On October 15, 2003, an American diplomatic convoy traveling in the Arab-controlled section of the Gaza Strip was tragically attacked by terrorist thugs. The result was twofold: the horrific murder of three American security personnel and America?s introduction to the Palestinian Authority?s ?culture of death.?



The explosive device was hidden in one of the many ruts pitting the sides of the main road through Gaza. The terrorists detonated the powerful bomb as the second of three armored vehicles of the American Embassy convoy passed. According to press reports, the terrorist attack was carefully orchestrated, ensuring that the remote-controlled weapon hit its intended victim with maximum damage. The attack was the first fatal act of terror perpetrated against American diplomatic staff in the most recent phase of the Olso War, begun three years ago by the Palestinian Authority.



The reason for the diplomatic trip to Gaza was a visit by the Cultural Attach? of the United States Embassy to Arab educational centers seeking Fulbright scholarship candidates for graduate studies in the United States. Instead of ?building bridges? between the Arabs of Gaza and Americans, the diplomatic entourage found the harsh realities of the culture of death. The same culture of death thrust upon the Jewish People of Israel for the entirety of the Oslo War entered the world of the Americans with lethal effect. The heavily armored Chevrolet Suburban was literally split in two by the explosion. Human tissue and mangled metal were hurled meters from the five-meter-wide, 2.5-meter-deep crater of the explosion.



As atrocious as the deaths of John Branchizio, 37, from Texas, Mark Parson, 31, from New York State, and John Martin Linde, 30, from Missouri are, their lost lives only begin to shed light upon the culture of death. Not to trivialize the pain suffered by the family and friends of the murder victims, however, the rest of the story is far more significant to policy formulation and an accurate understanding of the terrorists? mindset.



The second part of America?s glimpse of the culture of death occurred on the heels of the bombing. U.S. agents sent to investigate the scene of the terror attack were pelted with scores of rocks from every direction. Arab children with hate in their eyes and the chants of ?Allah ?u akbar? on their lips hurled rock after rock with deadly intent. The same rocks from the same Arab children Israeli civilians and soldiers have endured for the last 20 years. The American investigators escaped with their lives as Palestinian Authority armed forces fired on the Arab children; the children of hate they themselves have created in a perverse world of inverted truth. With the elevation of chaos and mayhem, lies and deceit above all else, the PA has produced a society gone mad, unrulable by friend or foe.



It is wrong to view the terrorists as an anomaly within the society created by the Palestinian Authority. The world of hatred, lies, treachery and death-worship created by the Palestinian Authority will not go away and is at the very center of international terror. It is this ideological center, funded by Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the European Union, that Usama bin Ladin used as his model. The difficult truth is that there can be no answer to international Islamic terrorism until the Palestinian Authority is unmasked and destroyed. Further, it is the platform of rejectionism, Islamic fundamentalism and the politics of anarchy that come together (an unimaginable nexus for the Western scholars) as the basis for the Arab demands against Israel.



President George W. Bush hinted at an understanding of the reality in laying blame for the terror attack at the foot of the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately, the U.S. ambassador to Israel displayed his over-the-top ignorance by calling on Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to catch the terrorists.



The least toxic and most effective means of defusing this core of terrorist vitality (it is indeed an evolving Weltanschauung of PA creation) is the disengagement from the Arab agenda against the State of Israel. The facts on the ground must reflect the refusal to entertain the terror agenda. Israel must be forced to establish her borders with the complete annexation of lands acquired during the defensive war of 1967. Additionally, Israel must be made to complete the exchange of populations, repatriating the Arabs in Israeli territory to Arab lands (any one or a combination of the 21 countries they possess) in exchange for the 850,000 Jewish refugees taken in by Israel from Arab states.



The war on terror will not be won until the culture of death has lost its power and influence, until the Arab demands of the Jewish State are dismissed with contempt. When the United States reverses it traditional solutions to the Arab-Israel conflict - namely, Israeli capitulation to Arab demands - the world will be well on its way to ending international terrorism. Fundamental to this process is ending the refusal of the U.S. State Department and the European Union to understand the simple truth that the Oslo War and the War on Terrorism are indeed one and the same.