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After the smoke has cleared, the dust has settled down
and the initial
fury blown over, humankind will wake up and realize a new fact:
there is
no safe place on earth.
A handful of suicide-bombers has brought the United States
to a
standstill, caused the President to hide in a bunker under a
far-away
mountain, dealt a terrible blow to the economy, grounded all
aircraft, and emptied government offices throughout the country. This can
happen in every country. The Twin Towers are everywhere.
Not only Israel, but the whole world is now full of
gibberish about
"fighting terrorism". Politicians, "experts on terrorism" and their likes
propose to hit, destroy, annihilate etc., as well as to allocate
more
billions to the "intelligence community". They make brilliant
suggestions.
But nothing of this kind will help the threatened nations, much
as nothing
of this kind has helped Israel.
There is no patent remedy for terrorism.
The only remedy is
to remove
its causes. One can kill a million mosquitoes, and millions more
will take
their place. In order to get rid of them, one has to dry the swamp that
breeds them. And the swamp is always political.
A person does not wake up one morning and tell himself:
Today I shall
hijack a plane and kill myself. Nor does a person wake up one
morning and
tell himself: Today I shall blow myself up in a Tel-Aviv
discotheque. Such
a decision grows in a person's mind through a slow process,
taking years.
The background to the decision is either national or religious,
social and
spiritual.
No fighting underground can operate without popular roots
and a supportive environment that is ready to supply new recruits,
assistance,
hiding places, money and means of propaganda. An underground
organization
wants to gain popularity, not lose it. Therefore it commits
attacks when
it thinks that this is what the surrounding public wants. Terror
attacks
always testify to the public mood.
That is true in this case, too. The initiators of the attacks decided
to implement their plan after America has provoked immense hatred
throughout the world. Not because of its might, but because of
the way it
uses its might. It is hated by the enemies of globalization, who
blame it
for the terrible gap between rich and poor in the world. It is
hated by
millions of Arabs, because of its support for the Israeli
occupation and
the suffering of the Palestinian people. It is hated by
multitudes of
Muslims, because of what looks like its support for the Jewish
domination
of the Islamic holy shrines in Jerusalem. And there are many more
angry
peoples who believe that America supports their tormentors.
Until September 11, 2001 - a date to remember - Americans
could
entertain the illusion that all this concerns only others, in
far-away
places beyond the seas, that it does not touch their sheltered
lives at
home. No more.
That is the other side of globalization: all the world's
problems
concern everyone in the world. Every case of injustice, every
case of
oppression. Terrorism, the weapon of the weak, can easily reach
every spot
on earth. Every society can easily be targeted, and the more developed a
society is, the more it is in danger. Fewer and fewer people are
needed to
inflict pain on more and more people. Soon one single person will
be
enough to carry a suitcase with a tiny atomic bomb and destroy a
megalopolis of tens of millions.
This is the reality of the 21st century that started this
week in earnest.
It must lead to the globalization of all problems and
the globalization of their solutions. Not in the abstract, by
fatuous
declarations in the UN, but by a global endeavor to resolve
conflicts and
establish peace, with the participation of all nations, with the
US
playing a central role.
Since the US has become a world power, it has deviated from
the path
outlined by its founders. It was Thomas Jefferson who said: No
nation can
behave without a decent respect for the opinion of mankind. (I
quote from
memory). When the US delegation left the world conference in Durban, in
order to abort the debate about the evils of slavery and in order to court
the Israeli right, Jefferson must have turned over in his grave.
If it is confirmed that the attack on New York and
Washington was perpetrated by Arabs - and even if not! - the world must at long
last treat the festering wound of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
which is
poisoning the whole body of humanity. One of the wise guys in the Bush
administration said only a few weeks ago: "Let them bleed!" -
meaning the
Palestinians and the Israelis. Now America is bleeding.
He who
runs away
from the conflict is followed by it, even into his home.
Americans, and Europeans too, should learn this lesson.
The distance from Jerusalem to New York is small, and so is
the distance from New York to Paris, London and Berlin. Not only
multi-national corporations embrace the globe, but terror
organizations do
so, too. In the same way, the instruments for the solution of
conflicts
must be global.
Instead of the destroyed New York edifices, the twin towers
of Peace
and Justice must be built.
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UPDATE:
JANUARY 12, 2002