When fighting terror is an outrage

After the hijacking of the Achille Lauro in 1985, the United States attempted to capture the terrorist responsible by forcing the plane they were on to land on an American-Italian base in Sicily. However, Italy and Egypt were outraged and Italy refused to extradite the terrorists.

Jack Ohman the cartoonist for the Oregonian brillaintly captured the hypocrisy of the anger directed at the Reagan administration for trying to bring the killers to justice. His cartoon showed pictures of Hosni Mubarak, Bettino Craxi and Yasser Arafat; under each picture there was a caption: “Mr. Mubarak demands an apology”; “Mr. Craxi demands an apology”; “Mr. Arafat demands an apology.”

On the right of the panel was a wheelchair draped with an American flag. The caption was “Mr. Klinghoffer has no demands.”

For the all the outrage the three politicians expressed, there was no remorse that they had played a role in allowing terrorists to kill or escape. Things have not changed much. Arab terrorists still threaten Israel with the acquiescence of Arab states and European countries still enable them.

The Washington Post reports In a shift, United Arab Emirates may tighten travel rules after assassins’ entry:

The use of forged European passports by assassins who entered Dubai and killed a Hamas operative may lead the United Arab Emirates to review the open border policies that have made it a commercial and tourist hub, a top UAE official said Sunday.

Dubai, Noah Pollak observes, has been especially good at portraying itself as violated.

The New York Times reports E.U. decries passport use by assassins:

The European Union said Monday that it “strongly condemns” the use of forged European passports by the suspected assassins of a Palestinian leader, but it avoided any direct criticism of Israel, which has been accused of mounting the attack.

Times Topics: Mahmoud al-MabhouhThe E.U.’s declaration came as foreign ministers from some of the nations whose passports were counterfeited met individually with their Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman, who was in Brussels for a series of meetings.

Never mind that among the Gulf States, Dubai is close with Iran and his helping its leadership evade sanctions.

The U.A.E. was the biggest importer of U.S. products in the Middle East and North Africa, the Government Accountability Office said in December 2007. It ships out as much as 80 percent of the material — and as much as a quarter of that heads to Iran, says Jean-Francois Seznec, a professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in Washington. From 2005 to 2009, trade between Dubai and Iran tripled to $12 billion, according to the Dubai Chamber of Commerce. Iran’s main exports to Dubai are nuts, carpets and petrochemicals.

“Dubai is Iran’s offshore business center,” says Afshin Molavi, a fellow at the Washington-based New America Foundation, which analyzes public policy. “Dubai plays a huge role in Iran’s economy.”

Dubai’s porous borders enable Iran to snub the West. The Islamic Republic has disregarded United Nations Security Council demands that it cease work on its nuclear program, which the U.S. and its allies suspect is geared to giving Iran nuclear weapons. The U.S. State Department charges that Iran’s regime backs terrorist groups, including the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

Given its closeness to Iran, it’s hardly surprising that Dubai would serve as a conduit for Iran to get weapons to its proxy Hamas.

What can Israel do? Gerald Steinberg writes:

In the absence of any legal remedies or Western solidarity, Israel’s only option to protect its citizens from terror has always been to act independently and with force. When in 1976 a group of Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Israel-bound Air France plane to Uganda and separated the Jewish passengers, Israel decided to act. In a daring mission, it rescued all but three passengers while killing all terrorists and several Ugandan soldiers who had been protecting the terrorists. Back then, Israel’s detractors also fretted about the “violation of Ugandan sovereignty” even though dictator Idi Amin was in cahoots with the terrorists. Entebbe, though, quickly became the gold standard for successful counter-terror operations. Only a year later, Israeli-trained German special forces freed in Mogadishu, Somalia a Lufthansa plane hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. Similarly, when after years of horrific suicide bombings Israel pioneered the targeted killings of Hamas terrorists—often with the help of unmanned drones—Israel’s Western adversaries complained about “extrajudicial assassinations.” Today, though, U.S. forces have copied Israel’s technique with their own drone killings of jihadi terrorists in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.

The outrage over Israel’s self-defense (if that’s what happened) is misplaced. The real outrage should be directed towards those who enable terrorists to act with impunity. (The same applied to Jordan’s outrage over the attempted killing of Khaled Mashaal in Amman. Why was an enemy of Israel allowed to operate openly in a supposedly friendly country?)

For similar thoughts please see The Hashmonean, Contentions and Solomonia.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.