The war that has been proclaimed by the US President George W. Bush is one where America can exercise massive striking power or
act with "surgical precision". That is a given, considering the dispersal of the Bad people in countries occupied by multitudes of Good
people. Some incorrectly assume this to be a war of a democratic, peace- loving civilization, on the one side, against the whole Muslim
world, on the other side. The terrorists of the world, wherever they may be are the Enemy! America's war will be aimed squarely at
terrorists and those who harbor and abet them.
"When the Unimaginable Happens and it's Right Outside Your Window",the New York Times reporter, Clyde Haberman, wrote
immediately in the aftermath of the attack on New York City, "Americans have now experienced what Israelis have to face every day."
With bowed heads we at IHTIR repeat the message posted on our web site after the attacks on the United States: "We offer our
condolences, thoughts and prayers, to our colleagues, readers and friends, and especially to the families who have been affected by the
events. We strongly empathize with you because Israelis know suffering and are subject to terrorism." More than a fortnight later, as we
survey the "New World", we continue to empathize.
We harbor few illusions that the blocked road to peace for the Middle East can be reopened with so many gaping wounds. 30 years of
instigating and fomenting terror against the people and the State of Israel, define Yaser Arafat as an Arch Terrorist. To Israelis he is their
Osama Bin Laden, against whom America's first attack will be directed. Our only caveat for America, as it attempts to form a global
anti-terror coalition, is to exclude from its coalition terrorists and those states that sponsor terror or harbor terrorists, specifically Iraq,
Iran, Syria and their ilk, as well as the Yaser Arafat led Palestinian Authority.
Israel's own painful experience with terror that resulted in the murder of children and innocent civilians, compels the people of Israel to
unequivocally back the United States as it prepares for a global war on terrorism. There are only the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The
people of Israel fall in and line up with the Good.
There are Good and Bad Catholics; there are Good and Bad Muslims, just as there are Good and Bad Jews. Those in between rarely take
important actions.