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Root Causes of Anti-US Islamic Terrorism

A spike has recently occurred in Muslim-American terrorism in the USA. For example, on January 9, 2012, a US-naturalized Kosovar Muslim terrorist was arrested in Florida, while plotting to bomb night clubs in Tampa – a hotbed of Muslim Brotherhood activities and organizations. In December, 2011, the DEA arrested 30 Tampa used-car dealers involved in a Hezbollah drug money laundering. Tampa is the home base of the US Central Command, located at nearby MacDill Air Force Base. In November, 2011, an Al-Qaeda American sympathizer was arrested, in New York, for conspiring to bomb police stations and post offices. This wave of terrorism follows the June, 2010 arrest of eight Muslim terrorists in North Carolina, the May, 2010 foiled Times Square car bombing, the November, 2009 massacre of thirteen soldiers at Ft. Hood, etc.

It has been suggested that Islamic rage and terrorism is triggered by US policies toward Muslim nations. However, The surge in anti-US Islamic terrorism, and the proliferation of Islamic terrorist sleeper cells and training camps in the US and Canada, occur in spite of the US-led bombing of Serbia, which yielded independence to the Muslim-dominated Bosnia and Kosovo, and despite the mega-billion dollar US assistance to the Mujahideen, which ended Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Moreover, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who opposed the war in Iraq and supported Palestinian demands, was inaugurated in June 2007, and was greeted by three Muslim terrorists-engineered car bombs in London and Glasgow. Notwithstanding the generous US foreign aid to Arab countries and to the Palestinian Authority, and irrespective of President Carter’s betrayal of the Shah of Iran which facilitated the rise to power of Khomeini, the US is increasingly referred to as “the enemy of Allah” and “a modern day Crusader.” According to the leading historian of Islam, Prof. Bernard Lewis, Islam stipulates that “the duty of God’s soldiers is to dispatch God’s enemies as quickly as possible to the place where God will chastise them—that is to say, the afterlife.”

The most-frequently mentioned (supposed) cause of anti-US Islamic terrorism is the US support of Israel and the US policy towards the Palestinians. Nevertheless, 9/11 was planned while President Clinton and Prime Minister Barak offered the Palestinians the entire store; the October 12, 2000 murder of seventeen sailors on the USS Cole happened when Israel and the US offered unprecedented concessions to the Palestinians at Camp David; the August 27, 1998 blowing up of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania took place (257 murdered and over 4,000 injured) while President Clinton was brutally pressuring Prime Minister Netanyahu; the 1995/6 murder of 19 US soldiers in Riyadh and Khobar Towers, were carried out while Prime Minister Peres implemented unprecedented concessions; the February 1993 Twin Towers bombing (6 murdered and over 1,000 injured) transpired while Israel conducted the pre-Oslo talks with the PLO; the December 21, 1988 PanAm-103 (270 murdered) terrorism took place a few months following the groundbreaking recognition of the PLO by the US; the April/October 1983 murder of 300 Marines and 58 French soldiers, in the car-bombings of the US Embassy and Marines and French military headquarters in Beirut, occurred while the US military confronted Israeli tanks in Lebanon and the US Administration blasted Israel for its war against the PLO.

Terrorists bite the hand that feeds them.

Irrespective of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Palestinian issue, the US-Israel friendship, Israel’s policies or existence, Islamic terrorism has afflicted the Middle East and the entire globe – including North, Central and South America – for fourteen centuries, long before the eruption of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Islamic rogue regimes view the US as their key moral and strategic adversary. US-style freedom of religion, expression, markets and association constitutes a lethal threat to all Islamic regimes. Their territorial imperialism has suffered a severe setback by the US military, economic and diplomatic dominance. They abhor the dominance of “the infidel” over the “true believer,” which they consider morally blasphemous and strategically wrong. They are determined to push the US out of the Persian Gulf, the Mideast, the Indian Ocean and Africa, in order to advance their megalomaniac aspirations. Humiliating a Super Power – preferably on its own soil – would be critical to the resurrection of Islamic grandeur. Therefore, no US pressure on Israel would spare Washington the wrath of rogue Islamic regimes; it could, however, transform Israel from a strategic asset to a strategic liability.

While most Moslems are not terrorists, most terrorists are Muslims, supported by Muslim states. Other than Turkey, all Islamic regimes ascended to – and maintained – power through violence. They believe in total submission to God and to them who rule, supposedly, by divine prescription. They terrorize those whom they cannot integrate domestically and externally.

The insistence on engaging – and not on confronting – rogue regimes; denying the existence of global Islamic terrorism; contending that Jihad is a process which purifies the soul; assuming that Islamic terrorists represent a Muslim minority; and delulding oneself that the Palestinian issue is a root cause of anti-US Islamic terrorism, undermines moral clarity, and therefore impairs operational clarity. It yields headwind to Western democracies and tailwind to terrorists.




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The Abraham Accords – the US, Arab interests and Israel

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan believe that the expansion of the Abraham Accords, the enhancement of Israel-Saudi defense and commercial cooperation and the conclusion of an Israel-Saudi Arabia peace accord are preconditioned upon major Israeli concessions to the Palestinian Authority.

Is such a belief consistent with Middle East reality?

Arab interests

*The signing of the Abraham Accords, and the role played by Saudi Arabia as a critical engine of the accords, were driven by the national security, economic and diplomatic interests of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and the Sudan.

*The Arab interest in peace accords with Israel was not triggered by the realization that the Jewish State was genuinely seeking peaceful-coexistence, nor by a departure from the fundamental tenets of Islam. It was motivated by the assessment that critical concerns of the respective Arab countries would be effectively-served by Israel’s advanced military (Qualitative Military Edge), technological and diplomatic capabilities in the face of mutual and lethal enemies, such as Iran’s Ayatollahs and Muslim Brotherhood terrorism.

*Saudi Arabia and the six Arab peace partners of Israel (including Egypt and Jordan) are aware that the Middle East resembles a volcano, which occasionally releases explosive lava – domestically and/or regionally – in an unpredictable manner, as evidenced by the 1,400-year-old stormy intra-Arab/Muslim relations, and recently demonstrated by the Arab Tsunami, which erupted in 2011 and still rages.

They wish to minimize the impact of rogue regimes, and therefore are apprehensive about the nature of the proposed Palestinian state, in view of the rogue Palestinian inter-Arab track record, which has transformed Palestinians into an intra-Arab role model of subversion, terrorism, treachery and ingratitude.

*They are anxious about the erosion of the US posture of deterrence, which is their most critical component of national security, and alarmed about the 43-year-old US diplomatic option toward Iran’s Ayatollahs, which has bolstered the Ayatollahs’ terroristic, drug trafficking and ballistic capabilities. They are also concerned about the US’ embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is the largest Sunni terrorist entity with religious, educational, welfare and political branches. And, they are aware of the ineffectiveness of NATO (No Action Talk Only?), the European vacillation, and the vulnerability of all other Arab countries.

Israel’s role

*Saudi Arabia and the Arab partners to peace accords with Israel feel the machetes of the Ayatollahs and the Moslem Brotherhood at their throats. They consider Israel as the most reliable “life insurance agent” in the region.  They view Israel as the most effective US force-multiplier in the Middle East, and appreciate Israel’s proven posture of deterrence; flexing its military muscles against Iran’s Ayatollahs in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran itself and against Palestinian and Hezbollah terrorism. They respect Israel’s unique counter-terrorism intelligence and training capabilities, and its game-changing military and counter-terrorism battle tactics and technologies.

*The Arab view of Israel as a reliable partner on “a rainy day” has been bolstered by Israel’s willingness to defy US pressure, when it comes to Israel’s most critical national security and historic credos (e.g., Iran, Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria).  In addition, Saudi Arabia and Israel’s peace-partners aim to leverage Israel’s good-standing among most Americans – and therefore among most Senators and House Representatives – as a venue to enhance their military, commercial and diplomatic ties with the US.

*Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are preoccupied with the challenge of economic diversification, realizing that they are overly-reliant on oil and natural gas, which are exposed to price-volatility, depletion and could be replaced by emerging cleaner and more cost-effective energy.

Thus, they consider Israel’s ground-breaking technologies as a most effective vehicle to diversify their economy, create more jobs in non-energy sectors, and establish a base for alternative sources of national income, while bolstering homeland and national security.

*The Abraham Accords – as well as Israel’s peace accords with Egypt and Jordan – and the unprecedented expansion of defense and commercial cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Israel, demonstrate that critical Arab national security interests may supersede fundamental tenets of Islam, such as the 1,400-year-old rejection of any “infidel” sovereignty in “the abode of Islam.”  Moreover, critical national security interests may lead to a dramatic moderation of the (Arab) education system, which is the most authentic reflection of one’s vision and policies.

Thus, contrary to the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates has uprooted hate-education curriculum, replacing it with pro-Israel/Jewish curriculum.

Abraham Accords’ durability

*The success of the Abraham Accords was a result of avoiding the systematic mistakes committed by the US State Department. The latter has produced a litany of failed peace proposals, centered on the Palestinian issue, while the Abraham accords bypassed the Palestinian issue, avoiding a Palestinian veto, and focusing on Arab interests. Therefore, the durability of the Abraham Accords depends on the interests of the respective Arab countries, and not on the Palestinian issue, which is not a top priority for any Arab country.

*The durability of the Abraham Accords depends on the stability of the individual Arab countries and the Middle East at-large.

*The Abraham Accord have yielded initial and unprecedented signs of moderation, modernity and peaceful coexistence, which requires the US to support the respective pro-US Arab regimes, rather than pressuring them (e.g., Saudi Arabia and the UAE).

*However, one should not ignore the grave threats to the durability of the accords, posed by the volcanic nature of the unstable, highly-fragmented, unpredictable, violently intolerant, non-democratic and tenuous Middle East (as related to intra-Arab relations!).  These inherent threats would be dramatically alleviated by a resolute US support.

*A major threat to the Abraham Accord is the tenuous nature of most Arab regimes in the Middle East, which yields tenuous policies and tenuous accords. For example, in addition to the Arab Tsunami of 2010 (which is still raging on the Arab Street), non-ballot regime-change occurred (with a dramatic change of policy) in Egypt (2013, 2012, 1952), Iran (1979, 1953), Iraq (2003, 1968, 1963-twice, 1958), Libya (2011, 1969), Yemen (a civil war since the ’90s, 1990, 1962), etc.

*Regional stability, the Abraham Accords and US interests would be undermined by the proposed Palestinian state west of the Jordan River (bearing in mind the intra-Arab Palestinian track record). It would topple the pro-US Hashemite regime east of the River; transforming Jordan into another platform of regional and global Islamic terrorism, similar to Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen; triggering a domino scenario, which would threaten every pro-US Arab oil-producing country in the Arabian Peninsula; yielding a robust tailwind to Iran’s Ayatollahs, Russia and China and a major headwind to the US.

*While Middle East reality defines policies and accords as variable components of national security, the topography and geography of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Golan Heights are fixed components of Israel’s minimal security requirements in the reality of the non-Western Middle East. Israel’s fixed components of national security have secured its survival, and have dramatically enhanced its posture of deterrence. They transformed the Jewish State into a unique force and dollar multiplier for the US.

*The more durable the Abraham Accords and the more robust Israel’s posture of deterrence, the more stable the pro-US Arab regimes and the Middle East at-large; the more deterred are anti-US rogue regimes; the less potent are Middle Eastern epicenters of anti-US terrorism and drug trafficking; the more bolstered is the US global posture and the weaker is the posture of the US’ enemies and adversaries.

*Would the Arab regimes of the Abraham Accords precondition their critical ties with Israel upon Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, which they view as a rogue element? Would they sacrifice their national security and economic interests on the altar of the Palestinian issue? Would they cut off their nose to spite their face?

The fact that these Arab regimes concluded the Abraham Accords without preconditioning it upon Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, and that they limit their support of the Palestinians to talk, rather than walk, provides an answer to these three questions.

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