For the first half of this year, I lived in East Jerusalem with
a Muslim man in his 20s. His name is Kujan, and hardly a day went
by that he did not quote the Koran or the sayings of the prophet
Muhammed to me.
Kujan is a wonderful man and we had a great deal in common. What
we did not have in common was that Kujan served in the Israeli
Defense Forces. After his compulsory three years of military
service, he gave an additional year of his life to defend the
Jewish state. He even served as a bodyguard for a prominent Jewish
member of the government.
Kujan is a proud Muslim who understands the beauty of the
existence of Israel, and he relishes living there. He also
understands the extreme threat of terrorism that Israel is
confronted with daily. Kujan proclaims that Israel is the only
Middle Eastern country that allows total freedom of religion.
Young soldiers of college age, like Kujan, patrol the West Bank
and Gaza not because they enjoy spending three or more years of
their lives sitting in mud and trenches in the cold night.
Rather, they recognize that war has been declared upon them.
They know that each time a checkpoint is removed, a suicide bomber
slips through; every time a closure is lifted, another cafe is
blown up. Literally thousands of suicide bombings have been
attempted and over 130 have succeeded in the past four years
alone.
Inevitably, the conversation turns to the “root
cause” of these actions. Desperation is the fallacious reason
most often repeated. But it is certainly not desperation which
drives one to blow up a disco, a bus or the World Trade Center.
Many of the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers were from the middle or
upper-middle class. Some were highly educated men who lived
privileged lives. Fanatical ideology imposed upon impressionable
minds is what allows some to rejoice in the murder of innocent men,
women and children.
Japanese kamikaze pilots were not driven to suicide by
desperation, but rather by a strong group identity and motivation
to sacrifice for their country. Buddhist monks did not immolate
themselves in the 1960s in Southeast Asia because of desperation.
They were calm and hopeful for the future.
Suicide, like suicide-terrorism, is a choice, not a destiny.
Only through a vigilant and pro-active defense can Israel defeat
the irredentist fundamentalist terror network which actively
attempts to destroy it.
In this process, every Israeli has a role to play. Take the
woman who worked as a guard at my dormitory in Jerusalem. She stood
at the entrance, checking bags and cars for weapons and bombs.
Whether the passerby was Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim,
Druze, Bedouin, Christian or Circassian did not matter to her. Each
person and every bag and car was searched thoroughly.
This guard happened to be a Palestinian Muslim. She, like Kujan,
stood the front line of the battle to defeat Palestinian suicide
bombing.
The reason it has taken so long to defeat this terrorism is the
nature of the tactics used. Hamas, for example, buried a cache of
weapons under a kindergarten in Gaza. One of the approximately 100
Palestinian arms-smuggling tunnels was discovered directly behind a
baby’s crib.
A ring to smuggle explosive belts and Force-17 terrorists in
fake Israeli ambulances was exposed by the IDF in a neighborhood
almost adjacent to mine. My friend confided in me that his unit
found 25 Kalashnikov rifles under an elderly woman’s
stretcher in one Palestinian ambulance.
Innocent Palestinians have died because the terrorists routinely
use the infirm and infantile for cover. When these cowards stop
hiding amid civilians, bystanders will no longer be caught in the
crossfire. It’s that simple.
The Israeli security establishment is so humane precisely
because it does not target civilians like the suicide bombers do.
Instead, the IDF targets the heads of Hamas and Islam Jihad, who
seek Israel’s destruction. The fault of civilian deaths lies
squarely on the shoulders of the terrorists who hide among
them.
Make no mistake ““ Israel’s presence in the West Bank
and Gaza is an imperative defensive action. In a period of 21
months starting in 2003, there were no fewer than 629 attempted
suicide bombings against Israelis. In the first nine months of
2004, there were at least 205 attempted suicide bombings. Of these,
193 of the bombers were stopped in their homes. The other 12 were
stopped on the way to attacks.
Israel must not relinquish the territories at this time because
of numbers like these. By monitoring the disputed territories
““ the viper nests of violence and terror ““ the IDF
literally prevents suicide bombings almost every single day. Today,
Israel foils some 95 percent of suicide bombings.
The world should praise this legal, righteous and effective
defense strategy. A horrific and illegitimate war has been imposed
upon Israel and it must defend itself. To expect anything less is
to accept the destruction of the most free and democratic state in
the Middle East.
Kujan and I know where we stand. I hope you do too.
Keyes is a third-year Middle Eastern studies student. E-mail
him at dkeyes@media.ucla.edu.