From the National Post (Canada), Tuesday, March 25, 2008:
Over the weekend, al-Qaeda released an audio message .... In it, the speaker called for attacks on American and Israeli interests in retaliation for Israel's recent raids on the Gaza Strip, which Palestinians claim have killed nearly 100 residents.
... there are undoubtedly many in the Western world who believe Israel's actions were unjustified and who accept the contention of Islamic extremists -- al-Qaeda included -- that Israeli actions are at the root of global Muslim rage. It is Israeli actions, terror apologists claim, that precipitate Islamist terrorism, and not the other way around.
But such beliefs are naive. Israel's attacks on Gaza over the last month have been far from unprovoked. In any case, even if the Jewish state were to cease all counter-terrorist operations immediately, jihadis would still target the West.
Since 2001, there have been more than 6,000 rockets and mortars launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, an average of nearly three per day. Most have been aimed at the industrial-agricultural city of Sderot, whose 20,000 residents live under the constant threat of 15-second air raid warnings. Over 4,000 of the Palestinian-launched attacks -- more than two-thirds -- have occurred since the Israeli army forcibly removed nearly 7,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza, a gesture of good faith that, Israelis were repeatedly reassured, would end the bombardments. But in just the first two months of this year, there were nearly 900 attacks (15 per day). This was before Israel's army and air force began their recent reprisals.
Israel has shown tremendous patience and restraint in the face of this daily, deadly fusillade. Islamic fundamentalists, such as Dr. al-Zawahiri, have willingly misinterpreted Israel's belated, self-defensive attacks as provocative first strikes. Twisting the facts helps them whip up Muslim anger worldwide, which aids their recruitment of new foot soldiers for their terror war against the West.
What puzzles us, though, is why so much of the world's media so easily swallows this cynical spin without even trying to ascertain the reasons behind Israel's counterstrikes. If and when al-Qaeda manages to launch fresh attacks against Western targets, even inside North America, the groundwork will already have been laid for placing the blame on Israel.
What response would Canadians demand of their government and Armed Forces if 6,000 bombs and missiles had been fired from Mississauga into Etobicoke in the past seven years, or from Surrey into Vancouver, or Longueuil into Montreal? It is unlikely we would have accepted such a long delay in reacting with force nor would we worry that some distant terrorist was threatening an escalation in attacks if we sought to stop the assault.
So far this year, school disruptions in Sderot have been a regular occurrence. Lessons or recess have been curtailed by the need for students to run frantically to bomb shelters on at least 22 different occasions. Canadians who show sympathy for the Palestinian cause might well think differently of Israel using troops and gunships to take out mortar placements and rocket launchers if their own children were under constant threat of injury or death.
Clearly, it is equally tragic when Palestinian children are hurt or killed by Israeli forces. But it is not the Israeli government that hides rocket launchers and mortars in apartment blocks and schoolyards, thereby making human shields of its own people.
We are optimistic Canadian security forces will uncover and dismantle any terror attacks on Canadian soil before they occur. But if Dr. al-Zawahiri and al-Qaeda are successful in carrying out acts of terrorism here or elsewhere in the name of Gaza, Westerners should blame the source rather than Israel.
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