relationship between 
immicible secular Muslem states and religious Muslem states. 
The secular, since the demise of the USSR, have shrunk, 
leaving a vaccume that the religious are filling. 

Any interference in this ebb and flow will bring upon us 
more terror. But our refusal to intervene, limiting ourselves 
to business dealings from the outside, will free us of any 
of the responsibility some would transfer from British 
colonialism to American globalism. In this context, where 
the clerics dominate, wavering in our support for Israel 
is seen as demonstration of our evil nature. For the Muslims 
our faithfulness to our Judeo-Christian roots is the only 
basis for respect. They will never like us, but only their 
respect will spare us new acts of terror. Gone are the days 
of "realpolitik." We must show our unbending adherance to 
principle in order to escape the title "Great Satan." 

By weakening our ties to Israel we will be judged as we 
were by Mao when in the 1950s we sought to trade Taiwan 
for better ties with Mainland China. We are in a religious 
War. We can resove it by cohabitating as great faiths and 
do business with eachother only once we shed our image of 
unprincipled pragmatist and profiteer that motivates so 
many Muslims to forfeit their lives attacking us. How we 
stand by our real ally, the Jewish state of Israel, 
in Moslem eyes decides our fate-- on purely *moral* grounds. 
For us to support the ecclipsing Arab seculars like Arafat, 
is demonstration of our desire to follow in the footsteps 
of the English and play Moslem agains Moslem for profit. 
There exists a certain religious-diplomatic decorum that, 
if we abide by it, we will be spared a repeat of Sept. 11th. 
It is all based, not on hate, but on respect. And, respect 
will only come to us if we stand by our friend Israel, 
the root of our faith. 

When we have regained the respect 
of the Muslem clerics, we can make clear our determination 
to live and let live. We cannot affort not to deter further 
terror, but we cannot afford to reach deep into the Muslem 
World to get the perpetrators through manipulations, 
deceptions and counter-terror. We must swallow the past 
in order to make clear our unflinching resolution to 
devastate the Muslem World in the event of a repeat. 
At the same time, we cannot give validation to terror 
and violence by recognizing a dead political system, 
that of Arafat. We must table that issue while we deal 
with more immediate crises in our relationship with the 
Muslem faith. Daniel E. Teodoru Please send me your views; 
I treasure them all and will think long and hard about 
them all.