by James Glaser
January 12, 2004

I have never been able to understand why we keep kidding ourselves about the terrorist attacks on America. Every reason for these attacks has been used. The most popular with Washington is that, "they hate our freedom."

I think part of that excuse is honest and that is the part that says, they hate. If Washington wanted to be honest with us, they would say that the terrorists hate us because we back Israel.

I am not being anti-Semitic for saying that, I am being honest. Our backing of Israel against the Palestinian people is the number one reason that people of the Muslim faith do not like our government.

The Muslim world knows that our country keeps the Israeli economy afloat and that we provide every penny Israel needs for its powerful armed forces. America gives Israel billions of dollars each and every year. We even gave Israel extra money because we attacked Iraq. You figure out that one because I have no idea of where the rational for that came from.

Having the same religion makes Muslim people all over the world watch what is going on in Palestine every day and they have been watching it for decades. They feel that Israel is evil and that the Palestinian people are getting screwed by Israel and the United States.

If America wants to win the War on Terrorism, it must come up with a way to bring peace to the Middle East and some how get Israel and Palestine to work things out.

We can spend hundreds of billions of dollars attacking Iraq and Afghanistan. We can threaten to attack Iran and Syria. These attacks and these threats are just a way for Washington to keep from working on the real problem. Until we work on Israel's problem and get peace in their country, all of these other actions are a waste of time.

It is time for the President and Congress to own up to our real problem in the Middle East and stop worrying about if they will offend someone for even mentioning it. Being honest will never be anti-Semitic. The people in Palestine and Israel need the United States to help them and in that process we will be helping ourselves.

We have been making token efforts to help these people for decades, but no President since Jimmy Carter with the Camp David Accord, has put in a sustained effort to end the Muslim/Jewish war that has been going on since 1947. I have no idea of how to fix things up, but I do know we will be on the bad end of terrorism until we do get something done. Washington knows this, but nobody there has the guts to stand up and even admit that this is the problem we must solve.