The Jerusalem Report Magazine: Columnists : Columnists Article

Click for Contents

Click here to subscribe to The Jerusalem Report

P.O. Box 1805,Jerusalem 91017
Tel. 972-2-531-5440,
Fax: 972-2-537-9489
Advertising Fax:
972-2-531-5425,
Email Editorial: [email protected]
Subscriptions: [email protected]
Web site: http://www.jrep.com

Do As They Say, Not As They Do.
Gershom Gorenberg

When it comes to the ethical issues of fighting terror, U.S. behavior is a questionable model.

"JUST AS THE U.S. is acting in its war on international terror, so too we will act." So said Ariel Sharon in his televised speech to the nation after a horrid day of suicide bombings in Israeli cities. As an explanation of the offensive against Yasser Arafat�s regime in the Palestinian-controlled areas, it sounded incontrovertible. America�s campaign in Afghanistan has already shattered the Taliban regime; Osama Bin Laden is on the run. Why not follow a winning formula? And as a point of principle, the Bush doctrine says that if "you harbor a terrorist, you�re a terrorist." Ergo, Arafat is a legitimate target.

Sharon�s remark also contained a dig at the United States itself: Instead of paying attention to what America says to Israel -- show restraint, respect human rights, watch out for innocent bystanders -- we�ll copy what America does. Enough hypocrisy. Since September 11, we can see the rules the U.S. applies to fighting terror when its citizens are the victims. By citing America�s example, Sharon was asserting that we need not hold ourselves to higher standards.

Slow down. Not every made-in-America idea is worth importing to Israel, and strategy for fighting terror is a case in point. To start with, let�s remember the American mood after the attacks on Washington and New York. The president spent the first day running for cover. Any Israeli who spoke to friends across the Atlantic knows that public panic was far more intense than what�s experienced here after terror attacks. In part, that was the result of the enormity of the Twin Towers disaster; in part, it was because for Americans this was all new and utterly unexpected. U.S. policy was born of improvisation, fear and the need to show that the administration was really there. It�s no great honor, but Israelis have been through this before. Ariel Sharon may believe that he has the answer to terror, but it makes little sense to justify that answer by telling us he�s copying a novice.

Militarily, moreover, Afghanistan has nothing in common with the West Bank. Right now America is winning. But if it finds itself in the midst of a guerrilla war, it can pack up its Marines and leave Kandahar and Jalalabad on the far side of the globe. We have to live with the Palestinians next door. America hopes its proxies will create a pro-Western government. But if Israel succeeds in pushing Arafat out, Hamas is likely to fill the vacuum. Fine, say some of Sharon�s political allies: The masks will be off, the world will know we face the local version of the Taliban. Notice the logic: America overthrows a regime to get rid of Islamic extremists; we shatter a regime to replace it with Islamic extremists.

When it comes to the ethical issues of fighting terror, American behavior is also a questionable model. One example: In early December, anti-Taliban commanders near Jalalabad reported that American bombs intended for Osama Bin Laden�s bases had landed on villages, killing dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of innocent people. "Aren�t we human?" asked one local commander. Far away at the Pentagon, top officers cavalierly insisted that the coordinates of the strikes fit Al-Qa�eda military targets. If Israeli planes had inflicted casualties of that order in the West Bank, we can presume George W. Bush would be on the phone to Sharon. More importantly, though, a piece of the Israeli public would be demanding explanations, not to mention commissions of inquiry. Watching how the American home front accepts "collateral damage," it�s tempting to suggest we should also be more hardheaded. But should we shed our concerns because America has not lived up to what it demands of others?

In the criminal-justice realm, America�s example is that civil rights are a secondary concern in a time of fear. That message should be brought home to Israelis by the arrests of dozens of their compatriots in the U.S. as part of the post-September 11 roundup. In one case, five young Israelis who�d been working illegally were picked up in New York and held for over two months -- most of that time in solitary confinement -- and questioned as suspects in the terror attacks, as if being from the Middle East is evidence of being an Islamic extremist. The case reveals both panic and ignorance, and is doubly frightening in light of Bush�s executive order to try non-citizens suspected of terror before military tribunals.

The cynical response is that the U.S. government realizes that civil rights are a luxury when its own citizens are in danger, that a few false arrests are the price of security -- and "so too we will act," legitimately, in our own battle against terror. Given the choice between the high ideals of State Department reports on human rights and what America really does, we should learn from the latter.

But there�s a better reading of Washington�s double standard. As an old maxim goes, "Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue." The hypocrite�s flaw isn�t what he says, but what he does. The U.S. isn�t wrong when it suggests to Israel that it avoid overthrowing governments, or that Israel respect human rights in the midst of a long struggle. It�s wrong when it fails to hear its own admirable admonitions. Israel, indeed, should do what the U.S. says, and not what it does.