"Jihad in Sinai"
(Annexed copy of The International Jerusalem Post editorial of 4/26/06)                                                                                                                               

Questions and Answers are cited below as "Q" and "A"

1. Q: Why the editorial?

A: "Our government strongly condemns this criminal act which flouts our religion, shakes Palestinian national security and works against Arab interests." - Palestinian Authority spokesman on the triple bombing in Egyptian Sinai, April 24.

2. Q: Who was bombed?

A: Egyptians and other guests of Egypt on the Sinai coast.

3. Q: How come?

A: The response of such states as Egypt, has been to use a heavy hand and full dictatorial powers to squash Islamist opposition while at the same time, particularly in the Saudi case, funding the Islamists' schools of indoctrination and allowing demonization of Israel, the common enemy of radicals and moderates.

4. Q: Why then talk further?

A: "Both strategies have reached the point of diminishing returns. The Hamas electoral victory is a classic example of how years of Western alliances with corrupt and dictatorial regimes can drive people into the hands of the Islamists. Yet, 'pro-Western' Arab regimes cannot forever withstand the tide of demands for democracy and human rights."

5. Q: Is there any way to return to an earlier status?

A: "There is no going back. The Islamist cancer directs the hatred at the West, but threatens the Arab world no less. The goal of the Islamists is a Taliban-like regime [ed. note: extremely right-wing religious Arab forces] stretching across the entire Arab world; a vast dictatorship bent on subduing the Arab peoples and the West as well."

6. Q: What is the answer then?

A: No further crack-downs and attempts to keep the embers of the Arab-Israeli conflict alive, but rather the opposite: domestic liberalization and full normalization with Israel.

7. Q: Is it a question of survival for the Arabs as well?

A: Most certainly yes. "Arab governments, if they want to survive, need to offer their people peace and prosperity, not an iron fist and unending conflict. Arab regimes that become less dictatorial, less corrupt and less diplomatically and economically isolated should have a chance to compete against those that only offer a return to the mores and wars of the 11th century."

8. Q: Is the old pattern of crush, appease and incite against Israel and America, - bankrupt?

A: Most certainly yes. "It is what helped create al-Qaida and what will continue to fuel militant Islamism if it is not broken."

9. Q: What signal should govern then?

A: "The most concrete sign of breaking this pattern would be for other Arab states to join Egypt and Jordan in formally ending their war against Israel, and for Egypt and Jordan to make those peace treaties more of a living reality."

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cc: George W. Bush, President
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