You’d have the clearest signal yet that Bush Administration policies are creating a sea change in the Arab/Moslem world:
It’s quiet in Ramallah. At the northern entrance to the city, not far from the mall, a new fountain spouts water. Next to it lies a sign in English: “Gaza under fire.” But it seems the Gaza Strip has never been so far away. Tel Aviv, meanwhile, feels closer than ever. Almost every day at 1 P.M., a demonstration leaves Manara Square in the city center, expressing support for the residents of the Gaza Strip. The number of participants has declined, however, on a daily basis, and on Wednesday the demonstration was called off for a lack of protesters.
Dozens of men sit in cafes near the square playing cards. In the background, the television blasts the voices of Al-Jazeera reporters, who provide continual updates about the events taking place in the Strip. But even the dramatic reports do not stop the card players for a moment. Occasionally one of them glances up at the screen, but then gets back to business.
The offices of the Al-Jazeera television network overlook Manara Square. Walid Omari, the bureau chief for the Palestinian Authority and Israel, explains that “the residents of Ramallah are filling the cafes, the restaurants, watching Al-Jazeera, cursing the situation, expressing anger and then continuing with their own affairs.” Omari explains that the quiet all over the West Bank in the face of the events in Gaza stems mainly from disappointment and frustration with the leadership of Hamas and Fatah.
“The residents of the West Bank lost a great deal in the course of the last Intifada, but saw no achievements. They are very afraid of more losses, mainly in light of the crisis of confidence between the Palestinian street and its leadership.”
Do these people love Israel? No. Would they be distressed if there were some strange turn of events which pushed the Israelis into the sea? No. Are they willing to shoulder rifles and blow themselves up over the difference between Hamas, Fatah and the IDF? Not any more, if they ever really were. Like almost all people, everywhere, the average Abdul on the street in the West Bank just wants to be left alone to live his own life as he sees fit. There is clearly a fatigue with the endless Jihad and equally clear is that the Palestinian Authority is content to see the IDF wipe out Hamas. Its time to finish the war and make peace – only the die hards in the Islamist movement and the government of Iran is interested in keeping up the fight, simply because if they aren’t fighting, they are nothing.
As I’ve said before, if Obama merely continues Bush Administration policies in foreign and military affairs, he will reap stunning benefits. These benefits will, naturally, be accorded to Obama as if he stepped in on January 20th and started making the world a better place after Bush wrecked it for 8 years…you just watch our mindless liberals, a month or two from now, start crediting all the good things which started happening a year ago to Obama…just as they credited the economic recovery which started in 1992 to Bill Clinton in 1993.
But, no matter – we on the right know that it was President Bush and our glorious military which carried the load and did the things necessary to break the socio-political logjam which fed Islamism and made a conclusion of the war impossible. Only a clear choice by Obama to return to pre-9/11 ways of doing things can give Islamo-fascism a new lease on life – absent such an act of sheer idiocy, we’re now entering the terminal phase of the War on Terrorism.
This does not mean there won’t be some nasty things in store over the next two or three years before the Islamists are hunted down and/or hounded out. Fanatics who know how to make bombs can continue to cause damage long after their reason for existence is destroyed – but a steady, firm pressure in a continuation of Bush policies will finish this thing for all intents and purposes before the end of Obama’s term in office.
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