THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 281, October 28, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PLO ACKNOWLEDGES: STILL AT WAR WITH ISRAEL
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
WHAT THE PLO PUBLICLY ACKNOWLEDGED IN SOKOLOW VERSUS THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION
(SEPTEMBER 30, 2008): THE PLO REMAINS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION WAGING A TERROR WAR AGAINST THE
STATE OF ISRAEL
FULL STORY:
Yasir Arafat may have shook Yitzhak Rabin's hand in 1993 and signed solemn declarations about ending the war to eliminate
Israel, but, late last month, in a federal courtroom in New York City, the Palestine Liberation Organization formally confirmed
that it still sees terrorism against Israelis as legitimate acts of war.
The lawsuit, Sokolow v the Palestine Liberation Organization, brought by the intrepid David Strachman, alleges that
the PLO carried out two machine-gun and five bombing attacks in the Jerusalem area between January, 2001, and February,
2004. The plaintiffs allege, in the words of U.S. District Judge George Daniels, that the PLO did so "intending to terrorize,
intimidate, and coerce the civilian population of Israel into acquiescing to defendants' political goals and demands, and to
influence the policy of the United States and Israeli governments in favor of accepting defendants' political goals and
demands." The attacks killed 33 and wounded many more, some of them U.S. citizens; the victims and their families are
seeking up to US$3 billion in damages from the PLO.
To this, the PLO, represented in part by none other than the appalling Ramsey Clark (who, in a distant age, 1967-1969, was
Attorney General of the United States), replied that the attacks were acts of war, rather than terrorism. As Daniels
summarizes the PLO argument: "defendants argue that subject matter jurisdiction is lacking because this action is premised
on acts of war, which is barred under the ATA [Antiterrorism Act of 1991], and further is based on conduct which does not
meet the statutory definition of ‘international terrorism'."
This response is noteworthy for two reasons: (1) Fifteen years after Oslo supposedly ended the state of war, four years after
Mahmoud Abbas took over and supposedly improved on Arafat's abysmal record, the PLO publicly maintains it remains at
war with Israel. (2) The PLO argues, even in the context of an American law court, that blatant, cruel, inhumane, and atrocious
acts of murder constitute legitimate acts of warfare.
Judge Daniels rightly slammed the PLO's argument: "the Court finds that the attacks, as alleged to have occurred in the
amended complaint, do not constitute acts of war nor do they, as a matter of law, fall outside the statutory definition of
‘international terrorism'." He went on to point out that civilians, not soldiers, were the intended victims of these assaults:
"There has been no showing that the situs of the attacks
were in any combat or militarized zone, or were otherwise
targeted at military or governmental personnel or interests.
Rather, plaintiffs allege that the attacks were intentionally
targeted at the civilian population. They were purportedly
carried out at locations where non-combatant citizens
would be known to congregate, such as in the cafeteria on
the Hebrew University campus and on a commercial
passenger bus."
Daniels went on, rising to an eloquence not frequently heard in U.S. District Court decisions:
"Additionally, the use of bombs, under such circumstances,
is indicative of an intent to cause far-reaching devastation
upon the masses. The 'benefit' of such weaponry is its
merciless capability of indiscriminately killing and maiming
untold numbers in heavily populated civilian areas. Such
claimed violent attacks upon non-combatant civilians, who
were allegedly simply going about their everyday lives, do
not constitute acts of war."
That the PLO justifies "merciless capability of indiscriminately killing and maiming untold numbers" suggests it remains the
terrorist organization it has always been since its founding in 1964.
When will the diplomatic bright lights in Jerusalem and Washington figure this out?
© Daniel Pipes 2008
Originally Published in Hudson Institute, May 28, 2008
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, October 28, 2008
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5993
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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