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JCRC Middle East Briefings

The following information was distributed by the Israeli Foreign Ministry to shed light on lesser-known ongoing efforts of the Israeli government to improve the lives of the Palestinians. Unfortunately, the media does not show this aspect of life in the Middle East. For more information, visit http://www.israelemb.org/pa.

Israel is continuing to facilitate the transfer of food and humanitarian equipment into the PA territories despite the current security situation.

On Tuesday, August 14, 2001, 459 trucks carrying food and fuel entered Gaza via the Karni crossing as well as hundreds of trucks transporting goods to the PA territories through other crossings.

Israel will, in a complex operation that will continue until the end of the week, transfer to the PA territories approximately 17,000 head of livestock, veal calves and sheep, that arrived in Eilat from Aqaba. The transfer is being managed by the office of the Coordinator of Activities in the Territories.

Inquiries by the Civil Administration revealed that there is a food shortage in Nablus. ON the initiative of the Nablus District Coordinator's Office, the DCO commander approached the Mayor and Governor of Nablus and coordinated entry of food trucks into the city. Trucks began transporting food into Nablus as of last Wednesday and are currently supplying food at a rate of tens of truckloads a day. The food is arriving both from Israel and from cities in the Palestinian Authority.

The Civil Administration on Tuesday, August 14, 2001, allowed tens of residents of Jenin to cross into Israel to visit relatives serving terms in prison. Civil administration Spokesman, Major Peter Lerner, clarified that this humanitarian action is an attempt to allow civilians to continue their normal routine despite the security constraints caused by terrorist activities.

Major Lerner noted that the Civil Administration also allowed residents of Tarkumiyeh into Israel to visit relatives despite the shooting attack there on August 14.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Talk to at least one Jewish and one non-Jewish friend every day to clear up misperceptions of what is happening.

• Stay informed of the facts and issues.

• Monitor the media - and react with letters to the editor, phone calls, etc.

• Encourage the U.S. government to continue its support of Israel.

• Encourage the U.N. to become a fair and just arbiter of peace.

• If you have friends or family in Israel, call or e-mail them to show your support, or consider a visit there for a tangible display of solidarity.

Following are excerpts from an interview with Abu Ali Mustafa conducted in May 2000, two months before the Camp David summit. The entire text can be found on the PFLP's website -- www.pflp-pal.org.

Q: ...today the PFLP still believes in the armed struggle...

Mustafa: This is one-hundred percent true. We believe the conflict and the struggle against Israel is a strategic [principle] that is not subordinated to any consideration. Even if there are circumstances of talks about peace and a settlement we see them as neither peace nor a settlement....

Q: You declare that you reject Oslo, but you cooperate with those who signed this accord...

Mustafa: There is no cooperation. [Any cooperation] is with the PLO, not the PA.

Q: The PA negotiates on behalf of the Palestinian people and says it was elected by it, while you [i.e. PLO] do not exist at all. You were assembled in Palestine [just] in order to change the Palestinian Covenant and ratify what Israel wanted...

Mustafa: We did not agree to the amendment of the Covenant. Our positions on this issue are well known and we boycotted the session of the Covenant amendment...We denounce the crime of erasing the Covenant....We in the PFLP believe that the PLO, although its institutions are paralyzed, can serve as the instrument for the political unification of the Palestinian people.

Therefore we distinguish between the PA, which continues the Oslo accords, and the PLO, which is an all-Palestinian national achievement...

Q: According to [Israel], you are considered someone who incites to terrorism right now as we speak because you state that the axioms of the PFLP did not change and you call for armed struggle against Israel [Mustafa: true] and that you did not give up any of your demands...

Mustafa: And I am not the only one saying this, there are many who...

Q: Israel exists, why don't you recognize Israel?

Mustafa: We said the Oslo accord exists but we reject it, and Israel also exists but is rejected by us. Are we fighting windmills? No, we fight an entity. But as far as we are concerned, this entity [Israel] is rejected.

Q: Is there a truce between you and Israel?

Mustafa: No, we do not make deals or truces with Israel.

Q: So are you in a stage of reexamination but the struggle will resume in the future?

Mustafa: We believe the conflict is open and legitimate and that it is the right of the Palestinian people.

Q: Even if a Palestinian State is established?

Mustafa: Yes, as long as the Palestinian People do not enjoy their basic rights. ...Basically, we are discussing the Right of Return. ...Do you think the settlement will bring the Right of Return for four million Palestinians? No way.

Q: I want to ask you about your perception of Palestine?

Mustafa: I perceive Palestine as the historic Palestine documented in all the UN and British Mandate records. In other words, Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.

Q: Meaning, no Israel...

Mustafa: ...We do not view the Palestinian State that may be established now, and that we are told will have the June 4 [1967] borders, as the final goal of the Palestinian People. This is a more forward point on our way to accomplish the strategic goal of the Palestinian people: The Palestinian and Arab unified democratic state on which we were brought up....

On Monday, September 3, 2001, the U.S. and Israeli delegations to the UN World Conference Against Racism left the Durban, South Africa conference, objecting to the anti-Israel rhetoric that pervaded the conference.

Following are excerpts from a statement by Rabbi Michael Melchior, Deputy Foreign Minister of the State of Israel. It was delivered by Israeli delegation head Ambassador Mordecai Yedid. The full text of Rabbi Melchior's remarks can be found at www.israel.org.

Madame Chairperson,
Why, when the world was created, did G-d create just one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve? The Rabbis answered: so that all humankind would come from a single union, to teach us that we are all brothers and sisters.

This Conference was dedicated to that simple proposition. We, all of us, have a common lineage, and are all, irrespective of race, religion or gender, created in the divine image. Indeed, this single idea, unknown to all other ancient civilizations, may be the greatest gift that the Jewish people has given to the world, the recognition of the equality and dignity of every human being.

To criticize policies of the Government of Israel - or of any country - is legitimate, even vital; indeed as a democratic state many Israelis do just that. But there is a profound difference between criticizing a country, and denying its right to exist. Anti-Zionism, the denial of Jews the basic right to a home, is nothing but antisemitism, pure and simple.

The venal hatred of Jews that has taken the form of anti-Zionism, and which has surfaced at this Conference is, however, different in one crucial way from the antisemitism of the past. Today is being deliberately propagated and manipulated for political ends. Children are not born as racists, racism is a result of lack of education and political manipulation. And today generations of Palestinian children are being deliberately and systematically indoctrinated, with textbooks stained with blood libels, and children's television dripping with hatred. This high risk strategy is bound to fail, but it will exact a heavy price.

The conflict between us and our Palestinian neighbors is not racial, and has no place at this Conference. It is political and territorial, and as such can and should be resolved to end the suffering and bring peace and security to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. The path towards such a resolution is clear: an immediate cessation of violence and terror and a return to negotiations as recommended by the Mitchell Committee Report which both parties have accepted. The outrageous and manic accusations we have heard here are attempts to turn a political issue into a racial one, with almost no hope of resolution.

Barely a year ago, at Camp David, the Israeli Government demonstrated its deep commitment to peace by offering our Palestinian neighbors far-reaching compromises. These compromises, you will recall, were applauded by the entire international community. But, the Palestinians did not accept these proposals, nor did they put forward any compromise proposals of their own.

To our deep dismay they responded with a wave of violence. Over the past year this violence has escalated into protracted and inhuman attacks on the Israeli civilian population, forcing Israel to assume a role we abhor, defending our citizens by military means which we had hoped and prayed would be relegated to the past.

I will not refer here to the disappointing statement we have heard from the head of the Palestinian Authority. Rather than utilize this vital forum to inspire his own people, and the people of the world, to seek peace, honor and harmony, he chose to use this podium to incite to bitterness and hatred.

Another missed opportunity by the leader of the Palestinian people. ...the viscous libels, the delegitimization and dehumanization we have heard at this Conference will do nothing to prevent more Israeli and Palestinian mothers and fathers bringing their young ones to their graves. But here today, something greater even than peace in the Middle East is being sacrificed - the highest values of humanity. Racism, in all its forms, is one of the most widespread and pernicious evils, depriving millions of hope and fundamental rights.

It might have been hoped that this first Conference of the 21st century would have taken up the challenge of, if not eradicating racism, at least disarming it: But instead humanity is being sacrificed to a political agenda. Barely a decade after the UN repealed the infamous 'Zionism is Racism' resolution, which Secretary-General Kofi Annan described, with characteristic understatement, as a "low point" in the history of the United Nations, a group of states for whom the terms of 'racism', 'discrimination', and even 'human rights' simply do not appear in their domestic lexicon, have hijacked this Conference and plunged us to even greater depths.

Can there be a greater irony than the fact that a conference convened to combat the scourge of racism should give rise to the most racist declaration in a major international organization since the Second World War?

Despite the vicious anti-Semitism we have heard here, I do not fear for the Jewish people, which has learned to be resilient and to hold fast to its faith.

Despite the virulent incitement against my country, I do not fear for Israel, which has the strength not just of courage, but also of conviction.

But I do fear, deeply, for the victims of racism. For the slaves, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, the inexplicably hated, the impoverished, the despised, the millions who turn their eyes to this hall, in the frail hope that it may address their suffering. Who see instead that a blind and venal hatred of the Jews has turned their hopes into a farce. For them I fear.

We are here as representatives of states, and states of their nature have political interests and agendas. But we are also human beings, all of us brothers and sisters created in the divine image. And in those quiet moments when we recognize our common humanity, and look into our soul, let us consider what we came here to do - and what we have in fact done:

We came to learn from our history, but we find it being buried to hide its lessons.

We came to communicate in the language of humanity, but we hear its vocabulary twisted beyond all comprehension.

We came out of respect for the sacred values entrusted to us, but see them here perverted for political ends.

And ultimately, we came to serve the victims of racism, but have witnessed yet another atrocity, committed in their name.

44. THE ROOT CAUSES (September 26, 2001 - 9 Elul 5761)

There are those who would suggest that it is the United States' support of Israel that is the root cause of the anti-American sentiment that led terrorists to murder more than 6,000 people in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsyvania on September 11, 2001. The following article, authored by Norman Podhoretz, editor-at-large of Commentary and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, September 20, 2001, and addresses that question.

KNOW THY ENEMY

Israel Isn't the Issue; Islamic fanatics hate America in its own right. Is American support of Israel behind the hatred of this country that pervades the Arab world and that literally exploded into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11?...

Now, some have found it very surprising that Israel is not (yet!) being widely scapegoated. But what seems much more remarkable is that within the Arab world itself, there has been less emphasis on Israel as the root cause of the attacks than might have been anticipated...I would...advise listening to Prof. Fouad Ajami, an American who grew up as a Muslim in Lebanon, but who has been virtually alone in telling the truth about the attitude toward Israel of the people from whom he stems. For years now, Mr. Ajami has been insisting that "the great refusal" to accept Israel - under any conditions whatever - persists "in that 'Arab street' of ordinary men and women, among the intellectuals and the writers, and in the professional syndicates." Moreover, "the force of this refusal can be seen in the press of the governments and of the oppositionists, among the secularists and the Islamists alike, in countries that have concluded diplomatic agreements with Israel and those that haven't."

Mr. Ajami adds that the great refusal "remains fiercest in Egypt," notwithstanding the peace treaty it has signed with Israel. We might have expected, then, that the Egyptians would be eager to blame American policy toward Israel for the widespread animus against the U.S. in their own country, especially since Egypt, being second only to the Jewish state as a recipient of American aid, has a powerful incentive to explain away so ungrateful a response to the benevolent treatment it has received at our hands.

But no. Only about two weeks before the [Sept. 11] terrorist attacks...,Ab'd Al-Mun'im Murad, a columnist in Al-Akhbar, a daily newspaper sponsored by the Egyptian government, wrote: "The conflict that we call the Arab-Israeli conflict is, in truth an Arab conflict with Western, and particularly American, colonialism. The U.S. treats [the Arabs] as it treated the slaves inside the American continent. To this end, [the U.S.] is helped by the smaller enemy, and I mean Israel."

..."The issue," declared the same writer in another piece, "no longer concerns the Israeli-Arab conflict. The real issue is the Arab-American conflict - Arabs must understand that the U.S. is not 'the American friend' - and its task, past, present, and future, is [to impose] hegemony on the world, primarily on the Middle East and the Arab world."

Then, in a third piece,..."The Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, must be destroyed because of...the idiotic American policy that goes from disgrace to disgrace in the swamp of bias and blind fanaticism.... The age of the American collapse has begun."

If this is the kind of thing we get from an Arab country that everyone regards as "moderate," in radical states like Iraq and Iran, nothing less than identifying America as the "Great Satan" will suffice. As for the Palestinians, their contempt for America is hardly exceeded by their loathing of Israel. For example, the mufti - or chief cleric - appointed by the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat has prayed that God will "destroy America," while the editor of a leading Palestinian journal has proclaimed: "...the [American] murderers of humanity, the creators of the barbaric culture and the bloodsuckers of nations, are doomed to death and destined to shrink to a microscopic size, like Micronesia."

The point is that if Israel had never come into existence, or if it were magically to disappear, the United States would still stand as an embodiment of everything that most of these Arabs consider evil.

...Israel is seen as the spearhead of the American drive for domination over the Middle East....But the force, so to speak, is with America, of which Israel is merely an instrument....

Is it any wonder, then, that there was rejoicing among the Palestinians over the attacks "against American interests" in America itself? Is it any wonder that so many youngsters were dancing in the streets of East Jerusalem and Ramallah, when in textbooks published by the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Education, and in use this very school year, seventh-graders were being taught that Islam "will defeat all other religions and it will be disseminated, by Allah's will, through the Muslim jihad [holy war] fighters"?...

At such a time, it is quite simply bizarre that Secretary of State Colin Powell should be pressing the Israelis to meet with Yasser Arafat, who has been, and still is, guilty of everything we have now pledged ourselves to extirpate. A veteran terrorist himself, he is also the leader of one terrorist group and has given aid and shelter to others....

What will the State Department come up with next? A proposal that American diplomats sit down with Osama bin Laden?...

Clarity of purpose cannot be achieved without intellectual and moral clarity; and in this situation, what clarity reveals is that we are in the same boat as the Israelis. It is easy enough to perceive that they are taken by the Arab world as our advance guard in the Middle East, so that wiping them out would be a major step toward getting rid of us...

To them our democratic polity, and the freedoms that go with it, are as corrupt and corrupting as the economic system that has created so much widely shared prosperity. They want to destroy all this, first in the Middle East itself, and then in as much of the world as they can, so that a different way of life - the way of life they believe is commanded by Allah - can rise up again in all its sacred purity from out of the degenerate rubble.

In a June 1999 interview on "Al Jazira" television, Osama Bin Laden stated that his aim is to destroy Western civilization and everything it represents: "We view every American man as an enemy." In August 1998, Bin Laden told the Italian ewspaper 'La Republica' that "the international Islamic front has declared that the war has begun."

Some preparations for the recent waves of terrorist attacks (specifically the flight training) had already begun in June 2000 - before the failure of the Camp David Summit - at a time when the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians were gaining momentum.

As far back as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization, as well as other organizations, declared a "Jihad against infidels." The success of the 'Islamic Revolution' in Iran and the designation of the Soviet Union as an enemy marked the beginning of the formation of the extremist coalition professing "Active Jihad." The operations of Islamic groups and organizations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Kashmir and in the Middle East have all been viewed as an integral part of this Jihad against the infidels and the enemies of Iran.

An ideological turning point occurred in 1991, during the Gulf War period and thereafter, when the United States ("The Great Satan") deployed military forces in Saudi Arabia- the Islamic "Holy of Holies." A few years later, Bin Laden issued a 'fatwa'- an Islamic religious ruling- denouncing the United States, due to the American infidel presence, which had "defiled" the abode of the Prophet Mohammed.

IN HIS OWN WORDS

The following words were part of a "fatwah" published in the Al-Quds al-'Arabi newspaper on February 23, 1998. It was signed by Osama bin Laden and others.

The Arabian Peninsula has never - since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircles it with seas - been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies now spreading in it.... No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone....

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.

Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, in excess of 1 million...despite all this, the Americans are once again trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.

Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem.... The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the Peninsula.

All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries.

The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it....

We - with God's help - call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.

• As President Bush said in his September 20 address to Congress, the terrorists "hate what they see right here in this chamber - a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms - the freedom of our religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and disagree with each other." In other words, they hate America not because of what it does, but because of what it is.

• Ali Salem, a leading Egyptian intellectual, said in an October 8 article in the New Yorker that the terrorists "are people who are afraid of America, afraid of life itself ... These are people who are envious. To them, life is an unbearable burden."

• In a June 1999 interview on Al Jazeera television, bin Laden stated that his aim is to destroy Western civilization and everything it represents: "We view every American man as an enemy."

• In 1998 bin Laden issued a fatwa, an Islamic religious ruling, calling "on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it." The fatwa also states: "To kill Americans and their allies, civilians and military, is an individual duty of every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do."

• Bin Laden and his network Al Qaeda have repeatedly attacked American targets in Muslim countries. The Saudi exile has been directly linked to the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people, and the October 2000 bombing attack of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen.

• The presence of what bin Laden considers infidels in the cradle of Islam - Saudi Arabia and Iraq - is his primary call to arms against the West:

• In 1991, during the Gulf War and thereafter, the United States ("The Great Satan", as referred to by bin Laden) deployed military forces in Saudi Arabia, where the two most sacred Muslim sites of Mecca and Medina are located. According to the extremist version of Islam promoted by bin Laden, no non-Muslims should defile the sacred soil of this kingdom.

• Bin Laden also denounces the U.S. led sanctions against Iraq and describes them as responsible for the killing of a million Iraqi civilians.

• In 1998 bin Laden issued a fatwa denouncing America and calling for war against it. As laid out in the fatwa, bin Laden's primary goal was to expel American soldiers from Saudi Arabia: "for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples." In the fatwa bin Laden calls for the killing of Americans and their allies "in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."

• Bin Laden not only rejects the West and western values, he also urges the overthrow of Muslim regimes that do not govern according to his version of radical Islam:

• The fundamental goal of bin Laden is to cause the downfall of, what he considers, secular governments in Muslim countries, and to replace them with regimes that adhere to strict Islamic law.

• Even Saudi Arabia, a conservative Muslim regime that bars non-Muslim worship and forces women to wear veils, is considered "un-Islamic" according to bin Laden because of its relationship with the West. Bin Laden's chief deputy is also the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, responsible for the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the foiled 1995 assassination attempt on President Hosni Mubarak, both considered pro-Western Arab leaders. Bin Laden is also suspected in the assassination of the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, the Muslim force opposing the country's radical ruling Taliban. The leaders of the Taliban have provided bin Laden and his followers safe haven.

• It is Israel's existence - not its policies toward the Palestinians that bin Laden opposes:

• As President Bush said, bin Laden "wants to drive Israel out of the Middle East." Even the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel would not be sufficient to satisfy his enmity toward the Jewish state, which he views as having a "grip" on Muslim lands.

• What these extremists hate about Israel is it being the sting of a Western style, non-Islamic democracy in the Middle East. As the Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Akhbar put it: "The conflict that we call the Arab-Israeli conflict is, in truth, an Arab conflict with Western, and particularly American, colonialism."

Prepared by Yitzhak Santis, Director, Middle East Affairs, San Francisco JCRC

The United States has identified radical Islamist Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect in the horrific September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which caused over 5,000 deaths.

Since the attack, Americans have been asking who is Osama bin Laden,what movement does he represent and why do he and his followers hate us so much? Some have asserted that the "root cause" is American foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly US support for Israel. This is inaccurate.

The following is an analysis of the motivating factors behind the terrorist massacres in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania.

KEY POINTS

• The primary cause of radical Islamist terrorism is a hate-filled ideology, which views the United States and the West as the main obstacle to the re-establishment of a trans-national Islamic caliphate.

• Contributing factors are the exploitation by radical Islamists of existing frustrations, grievances and anger that exist in the Arab and Muslim worlds. These stem from poverty, corruption, regimes lacking legitimacy, the clash of modernity with tradition, political instability, and disenfranchisement.

• Blaming the US relationship with Israel as a "root cause" of radical Islamist terrorism against America and the West ignores what the terrorists themselves have stated as their objective. While there is much hatred of Israel in the Arab and Muslim world, and corresponding anger at the United States for its support of Israel, the world-view of radical Islamists has never been particularly focused on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

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• There is a major difference between the ideology of radical Islamism, and the great religion of Islam.

• Mainstream, traditional Islamic scholars reject the radical Islamist interpretation of jihad.

• Osama bin Laden is a particularly violent radical Islamist. He is the leader of the al-Qaida network and speaks for those terrorists in al-Qaida cells that have been established worldwide.

WHAT CAUSES THE HATRED OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE WEST?

The Primary Cause of Radical Islamist Terrorism: Their Ideological Worldview (For a comparison of traditional, mainstream Islam with the ideology of radical Islamism, see page 4 of this report).

Radical Islamists such as Osama bin Laden view the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia as desecration of holy Islamic land. Bin laden once told a Pakistani reporter, "Our goal is to liberate the Land of Islam from the infidels and establish the law of Allah."

Perceiving the world exclusively through a religious lens, they also view Western culture and the spreading of its core civic values such as freedom, democracy, pluralism and the rule of secular law as an existential threat to their goal of unifying the Muslim world around their own values and belief system. They perceive the modern, secular and democratic West as the heir of the European Christian Crusaders who invaded and pillaged the Middle East one thousand years ago.

The central goals of radical Islamism are:

• to replace democracy, capitalism and liberalism as the dominant world system.

• to defeat the Western capitalist system globally, to disrupt international business and trade, and to topple and replace Western leaning regimes in the Middle East.

• to advance an anti-Western ethos and to re-establish the Islamic caliphate, thus returning the Arab and Muslim worlds to a unified religious governance system.

These goals are articulated in Khilafah Magazine, a radical Islamist monthly published in London, in two separate editorials:

The faces may change (in the Pakistani government) but the corruption and treachery remains, as the root problem is not the particular individual at the top but rather the Capitalist system that is implemented upon the people to benefit the Kuffar (infidels - ed.). It is the system that needs to be uprooted and replaced by the Khilafah (Caliphate).

And:

Islam does not believe in democracy, freedom, tolerance or reason. It is well known that sovereignty belongs to Allah (Subhana Wa Ta'ala). There is no freedom from Allah's rule, or tolerance against Allah's rule or reasoning of Allah's rule.

The roots of radical Islamism, sometimes called "Islamic fundamentalism," lie in an extreme and violent strain in Islam that emerged in the 18th century in opposition to what was seen by some Muslims as Ottoman decadence but has gained greater strength in the 20th. For the past two decades, this form of Islamic fundamentalism has racked the Middle East. It has targeted almost every regime in the region and, as it failed to make progress, has extended its hostility into the West. From the assassination of Anwar Sadat to the fatwa against Salman Rushdie to the decade long campaign of bin Laden to the destruction of ancient Buddhist statues and the hideous persecution of women and homosexuals by the Taliban to the World Trade Center massacre, there is a single line.

Although the goals of the radical Islamists are focused on a specific political objective, the recruitment and growth of radical Islamism takes place in a political and social context present in portions of the Muslim world. This context represents a set of factors that contribute to radical Islamism's appeal.

Contributing Factors:

A number of serious destabilizing factors contribute to an atmosphere of frustration in the Arab and Muslim worlds:

• Poverty and deprivation of Arab and Muslim peoples in many countries resulting from years of exploitation by Western colonial powers and failed policies of many modern Arab and Muslim states.

• Chronic corruption at all levels of government in many Arab and Muslim nations.

• Lack of democracy throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds.

• Collision of traditional societies with Western culture, especially American, and modernity.

• Misuse of resources.

• Political rivalries between states and within states.

• Abuse of power by political leaders not answerable to the governed.

• Civil wars.

• Political instability.

As a consequence of these destabilizing forces, some governments in the Arab and Muslim worlds lack the support of their populaces. To deflect grievances among their people, shaky regimes channel their peoples' frustrations away from themselves and towards external causes.

Professor Fouad Ajami, director of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University, describes this dynamic: In matters large and small, the world Americanizes by the day, offering evidence of unbounded American success. Yet a belief takes hold in far lands that our message and example imperil their world. 'The snake is America,' the Saudi-born financier of terror, Osama bin Laden, tells acolytes and recruits. 'We have to cut off the head of the snake.' Sadly, there is a deadly receptivity to this message. For nearly a quarter century, ever since the tribune of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, appeared as a pied piper of the disinherited, a wrath has blown through vast stretches of the Muslim world. The anti-Americanism blows at will - an alibi for socioeconomic ills with deep roots, a simplifying answer for populations drawn to a civilization they can neither master nor reject. Preachers, the wholesalers of terror make of this country a demon.

Where Does the U.S. - Israel Relationship Fit Into the Picture: A Contributing Factor or not?

Although the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and America's support for Israel's existence remains a source of grievance in a number of Muslim countries, impugning Israel or America's relationship with Israel as a significant factor in explaining the motivation for the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States ignores the primary causes as outlined above.

Many Palestinians and their supporters in the West - in an attempt to damage the US/Israel relationship - have suggested that this relationship is a "root cause" of the terror attacks or at least an important factor. Some voices in the mainstream media and the anti-war movement have echoed this view as well, though not specifically with the intent to weaken the relationship. Nonetheless, a recent poll shows that ninety-two percent of Americans endorse full cooperation between the U.S. and Israel in fighting terrorism, while seventy-four percent of Americans favor either strengthening existing ties between the countries or maintaining the current, close relationship. A Newsweek poll showed, "Just 22 percent say the United States should reduce ties with Israel."

In an editorial not uncritical of Israel, the Economist argues against this linkage: The crude version of this argument - if Israel did not make Arabs angry, the attack might not have happened - can be swiftly disposed of. In Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa against America, Israel ranks last - after America's "occupation" of Saudi Arabia during the Gulf war and its continuing attacks on Iraq - among the three causes he gives for his war against America. His first big atrocity, the bombing in 1998 of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, coincided with a time of unusual optimism in the Israel-Palestine peace process, well before the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada. He has shown scant interest in the Palestinians; and they, to their credit, have so far shown scant interest in him.

For the radical Islamists Israel's very existence is the problem, not the depth of Israeli concessions to the Palestinians. Regardless of how conciliatory Israel would be - and Israel offered serious and far-reaching compromises at Camp David in July 2000, which the Palestinians rejected - for radical Islamists no Israeli concession would be enough except Israel's agreement to cease to exist

This is what Ajami calls the "great refusal," and it is not confined to radical Islamists. He writes:

The great refusal persists. A foul wind attends this peace in Arab lands. It blows in that "Arab street" of ordinary men and women, among the intellectuals and the writers, and in the professional syndicates. The force of this refusal can be seen in the press of the governments and of the oppositionists, among the secularists and the Islamists alike, in countries that have concluded diplomatic agreements with Israel and those that haven't.

Other factors explain the intensity of this anti-Israel rejectionism. For decades Arab and Islamic regimes have stoked and shaped this antipathy with hostile images often playing on religious passions and frequently using blatant anti-Semitism, such as the widespread publication and distribution by a number of Arab and Muslim governments of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Holocaust denial and a steady drumbeat of anti-Semitic articles in official government media. This has even been true in countries that have peace treaties with Israel, such as Egypt. Osama bin Laden exploited these anti-Israel - and often anti-Jewish - attitudes when he uncharacteristically incorporated attacks against Israel into his inflammatory rhetoric in his October 7th videotaped statement where, in a litany of other grievances, he justified the September 11 attacks by invoking the Palestinian cause.

Ironically, Palestinian political leaders have themselves repudiated any linkages between the Palestinian cause and the September 11 terror massacres. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Saleem Zanoon, speaker of the Palestinian National Council, said, "We reject these criminal acts - as a matter of principle but also because such actions only incite hatred against Muslims and Arabs. We reject any connection with the Palestinian cause." Palestinian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Nabil Shaath, said: "We do not need anyone using Palestine as a pretext for their own purposes."

Ultimately, however, the terrorists themselves provide their prime motivation for their attacks on the United States. Osama bin Laden advocates the destruction of the United States, which he sees as the chief obstacle to uniting all Muslims." Since 1996, his anti-U.S. rhetoric has escalated to the point of calling for worldwide attacks on Americans and allies, including civilians.

TRADITIONAL ISLAM AND"RADICAL ISLAMISM": KEY DIFFERENCES

What is Islam?

Islam is one of the world's three great monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Islam is about 1,400 years old and there are some 1.2 billion practicing Muslims in today's world. According to the website Islam 101: The name "Islam" simply means Self-surrender to the Will of God." It is the way of life that all Prophets throughout history have taught, from those known in the Western world such as Abraham, Moses and Jesus... The last and final Guide was Muhammad, may he be blessed, who lived in sixth century Arabia. A "Muslim,"(i,e. a self surrendered one,) is a follower of this faith.

There are five basic tenets of the Islamic faith, called the Five Pillars of Islam, which are:

• Faith (monotheism and prophecy of Mohammed)

• Prayer

• Charity

• Fast of Ramadan

• Pilgrimage to Mecca

The vast majority of Muslims (80%) are Sunni Muslims, followers of the dynastic succession of the caliphate. The next largest group, consisting of almost all other Muslims (18%) is Shi'ite. They are followers of Ali, who was eventually killed by a member of the Ummayid dynasty of Sunni Muslims. To this day, Shi'ite practice is marked by devotion to an infallible imam -- a single strong leader. There are other groups of Muslims as well: Wahhabis, Amidiyya, Sufis. The Bahai, now a separate religion, are in part a 19th century offshoot of the Sufi Muslims, the most mystical branch of Islam.

The Muslim world is geographically enormous. It extends from north and sub-Saharan Africa in the west, through the Middle East across southern Asia to the Indonesian islands in the east. Most Muslims, despite popular perception, are not Arabs.

Since the defeat of the Ottoman Empire's Muslim armies at Vienna on September 12, 1683, mainstream Islam has reconciled itself to the existence of non-Muslim countries in the world. There are several schools of Muslim law that have established legal codes for co-existence between Islam and the non-Islamic world. Radical Islamists repudiate these legal codes for co-existence in favor of their ideological agenda.

What is Jihad?

The Islamic Supreme Council of America, which strongly and consistently opposes radical Islamism, defines jihad as follows: "Jihad in Arabic means 'to strive for some objective.' Thus, the common assumption, that Jihad is combat, is incorrect. In fact Jihad, in its technical meaning, has several branches, among which are the combative forms of Jihad...'Jihad by the heart; Jihad by the tongue; Jihad by the hand and Jihad by the sword.'" The Council further defines jihad in the following terms:

• If military jihad is required to protect the faith against others, it can be performed using anything from legal, diplomatic and economic to political means. If there is no peaceful alternative, Islam also allows the use of force, but there are strict rules of engagement. Innocents - such as women, children, or invalids - must never be harmed, and any peaceful overtures from the enemy must be accepted. (emphasis added)

• In case military action appears necessary, not everyone can declare jihad. The religious military campaign has to be declared by a proper authority, advised by scholars, who say the religion and people are under threat and violence is imperative to defend them. The concept of "just war" is very important.

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• The concept of jihad has been hijacked by many political and religious groups over the ages in a bid to justify various forms of violence. In most cases, Islamic splinter groups invoked jihad to fight against the established Islamic order. Scholars say this misuse of jihad contradicts Islam.

Osama bin Laden and the "Ladenist" variant of radical Islamism The United States has identified Osama bin Laden as the prime suspect in the September 11, 2001 hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Bin Laden heads an international terror network called Al-Qaida (Arabic for "the Base"), which is also known as the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders. Al Qaida supports terrorists in Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bosnia, Chechnya, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Palestinian territories, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Yemen.

Operatives from bin Laden's Al-Qa'ida network have been associated with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; the 1993 ambush of U.S. soldiers in Somalia; the 1995 plot to destroy New York landmarks; the 1995 plot to hijack many American-based airliners and destroy them over the Pacific Ocean; the 1998 attack on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; the 1999 Millennium Plot to murder Western tourists in Jordan; and the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen.

Bin Laden's ideology includes the following elements:

• The only way to bring down the culture of freedom and the West, as well as the "quietism" of corrupt Muslim regimes is by terrorism, including terrorism against civilians.

• On February 23 1998 bin Laden's group issued a statement announcing: "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it."

• This statement contained the following rationale for attacking Americans: "For over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples... All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims."

• He views this anti-American jihad as being sanctioned by God: "However, our gratitude to Allah, their campaign was not successful, as terrorizing the American occupiers is a religious and logical obligation."

• He also sees himself as fighting a Jewish-Christian conspiracy against Islam. In an interview with an Islamist magazine, bin Laden said: "What bears no doubt in this fierce Judeo - Christian campaign against the Muslim world, the likes of which has never been seen before, is that the Muslims must prepare all the possible might to repel the enemy on the military, economic, missionary, and all other areas."

Bin Laden in his own words:

• "This war will not only be between the people of the two sacred mosques (Saudi Arabians) and the Americans, but it will be between the Islamic sword and the Americans and their allies because this war is a new crusade led by America against the Islamic nations."

• "Terrorizing the American occupiers is a religious and logical obligation."

• "We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians; they are all targets in this fatwa."

• "We are sure of our victory against the Americans and the Jews as promised by the Prophet: Judgment day shall not come until the Muslim fights the Jew, where the Jew will hide behind trees and stones, and the tree and the stone will speak and say, 'Muslim, behind me is a Jew. Come and kill him.'"

• "Muslims should consider with care the (Quran's) verses on loyalty, faith and jihad. They should sever any relations with the Jews and the Christians."

• "I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the legend of the so-called superpower that is America."

• "We predict a black day for America and the end of the United States as the United States, which will be separate states, and will retreat from our land and collect the bodies of its sons back to America, Allah willing."

• Fareed Zakaria, an American Muslim who grew up in India, explains the allure of bin Laden's message to the disenfranchised of the Arab world: The Arab world is in worse shape (than Africa), with 65 percent of its population under 18, stagnant economies and a fetid political culture. By the thousands young men are increasingly taking comfort in radical religious and political doctrines that promise salvation through a struggle with the West. But the focus of their hatred is their own regimes. In fact, the Qaeda network began in the early 1990s as a series of disparate groups in Algeria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia that were seeking to topple their respective governments. When those efforts failed, they decided to attack what they saw as the power behind the thrones, the upholder of order in the Middle East: the United States of America.

A Final Word

With the American counter-attack having already begun, these issues will surface repeatedly in the coming weeks and months. We will take an in-depth look at a number of them in future materials. Additional resources are listed below.

Resources:

• American Jewish Committee, Osama bin Laden and Al-Qa'ida: www.ajc.org/doc/Osama%20bin%20Laden%20and%20Al-Qa'ida.doc

• Anti-Defamation League:

www.adl.org

• Federation of American Scientists, Terrorism: Background and Threat Assessment: www.fas.org/irp/threat/terror.htm

• Islamic Supreme Council of America: islamicsupremecouncil.org

• Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI): www.memri.org

• Muhammad Kabbani, "The Muslim Experience in America Is Unprecedented., Middle East Quarterly: www.meforum.org/meq/article.php?id=61

• RAND, Terrorism Resources and Materials: www.rand.org/hot/newslinks/terrorism.html

• The Washington Institute for Near East Policy: www.washingtoninstitute.org

• US Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000: www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2000/

Following are results from a random sample survey of 1,200 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza conducted by Birzeit University. The survey was conducted October 4-6, 2001 and the results were released on Thursday, October 11, 2001. Additional information can be found at http://home.birzeit.edu/dsp/surv5

• Over 76% oppose any Arab or Palestinian participation in the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism.

• 92% feel that attacks against terrorists targets will only lead to further attacks against U.S. targets.

• Only 7% feel that the U.S. is justified in attacking Afghanistan; 89% feel that it is not justified.

• 64% believe that the attacks against civilians in the U.S. are consistent with Islamic Sharia.

• 48% feel that attacks such as the ones that took place in the U.S. are against Arab and Islamic interests.

• 59% feel that the Arab media's distortion of the U.S. is a very important factor leading to antagonism against the U.S. in the Arab world.

• 66% of Palestinians think that the U.S. respects the rights of its citizens.

• 45% would like to see positive aspects of the U.S. take hold in the Arab World.

• 46% are optimistic that the Intifada will achieve positive results.

• 72% feel that the losses Palestinian society enduring during the last year have exceeded the gains.

• 18% said that Arab regimes practice democracy, 27% that they respect citizens rights, that they treat citizens equally, 25% that they respect freedom of the press, 37% that they respect the rights of minorities.

• 57% don't support the latest cease-fire declaration made by Yasser Arafat.

• 75% feel that the meeting between Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres is of no benefit and will not achieve peace for the Palestinians.

• 91% feel that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not serious about reaching a final resolution to the conflict.

• 40% support the use of both armed and peaceful means during the Intifada. 25% support the use of peaceful means only.

• 38% evaluate Arafat's performance during the Intifada as positive, 36% as fair, and 19% negative.

IS U.S. POLICY TOWARDS ISRAEL THE CAUSE OF THE SEPT. 11 ATTACKS?

Peter Jennings: Do you believe that United States policy in the Middle East and further to the East, in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, has anything to do with the violence?

Powell: This is a man (Osama Bin Laden) who has a hatred of western values and ideals, and he manifests that hatred against the United States of America. So if there were no Middle East peace problem right now and we had solved all of that, there would still be an Osama Bin Laden and an Al-Qaida attacking US interests and our friends' interests.

On October 22, the U.S. State Department asked Israel to "immediately" withdraw from and not return to Palestinian-controlled areas. Contrary to popular belief, the incursions by Israel do not violate the Oslo Accords.

The following information was distributed by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs:

Israel's Right to Combat Terrorism

• Oslo II, Article I (1): "Israel shall continue to exercise powers and responsibilities not transferred," including responsibility for "the overall security of Israelis."

• Article XII: Israel has "all powers to take steps necessary to meet this responsibility."

• Annex I, Article XI: Israeli military engagement steps may include actions "within the territory under the security responsibility of the [Palestinian] Countil."

• 1997 Hebron Protocol: Israel may "carry out independent security activities for the protection of Israelis in [Palestinian-controlled Hebron]."

Israeli incursions into Area A (Palestinian Authority-controlled areas) are necessary to safeguard the security of Israelis. There is no legal basis requiring their unconditional departure. DEFEATING PALESTINIAN TERRORISM: THE ONLY ROUTE BACK TO THE NEGOTIATING TABLE The Mitchell Committee report sets out four steps for returning to negotiations:

1) an immediate and unconditional end to all violence;
2) a meaningful cooling-off period;
3) confidence-building measures; and
4) resumption of negotiations.

Israel has made efforts to give this framework a chance to work, including declaring a unilateral cease-fire, unconditionally supporting both the Mitchell report and the cease-fire brokered by CIA Director George Tenet.

After September 11, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres negotiated a plan with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to implement the Tenet and Mitchell plans. The Palestinians never implemented the agreement. Israel gave Arafat a list of 108 militants operating in Palestinian Authority areas and requested that Arafat arrest ten of the most urgent "ticking bombs." Only one of the ten was known to have been arrested. The assassination of Israeli Minister Rehavam Ze'evi on October 17 by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, headquartered in Ramallah and Damascus.

Although Palestinian spokesmen said Ze'evi's killers would be arrested and Palestinian terrorist groups outlawed, there has been no systematic crackdown on the infrastructure of these groups.

It is now known that Palestinian Authority security personnel helped smuggle one of Ze'evi's murderers to areas under full control of the Palestinian Authority. Arafat personally told Peres, and confirmed through security meetings, that Bethlehem Tanzim/Fatah commander Atef Abiyat was "in detention". This proved to be untrue when he was killed by a bomb intended for Israelis. The U.S. does not claim that Arafat is fulfilling his responsibilities.

On the contrary, President George Bush has reportedly sent a letter to Arafat demanding that a series of concrete actions be taken to prevent terrorism. The demands that Israel cease its military actions against terrorism, however, directly contradict and diffuse the American attempt to put pressure on Arafat. STATE DEPARTMENT CRITICISM OF ISRAELI ACTIONS DOES NOT PROTECT THE ANTI-TERROR COALITION Arafat has no incentive to make a strategic break with terrorism as long as Israeli actions are limited, necessarily temporary, and complicating U.S.-Israeli relations.

The State Department's call for an unconditional Israeli withdrawal effectively advocates a return to a status quo under which the Palestinians were massively violating their security obligations under the Oslo agreements. Making such requests detracts from the U.S. State Department pressure on Arafat to crack down on terror and fuels the conflict it is meant to douse.

By doing so, such statements also directly harm American coalition-building efforts, gaining only marginal credit in the Arab world. The primary problem of America's Arab allies is joining the fight against a fellow Muslim state -- not the issue of Israel. Like bin Laden, Arab countries use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an excuse to justify actions and policies that are largely unrelated to the fight against terror. Recognizing Israel's right to self-defense would help discredit the notion that there are exceptions to the war on terrorism.

Furthermore, such recognition would increase the likelihood of a return to negotiations and reduce the diversionary claims of America's secondary coalition partners.

As Americans look for answers to what motivated the terrorists to attack innocent civilians on September 11, many in the media have speculated that there may be a link between U.S. support for Israel and the attacks. This argument is false, dangerous, and potentially detrimental to the U.S.-Israel relationship.

BIN LADEN'S WAR AGAINST AMERICA

• Osama bin Laden is attempting to exploit the U.S.-Israel relationship to unite the Arab world against the American-led coalition to fight terrorism. He is using the Palestinian cause as a political tool to discourage Arab and Muslim countries from supporting the coalition.

• Osama bin Laden's goal is to destroy Western civilization and everything it represents. Radical Muslims do not hate the U.S. because of America's support for Israel. They hate Israel for its Western values, commitment to democracy and religious freedom.

• Osama bin Laden issues a "fatwa" against the United States for deploying women military personnel in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. Bin Laden contends this action "defiled" the abode of the Prophet Mohammed.

• Bin Laden told the Italian newspaper "La Republica" in August 1998, "the international Islamic front has declared that the war has begun." Since Bin Laden's statement, thousands of Americans have died in attacks aimed at Americans around the world: World Trade Center (1993), Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia (1996), U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (1998), USS Cole (1998) and the September 11 attacks.

NO LINKAGE BETWEEN SEPT. 11 AND THE PEACE PROCESS

• The terrorist attacks against the U.S. were not meant to serve as a wake-up call for the Bush administration to become more engaged in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The goal is to destroy the state of Israel, not a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.

• Bin Laden was preparing for the Sept. 11 attacks while former Prime Minister Barak was in the midst of offering the most far-reaching and comprehensive offer in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Yasser Arafat at Camp David in July 2000.

U.S. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD

• The U.S. has gone to war on behalf of Muslims three times during the past decade: Kuwait, Bosnia and Kosovo.

• Osama bin Laden has employed the U.S. as a scapegoat instead of addressing issues associated with poverty and tyranny in the Muslim world. Bin Laden's focus on the U.S. is akin to the Arab world's focus on Israel. For the past 53 years, the Arab world has used Israel as a scapegoat by broadcasting anti-Israel propaganda throughout the Arab world instead of helping to resettle Palestinians or addressing their internal problems.

U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP

• The U.S. and Israel share a commitment to democracy, religious freedom, equality, pluralism and individual freedom.

• Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.

• Israel is among the United States' most dependable allies.

PALESTINIAN RESPONSE TO SEPT. 11 ATTACKS

• Some Palestinians celebrated in Gaza and the West Bank, passing out candy when they learned of the horrific terrorist attacks carried out by fundamentalist Muslims that left thousands of Americans dead and wounded.

• The Palestinian Authority physically threatened the safety of Associated Press reporters when the AP reported on the Palestinian celebrations.

• According to a poll published in an official Palestinian Authority newspaper, 73% of Palestinians support "suicide missions against American interests in the Middle East."

• A poll of 1,200 Palestinians taken from October 4-6, 2001 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip found more than 76% oppose participation in the coalition against terrorism.

• Palestinian opposition groups, led by the radical Hamas group, staged large formal protests in support of Osama bin Laden and his war against the United States and the West.