Our buddy Saddam

I had lunch in the walled Old City of Jerusalem on Friday with two visiting American businessmen. Israeli police helicopters hovered overhead, monitoring tens of thousands of Muslims gathered for Friday prayers on the nearby Temple Mount. The crowds were much larger than usual, and security extra tight, since it was the third Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Naturally, we talked about the heavy Israeli security presence around the historic Old City, as well as in the sky above us. Then my visiting friends mentioned that they had encountered a fair amount of anti-American sentiment during their short stay in Jerusalem. They reported that the negative comments were not coming from Israeli Jews, but from Palestinian Arabs. These dollar-carrying tourists were quite surprised to find themselves the victims of thinly veiled animosity. They had assumed that if anyone would be expressing anger after Sept. 11, it would be Americans like themselves.

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I told my puzzled pilgrim friends that I had also noticed an increase in Arab anti-American sentiment since the Twin Towers came crashing down in New York. But I added that I was not at all surprised by this development.

However hard President George Bush tries to portray his muscular military response as a legitimate war against terrorism, and not a battle aimed at Islam or Arabs in general, I understood that many local Muslims would feel like they were under the same gun as Osama bin Laden. After all, they are members of the same faith as the Arabian warrior, and share his language and culture – even if bin Laden's interpretation of what constitutes legitimate jihad holy war is on the more radical side of the scale.

This helps explain why regional Arab leaders are crying foul over the prospect that the American military machine might take on Saddam Hussein after mopping up in Afghanistan.

The Arab stand is somewhat ironic, if not hypocritical, since these same regimes have been the targets of the Iraqi leader's violent rage in the past. Nevertheless, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher – whose country receives $2 billion in annual U.S. aid – told Secretary of State Colin Powell that using force against the Butcher of Baghdad "would have a negative impact in both the Arab world and in the United States."

The Egyptian official's ambiguous reference to America was possibly a hint that military action would probably provoke additional terror attacks on U.S. soil. His enigmatic remark probably added to administration suspicions, and to substantial circumstantial evidence that Saddam was indeed linked to the horrific September attacks.

Another supposed Arab ally in the U.S. war against international terrorism issued an even harsher warning to George Bush. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shara actually hinted that his despotic country would side with Saddam in any confrontation with the Great Satan, insisting that action against Iraq would be "a fatal mistake."

Some Israeli analysts wondered if the Syrian and Egyptian government ministers might know more than they are fully revealing – such as that Saddam himself commissioned bin Laden's terrorist atrocities. If so, they might also know for certain that further terrorist strikes are being planned against America, possibly featuring non-conventional weapons. After all, a "fatal mistake" is by definition the last one you make.

Gas mask time?

George Bush's warning on Monday that the brutal Iraqi dictator would "find out the consequences" if he continued to bar U.N. arms inspectors from his country has left the Israeli public somewhat stirred up as well. Television news broadcasts this week have shown file footage of Israelis donning their trusty gas masks 10 years ago after rushing to their anti-chemical sealed rooms.

But the screened archive scenes were not only historic. Israeli experts on Iraq, like Professor Amatzia Baram of Haifa University, were interviewed. They warned that Saddam was quite likely to launch Scuds once again if he felt his rule was truly coming to an end.

Dr. Baram said the experts are certain that the Iraqi leader has at least 50 functioning ballistic missiles in his strategic arsenal, along with several mobile launchers. He said all believe that he still possesses non-conventional weapons as well. Adding to the gloom, the professor revealed that Western allies discovered after the war that Saddam had ordered the firing of non-conventional warheads at Israel if Baghdad came under a U.S. ground attack.

Leaving aside the threat of additional Iraqi Scuds raining down in the near future on Tel Aviv and elsewhere, Israelis were nervous enough as President Bush placed Saddam on notice. That was because they knew the U.S. peace team was on its way.

The arrival of Colin Powell's new Mideast envoy, Anthony Zinni, and other officials should have been a source of some joy, given the dearth of American tourists at present. But the sad fact is that Israelis are always the victims of an upsurge in Palestinian terrorism when the peace train appears to be speeding up, or even rolling slightly forward. That was certainly the case this week. A series of attacks left an additional seven Israelis dead and scores wounded. As before, the latest casualties were mostly young people, and as usual, they included women.

Now, seven victims in one week might not seem like a lot. After all, people around the globe are still watching in sorrow and amazement as determined rescue workers sift through the rubble of the World Trade Center, attempting to recover more remains of the over 3,000 victims of Earth's worst-ever terror attack.

But Israel is a country of just 5.2 million Jews, along with around 1 million Arab citizens. If scaled to America's much larger population, the number of Israeli victims per capita during the week would amount to some 280 people. Indeed, this week's tally tipped the total Israeli death toll since the new "Al Aksa intifada" began in September 2000, to over 200 – the equivalent of around 9,000 American lives!

Of course, the Palestinian uprising death toll is much higher than Israel's – around four times greater in fact. Yet a majority were killed while engaging in some form of combat against the detested Jewish State, even if at times they were "just" hurling rocks or bottles at Israeli soldiers. Most were doing things more serious than that, like storming army bases, attacking buses or Jewish homes, etc. Some were innocent victims of the ongoing conflict, like the five youths killed last week when one of them kicked an Israeli landmine that had been planted in a makeshift Palestinian sniper's bunker. A few were apparently killed by Jewish civilians avenging the deaths of family members or friends. But it was Israelis, and not Palestinians, who were the main victims of deliberate and premeditated terror attacks during the uprising's first year.

Given that Palestinian terrorism always increases when U.S. envoys arrive, don't be shocked to learn that the average Israeli is not overly enthused that Bush and Powell are placing the fractured "peace process" on the front burner once again. Nor are many thrilled that the diplomats were sent here to "pull, push and prod," as Powell put it.

Israelis generally believe that they have done most of the "pulling" until now – pulling out of large chunks of territory in the Gaza Strip captured from Egypt in the 1967 war, from a good portion of Jordan's former "West Bank" north and south of Jerusalem, and from all of southern Lebanon. The Palestinians and their Islamic allies have been doing most of the pushing – resorting to violent methods to get more than they were offered at the bargaining table, if not to wipe out the "Zionist entity" altogether.

If George W. Bush actually thinks he can succeed where previous presidents from Carter to Clinton have failed (although Jimmy Carter did secure a cold peace between Israel and Egypt, if not with the Palestinians), more power to him. If he realizes that a durable peace is impossible while the likes of Saddam Hussein are lurking in the regional shadows, that is better still. But he and his administration subordinates should not be surprised if war weary Israeli Jews let off a collective sigh as they gaze with sorrow at televised pictures of the latest suicide bus blast while dusting off their gas masks.