A UNILATERAL ISRAELI WITHDRAWAL - THE U.S. ANGLE

By Yoram Ettinger

1.  While the US and Israel may refer to "unilateral withdrawals" (from

Lebanon, Judea&Samaria and Gaza) as "redeployment", terrorists - as

well as lucid observers - consider them a form of "retreat," "appeasement" and "disincentive for compliance."

2.  SETBACK TO U.S. PEACE INITIATIVES.  Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

and from 40% of Judea&Samaria (since 1993) has produced unprecedented wave of terrorism, which has quagmired various US peace initiatives (Clinton,

Mitchell, Tenet, Zini, etc.).  The latest Israeli withdrawal from

Bethlehem facilitated the January 29, 2004 homicide bus bombing - 11 murdered,

which may have doomed the Road Map.

3.  TERROR EXPORTED TO IRAQ.  Israel's unilateral withdrawal from

Lebanon - encouraged by the US - has propelled Hizballah (which murdered 300

Americans in Beirut in 1983) from a local to a regional player.  It has

facilitated the exportation of Hizballah-style terrorism to Iraq, while inspiring

the unprecedented 2000-2004 Palestinian terrorism.

4.  INCITEMENT AND TERRORISM REWARDED & RADICALIZED. Unilateral Israeli

withdrawals have nurtured Palestinian terrorism, which has become a

role-model for international terrorism, including anti-US Islamic

terrorism (Palestinian terrorists fought the US in Afghanistan and Iraq; and Ben

Ladin's mentor was a Palestinian).

5. SETBACK TO WAR ON TERRORISM. Unilateral Israeli withdrawals have

severely undermined Israel's posture of deterrence, which has been a role-model

for countering-terrorism. Israel's weakened deterrence posture, has

therefore, caused a setback to the global war on terrorism.

6.  UNILATERAL WITHDRAWAL CONTRADICTS U.S. BATTLE ON TERRORISM,

providing terrorists with an expanded safe have.  Would the US contemplate a

unilateral withdrawal from radical regions in Iraq, in face of mounting

terrorism?!  Would the US consider a unilateral withdrawal from the

Kabul area, in order to moderate terrorism in Afghanistan?!

7. ISRAEL - TEST BED FOR COUNTER-TERRORISM. Israel has been the largest

and the most experienced battle-proven laboratory for countering terrorism. 

Its success has advanced US war on terrorism.  Its failures - caused also

by unilateral withdrawals (Land-For-Terrorism) - have caused a setback to

US war on terrorism.

8.  UNILATERAL WITHDRAWALS LEAD TO A PALESTINIAN STATE, which - based

on PLO/PA track record - would undermine US interests: It would be a

terrorist state, dooming the Hashemite regime, bolstering Iran, exporting

terrorism to the Gulf States, facilitating Russian ambitions in the Mideast, allying

itself with No. Korea and other rogue regimes, suppressing human

rights, deepening corruption and accelerating Christian flight from Bethlehem,

Beit Jallah and Ramallah.

FREEMAN CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES