The members of Hamas — the Palestinian Muslim fundamentalist, social service and anti-Israel terrorist organization — are “trying to create their own Sept. 11” in Israel, according to Raymond Tanter, Ph.D., professor of political science at the University of Michigan and scholar of international security affairs.
But the organization can’t carry out such a major strike without its “best and brightest” leaders like Abdel Aziz Rantisi, whom Israel recently tried and failed to assassinate, Tanter continued.
Therefore, such assassinations are justified, even if President Bush finds them “troubling,” as he said recently. “Leadership does make a difference in the terrorist business,” Tanter said. “Taking down … Rantisi is equivalent to purchasing catastrophic health insurance for the Jewish people.”
Tanter was in Milwaukee on June 12 to speak at the State of Israel Bonds’ 28th annual tribute dinner at the Pfister Hotel. Tanter, who purchases bonds himself, is a former member of the staffs of the National Security Council in the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations.
Peace, Tanter believes, is a reasonable goal in the Middle East. While he doesn’t oppose President Bush’s “road map” plan, he doesn’t particularly endorse it.
What ultimately needs to happen is “regime change and democratization” in the Arab world, stated Tanter. “When democracy becomes serious there, then and only then will the Middle East appear as the Middle West.”
Bush’s road map calls for an end to violence and terror before actions are taken to create a Palestinian state, but Tanter thinks the United States and Israel “should pursue the terrorists as if there were no peace process and pursue the peace process as if there were no terrorists.”
Tanter said he believes that the majority of Palestinians just want to return to work in Israel. Despite his view that “attitudinally [the Palestinians] want Israel destroyed,” he does think they would accept peace with Israel if the proper groundwork is laid.
Time is almost up for Hamas and other Islamic militants in the region, according to Tanter. If a Palestinian civil war were to break out among the radical fundamentalists and the moderates, the moderates would win and peace would become a reality, Tanter contended.
Contrary to many in the American and Israeli governments, who believe a Hamas ceasefire is in the best interests of all parties involved, “the last thing I want is a ceasefire,” Tanter said. “Ceasefires are used to regroup, rest up and get more arms.”
Tanter considers Palestinain Authority President Yasser Arafat an unwelcome anomaly within the United States’ policy on terror. President Bush has said that those who harbor terrorists are terrorists themselves; but “Arafat gives safe harbor to many terrorists,” Tanter said, “and the U.S. can no longer be restrained.”
Tanter said the recently floated notion of sending NATO troops to Israel in an attempt to keep peace is “a terrible idea.” The presence of such troops “would constrain one party,” Israel, which “respects the laws of war,” he said.
But terrorists would not be constrained, and if Israeli troops tried to shoot back at them, the “peacekeepers” would prohibit it, Tanter said. Moreover, NATO resources to fight militants and terrorist plots are very limited, he said.
Tanter has taught at Northwestern and Stanford universities and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is currently the visiting fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he researches U.S. policy options regarding Iraq.
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