Stunning the already stunned

The president has promised us that the war against terror will be a long one. At the United Nations General Assembly, he laid out America’s case and did a pretty good job. He was steely-eyed, resolute and firm.

He told the assembled body of world leaders that for the terrorists who attacked us on 9-11, “There is no corner on earth distant or dark enough to protect them. However long it takes, their hour of justice will come.” It played well at home. It was just what we wanted to hear.

The Bush speech was unlike most addresses to the United Nations. A global diplomatic debating society, they are used to flowery phrases that mean little – things that are long on imagery but short on action. While they occasionally contain fiery rhetoric, they seldom address any of the U.N.’s pet projects.

The U.N. has two pets right now. There is Israel, the dog they like to kick, and their lapdog, Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian state. President Bush’s address took a kick at the lapdog, but in the end, he also tossed it a bone.

Bush took a shot at Arafat’s contention – widely supported among U.N. members – that some terrorists are less terrifying than others. The Palestinians argue that organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, while members of al-Qaida, are really freedom fighters battling against Israeli oppression. He said, “We must unite against all terrorists, not just some of them. Yet there is no such thing as a good terrorist. No national aspiration, no remembered wrong can ever justify the deliberate murder of the innocent.”

Take that, Yasser Arafat! Bush went on to slam the Arab propaganda rumor that started circulating the day after the WTC-Pentagon attack. Everybody has heard it by now. The one that says 4,000 Jews were warned not to go to the World Trade Center on 9-11 by the Israeli Mossad – thus proving that the Jews were the ones behind the attacks.

This was a particularly vicious bit of propaganda, given its implications. This slander charged two reprehensible things. First, that Israel would murder thousands of innocents in order to libel the Muslims.

And second, that all 4,000 Jews who were warned were so self-serving and calloused that they would simply stay home and let their friends and colleagues walk blindly into harm’s way.

It was such a popular rumor that even the deaths of 133 Israeli nationals and more than a thousand American Jews in New York couldn’t dispel it. The inventers of this myth used the “Big Lie” technique of the Nazis to the maximum. Even Hitler would have been proud of them.

Bush charged, “We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th, malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty. To inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror.”

That being said, the president then shifted gears and, if he follows through, guaranteed the war on terror will be a long one. For the first time by an American president in an official speech, he spoke of the state of Palestine.

“The American government also stands by its commitment to a just peace in the Middle East. We are working toward the day when two states – Israel and Palestine – live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders as called for by the Security Council resolutions.”

When it was Arafat’s turn to speak, we saw the Palestinian commitment to peaceful coexistence. Arafat was escorted to the podium at the General Assembly’s annual debate, an honor reserved for presidents and prime ministers.

Arafat received an even warmer welcome than did President Bush when he gave his address. Arafat devoted most of his speech to explaining his views on the conflict with Israel, utterly absolving the PA of complicity in the past year of violence, and citing U.N. resolutions as the basis for resolving the issues.

Arafat repeated his accusation that Sharon sparked the violence with his visit last year to the Temple Mount despite clear evidence that the intifada had been planned well in advance and was just waiting for an excuse. He charged Israel with practicing “state terror” – including “the killing of women, children, and old people.” Palestinian casualties, said Arafat, amount to 1,800 dead and 37,000 wounded, compared to 700 dead cited by the media. He accused Israel of “undermining our Christian and Muslim holy sites.” He said the PA has abided by all cease-fire agreements.

Once Arafat finished blaming Israel for blowing themselves up using Palestinian suicide bombers, he voiced his support for the U.S. war against terrorism.

It was a stunning speech. I was stunned. The Israelis were stunned. Anyone who has been watching the events of the past year should have been stunned. But most stunning of all, Arafat delivered this total reversal of the truth with a straight face. Then to top it all off, he received polite applause and overwhelming support. And if he gets his state, we will also get what President Bush promised us. A long, long war against terrorism and the states that sponsor it. Including a terror state whose birth we are about to sponsor.