World Trade Center bombing occurred on eighth anniversary of Yassir Arafat's surprise decision to come to the United States to sign the mutual recognition documents and to shake hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin (later assassinated by right wing Israelis.) Arafat's decision was greeted with the same celebrating that was seen in the wake of the World Trade Center bombing. The World Trade Center bombing is an attack against Yassir Arafat and America's moderate Arab allies. Unless the Israelis now actually deliver to the Palestinians some real fruits of a peace process, a world wide terrorist war is really in the offing. The World Trade Center bombing shows that terrorists can now wage nuclear war by conventional means. Luckily, the terrorists chose high profile public relations targets rather than real military targets like nuclear power plants. The United States now has to force Israel to come into compliance with United Nations resolutions by sharing Jerusalem, evacuating the settlements, and limiting immigration in exchange for the Palestinians abandoning their right to return. Real peace is the only protection. A high tech world can no longer afford to have desperate people. The West should not risk destruction of civilization and possibly the human race so that Israel can keep all of Jerusalem. The United States is traumatized by the almost 5,000 dead in the World Trade Center collapse. The Palestinians have been enduring relatively one World Trade Center bombing per month in the past year of the intifada. Are there any memorial services or expressions of condolences? The conditions must be eliminated where people are so desperate that 18, yes, 18 people can be found to commit suicide together. When people know they are going to die, they try to make their deaths count for something.

Note: Before last November's election, I predicted that if George W. Bush won, the nation would be at war in six months, and if Gore won, it would be at war in twelve. Last year's presidential election was rigged and everyone knew it. Rigged elections are a sign of weakness, not strength. The bombers exploited this weakness. Who knew better how to protect the American people, the 105 million voters, or George W. Bush's lawyers and the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court who stopped the vote count by shredding the constitution? Or Al Gore, who was too much of a coward to fight for his own 500,000 vote margin all the way through the Electoral College?

Fair and honest elections are the only source of strength in a democracy. It was obvious to any idiot that the United States is a police state, not a democracy, and who understands better than a terrorist how to attack a police state? In a democracy, terrorists rather become candidates in elections. It is only when their point of view is being unfairly frozen out of the political debate that they find the passive support necessary for the successful use of force.

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Contact: Joshua Leinsdorf