Author: Benjamin Netanyahu
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: April 22, 2002
Do not be fooled by the apologists
of terror. These apologists tell us that the root cause of terrorism is
the deprivation of national and civic rights, and that the way to stop
terror is to redress the supposed grievances that arise from this deprivation.
But the root cause of terrorism
is not the deprivation of rights. If it were, then in the thousands of
conflicts and struggles for national and civil rights in modern times,
we would see countless instances of terrorism. But we do not.
Mahatma Gandhi fought without resorting
to terrorism. So too did the peoples of Eastern Europe in their struggle
to bring down the Berlin Wall. And Martin Luther King's campaign for equal
rights for all Americans eschewed all violence, much less terrorism.
If the deprivation of rights is
indeed the root cause of terrorism, why did all these people pursue their
cause without restoring to terror? Put simply, because they were democrats,
not terrorists. They believed in the sanctity of each human life, were
committed to the ideals of liberty, and championed the values of democracy.
But those who practise terrorism
do not believe in these things. In fact, they believe in the very opposite.
For them, the cause they espouse is so all-encompassing, so total, that
it justifies anything. It allows them to break any law, discard any moral
code and trample all human rights in the dust. In their eyes, it permits
them to indiscriminately murder and maim innocent men and women, and lets
them blow up a bus full of children.
There is a name for the doctrine
that produces this evil. It is called totalitarianism. Indeed, the root
cause of terrorism is totalitarianism. Only a totalitarian regime, by systemically
brainwashing its subjects, can indoctrinate hordes of killers to suspend
all moral constraints for the sake of a twisted cause.
That is why from its inception,
totalitarianism has always been wedded to terrorism - from Lenin to Stalin
to Hitler to the ayatollahs to Saddam Hussein, right down to Osama bin
Laden and Yasser Arafat.
It is not merely that the goals
of terrorists do not justify the means they choose, it is that the means
they choose tell us what their true goals are. Osama bin Laden is not seeking
to defend the rights of Muslims but to murder as many Americans as possible,
and ultimately to destroy America. Saddam Hussein is not seeking to defend
his people but to subjugate his neighbours. Arafat is not seeking to build
a state but to destroy a state; the many massacres of Jews he sponsors
tells us what he would do to all the Jews of Israeli if he had enough power.
Those who fight as terrorists rule
as terrorists. People who deliberately target the innocent never become
leaders -who protect freedom and human rights.
When terrorists seize power, they
invariably set up the darkest of dictatorships - whether in Iraq, Iran,
Afghanistan or Arafatistan.
In short, the reason why some resort
to terror and others do not is not any absence of rights, but the presence
of a tyrannical mindset.
By declaring that terrorism is never
justified, and by deterring or destroying those regimes that support terror,
President Bush has bravely charted a course that will lead the free world
to victory.
But to assure that this evil does
not re-emerge a decade or two from now, we must not merely uproot terror
but also plant the seeds of freedom. Only under tyranny can a terrorist
mindset be widely cultivated. It cannot breed in a climate of democracy
and freedom.
The open debate of ideas and the
respect for human life that are the foundation of all free societies are
a permanent antidote to the poison that the terrorists see to inject into
the minds of their recruits.
That is why it is imperative that
once the terrorist regimes in the Middle East are swept away, the free
world, led by America, must begin to build the institutions of democracy
in their place. It is not likely to result in liberal, Western-style democracies.
But given an option between Turkish-style freedom and Iranian-style tyranny,
the choice is clear.
We simply can no longer allow parts
of the world to remain cloistered by fanatic militancies. Such militancies,
once armed with nuclear weapons, could destroy our civilisation. We must
begin immediately to encourage the peoples of the Arab and Islamic world
to embrace the idea of pluralism and the ideals of freedom - for their
sake, as well as ours.
(The Wall Street Journal Netanyahu
is a former prime minister of Israel)
