Jerusalem Cloakroom #144

A Unilateral Israeli Withdrawal:
The US Angle

by Yoram Ettinger
yoramtex@netvision.net.il

February 6, 2004

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 US 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 Hizbullah (which murdered 300 Americans in Beirut in 1983) from a local to a regional player. It has facilitated the exportation of Hizbullah-style terrorism to Iraq, while inspiring the unprecedented 2000-2004 Palestinian terrorism.
    

4. Incitement and Terrorism Rewarded and 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 Bin Laden’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 US 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.