Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review April 17, 2002 / 6 Iyar, 5762

Diana West

Diana West
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

Holy sanctuary or terrorist shield?

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | A visit to Jerusalem's Temple Mount in the fall of 2000 by Ariel Sharon was enough to kick off this second Palestinian war of terror on Israel known as the Intifada. Or so the legend goes.

In fact, as even Palestinian Authority spokesman Imad Al-Faluji has stated on more than one occasion, Palestinian military action against the Jewish state was planned long before Sharon's "provocative visit" to Judaism's most holy site, which adjoins a site revered by Muslims as Haram-as-Sharif.

But imagine: If a mere day trip by Sharon into the vicinity of an Islamic holy site -- which, frankly, as Islamic sites go, ranks way below your Meccas and your Medinas -- could be considered reason enough to go to war, what about the armed Palestinian occupation, now into its second week, of one of Christianity's most sacred sites, the Church of the Nativity?

Needless to say, the seizure of the 1,677-year-old church by 250 guerrillas affiliated with Islamist terror factions has hardly roused the armies of Christendom. Crusades, Christian-soldiering and all that went out in the last millennium. Still, it's a shock to realize that this desecration of the ancient church built over what's believed to be the birthplace of the Christian savior has brought down neither Christian wrath nor international pressure on the desecrators to lay down their arms and leave. The closest thing to a meaningful call for action out of Rome, for instance, comes from Father David Jaeger, a Catholic spokesman, who said this week, "We appeal to the world to condemn this act and stop this behavior from continuing."

Father Jaeger's statement would be a good start -- only he was referring to the Israeli troops who have encircled the church, not the terrorists who have occupied it. Church officials, meanwhile, insist on styling the latter "refuge" seekers, but you could say only heaven knows why. They also insist that the Franciscan friars and nuns inside the church are not, emphatically not (perhaps too emphatically not), hostages. This line is starting to wear thin as contradictory stories leak out of Bethlehem, including a Thursday report by UPI of a cell phone call made to German journalists from "a German" inside the church who said, "The Palestinians use us like human shields."

Occupier or guest, this band of sanctuary-seekers doesn't exactly call to mind a hunted herd of panting Bambis. According to the Israeli government, among those inside the church are notorious killers from Yasser Arafat's Fatah, Tanzim and Hamas rosters. They include Ibrahim Musa Salem Abayat and Ismail Musa Muhammad Hamdan, two leading Tanzim operatives responsible for -- among multiple terrorist attacks -- the kidnapping and murder on Jan. 15 of Avi Boaz, a 72-year-old American citizen. Also inside are Nidal Ahmad Isa Abu Gali'if and Muhammad Sa'id Attallah Salem, a pair of henchmen thought to be in on the March 29 suicide bombing at an Israeli supermarket that killed, among others, a 17-year-old girl out shopping for a Passover meal. There's a Fatah general secretary named Kamel Hassan Hamid, who reports to the Palestinian Authority's Marwan Barghouti, and is said to be responsible for distributing funds to terrorist agents. Hamas is also represented by such operatives as Ibrahim Muhammad Salem Abyat, a chief organizer of the faction's terror operations.

In other words, Sunday school it ain't. No wonder Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Israeli parliament he would "expect the international community to demand that they (the terrorists) lay down their arms and leave the holy place." But no. A strange hush hangs over the world, including the still-mainly Christian West. From the European Union to the Holy See, from the resolution-happy United Nations to the newly "involved" United States of America, no official of church or state has demanded that Yasser Arafat order the Palestinians holed up over Christ's birthplace to drop their arms and leave the church ASAP.

Very politely, Israel this week rejected the Vatican's idea of a solution, one that would have guaranteed all 250 terrorists safe passage to Gaza Strip, where they would only rearm and regroup -- and re-attack. As Israeli President Moshe Katsav wrote the Pope, "Under the circumstances, I regret with all respect and consideration we have for Christian Holy Places, we have no alternative but to prevent armed Palestinian terrorists, who have murdered innocent Jews, from escaping and continuing their acts of bloodshed." Katsav might have also mentioned that the Vatican's solution would have turned sacred religious sites into sure-fire escape hatches, all but guaranteeing future seizures.

And so the standoff continues, with surrender being the only solution to avoid a pitched battle. Whose surrender will it be -- terrorism's or civilization's? You would think -- you would hope -- that the world wouldn't want to stay quiet on this one.

JWR contributor Diana West is a columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

Up


04/12/02: Egyptian clerics solicit martyrs for murder
04/09/02: Defining terrorism down
04/05/02: The Wilder life
04/02/02: Acting, equality and the Academy
03/31/02: Speeding to conclusions
03/25/02: Hard to remove blood (libel) stains
03/21/02: The tale of Nixon's tapes --- again
03/19/02: The Big Lie lives on
03/15/02: The tunnel vision of '9/11'
03/13/02: The American Auschwitz?
03/08/02: Hating the indoctrination of hate
03/05/02: Clinton and Enron: Old friends
03/01/02: Pickering doesn't polarize, the process does
02/26/02: Destiny's prefabricated child
02/22/02: The White House heist
02/20/02: Making the grade
02/11/02: Studying student visas
02/06/02: Understanding arrogance
02/04/02: The professor's war
01/29/02: Disconnected dialogue
01/23/02: Anti-Indiscrimination
01/18/02: How much is enough?
01/15/02: Oh brothers, where art thou?
01/10/02: Air on the side of caution
01/04/02: Blacks seeing red at Harvard
01/02/02: Clinton's campaign continues
12/26/01: A tale of two exhibitions
12/24/01: Taliban Idyll
12/19/01: Right is right
12/17/01: Hillary strikes out
12/13/01: Lost files, lost presidency
12/10/01: Revolutionaries never grow up
12/05/01: Immigration reform talk is not just for 'haters' anymore
12/03/01: A new symbol of justice
11/30/01: Beyond morality
11/26/01: Can't keep a good man down
11/20/01: Tough talk at the United Nations
11/19/01: Hollywood's other battle
11/14/01: What's the matter with Sara Jane?
11/09/01: A beef with bin Laden's Beef Noodles
11/07/01: Facing up to the FBI's past mistakes
11/02/01: A school that teaches patriots to shutup
10/30/01: The gap between Islam and peace
10/26/01: The ties that bind (and gag)
10/24/01: This war is more than Afghanistan
10/22/01: The fatuous fatwa
10/19/01: Left out
10/16/01: Whose definition of terrorism?
10/11/01: Post-stress disorder
10/08/01: How the West has won
10/01/01: Good, bad or ... diplomacy
09/28/01: Drawing a line in stone
09/21/01: Prejudice or prudence?
09/14/01: When our dead will finally rest in hallowed ground
09/07/01: We want our #$%^&*() audience back!
08/24/01: The transformation from Green Mountain State to Green Activist State is all but complete
08/17/01: Enlightenment at Yale
08/10/01: From oppressors to victims, a metamorphosis
08/03/01: Opening the dormitory door: College romance in the New Century
08/01/01: How-To Hackdom: The dubious art of writing books about writing books
07/20/01: Hemming about Hemmings
07/13/01: Justice has not been served in the Loiuma police brutality case
06/22/01: When PC parades are too 'mainstream'
06/22/01: When "viewpoint discrimination" in our schools was not nearly so gnarly a notion
06/15/01: Lieberman flaunts mantle of perpetual aggrievement
06/07/01: Is graciousness the culprit?
06/01/01: The bright side of the Jeffords defection
05/29/01: Campus liberals should be more careful
05/18/01: 'Honest Bill' Clinton and other Ratheresian Logic
05/11/01: Dodging balls, Bugs, and 'brilliance'
05/04/01: Foot in mouth disease and little lost Tories
04/20/01:The last classic Clinton cover-up
04/20/01: D-Day, Schmee-Day
04/06/01: For heaven's sake, a little decency!
03/30/01: The sweet sound of slamming doors and clucking feminists
03/23/01: America's magazines and the 'ick-factor'
03/09/01: Felony neglect
03/02/01: Who's sorry now?
02/23/01: 'Ecumenical niceness' and other latter-day American gifts to the world
02/16/01: Elton and Eminem: Royal dirge-icist meets violent fantasist
02/12/01: If only ...

© 2001, Diana West