There is no evidence of democracy anywhere in the Middle East except in Israel — then, now, or in the near future. But without free societies and education systems that are also open and subject to secular critique in the Middle East, we should get used to a continual Arab effort every few years — 1946, 1956, 1967, 1973, 2001 — to destroy Israel. Whether we ignore Israel (1946, 1956, 1967), actively back it (1973), or seek to be an honest broker (1982, 2001) means little in an undemocratic Arab world, which will hate us regardless. They see any Israeli concessions — whether the withdrawal from Lebanon or the proposed return of all the West Bank — as a requisite step forward in the eventual absorption of Israel, rather than cause for reciprocal magnanimity and eventual peace.
If the Arab League really wishes a settlement, they should invite Mr. Sharon to their future conferences. If Mr. Arafat really wishes to create a democratic state in Palestine, he should hold real elections (under U.N. supervision) immediately and lift all censorship of the media. Americans should insist on elections in the region — especially in Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. As Israel pulls out of the West Bank, Syria must leave Lebanon. And if Palestinians wish a return of prosperity and the eventual autonomy of the West Bank then they should condemn the suicide bombers as murderers, not praise them as martyrs. Only that way can the world be sure that thinking in the Middle East has evolved beyond the barbarism of 1967.
During this entire crisis Americans have hoped for the enlightenment, favored restraint, and been sorely disappointed — whether the Clinton efforts at brokering a Middle East settlement, past administrations' lack of real responses to overt terrorist attacks, the recent lull between September 11 and October 7 in hopes of talking sense to the Taliban, or the present efforts to force U.N. weapons inspectors into Iraq. In contrast, every time that we have shown independence, principle — and force — freeing the unfree in Afghanistan, sending home Mr. Zinni, warning Arafat that the wages of his suicide bombers naturally bring Israeli retaliation against his police-state infrastructure, and letting the Pakistanis and Saudis know of our growing anger, we have done far better and fewer have died.
What a strange world we live in: What our academics, intellectuals, and self-professed ethicists call morality so often turns out to be so abjectly amoral — and downright deadly as well.
— Victor Davis Hanson, author most recently of Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power.