University Wire

03-06-2002

(The Battalion) (U-WIRE) COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- America's weak support for Israel and coddling of fanatic Islamic terrorists may have emboldened the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Dr. Yaron Brook during a lecture at Texas A&M University on Tuesday.

"We feared declaring one side right and one side wrong, and our failures invited such an attempt," Brook said. "They could smell our fear."

Brook, the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, discussed the moral and practical necessity for America to stand by its long-time ally in the Middle East as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict intensifies.

Brook said one reason for the attacks may have been because Arab terrorists did not expect America to strike back since the United States has discouraged Israel from retaliating against the recent wave of Palestinian terror.

"America has not done enough in supporting Israel," Brook said.

By not taking out terrorist camps in rogue states America made itself vulnerable to attacks by Muslim fanatics, Brook said.

The United States supported the United Nation's 1948 decision to establish Israel, and became an important supplier of arms for the new nation. But recently, the U.S. has continued to increase pressure on Israel to make concessions to its Arab neighbors, Brook said.

Brook said there will only be peace once Israel is seen as strong and indestructable and Arabs abandon their quest to destroy Israel, but that will never happen until America throws its weight decisively behind Israel.

"America has not done enough in supporting Israel," Brook said.

Although both sides have staked a claim on the same tiny sliver of land in the Middle East, the Israelis earned their right to the land and they have only entered war when forced to by Arab aggression, Brook said.

The Israelis came to a largely barren land and built cities, grew crops, brought industry and built universities, Brook said. Arabs in Israel are more prosperous and free than in any Muslim country, Brook said.

"The Isralites took Western civilization into the Middle East," Brook said.

The Arabs responded to the civilization with violence, and proceeded to harass and attack Israel to rid the land of the Jews, Brook said.

The Palestinians were the agressors in the first war of 1948, and since have forced Israel to enter four additional wars, all in self-defense, Brook said. The war of 1948 was not fought by the Arabs to establish a state, but because all of these Arab countries wanted the land for themselves, Brook said.

Palestinians do not deserve statehood because they refused it when it was offered, they resort to violence, they do not recognize or respect Israel and they have a brutal dictatorship, Brook said.