Dennis Ross, former Special Middle East Coordinator for the State Department, writes that not only must terrorism be fought tenaciously, but it must also be \"de-legitimized,\" and \"nowhere is it more important for the international community to make this point than in the Middle East.\" In an article in the latest issue of the Jewish Agency\'s Global Jewish Agenda, Ross writes,
\"No \'cause\' justifies [terrorism]. Any cause that employs terror is itself de-legitimized... In the \'struggle\' with Israel, suicide bombers are portrayed as martyrs, not as monsters. Killing innocent non-combatants has been glorified, not rejected. Recruiting kids for human destruction has been celebrated, not condemned...
\"It is good that Arab leaders condemned the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But such condemnations will mean little in practice if there is no change in day-to-day behaviors that convey a tolerance for the use of terror… Check nearly any Friday sermon broadcast by the Palestinian Authority over the last year and you will see that suicide bombers are glorified and calls for jihad against Israel and the United States are commonplace. The editorial in Al-Hayat al-Jadida, perhaps the leading Palestinian newspaper, stated that the suicide bombers in Israel were the \"noble tradition\" of those who bombed the U.S. Marines in Lebanon. The date of its publication: September 11, 2001. The Palestinian media and public posture are not unique in the area. A few days prior to the attack an Egyptian journalist is one of Egypt\'s mainstream newspapers described how he had swelled with pride when he saw the suicide bombing of the pizza parlor in Jerusalem...
\"In short, it is time for Arab leaders to level with their publics and make it clear they will not tolerate terror… Absent that, Arab leaders should not expect that we would intervene decisively on Arab-Israeli peace.\"
\"No \'cause\' justifies [terrorism]. Any cause that employs terror is itself de-legitimized... In the \'struggle\' with Israel, suicide bombers are portrayed as martyrs, not as monsters. Killing innocent non-combatants has been glorified, not rejected. Recruiting kids for human destruction has been celebrated, not condemned...
\"It is good that Arab leaders condemned the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But such condemnations will mean little in practice if there is no change in day-to-day behaviors that convey a tolerance for the use of terror… Check nearly any Friday sermon broadcast by the Palestinian Authority over the last year and you will see that suicide bombers are glorified and calls for jihad against Israel and the United States are commonplace. The editorial in Al-Hayat al-Jadida, perhaps the leading Palestinian newspaper, stated that the suicide bombers in Israel were the \"noble tradition\" of those who bombed the U.S. Marines in Lebanon. The date of its publication: September 11, 2001. The Palestinian media and public posture are not unique in the area. A few days prior to the attack an Egyptian journalist is one of Egypt\'s mainstream newspapers described how he had swelled with pride when he saw the suicide bombing of the pizza parlor in Jerusalem...
\"In short, it is time for Arab leaders to level with their publics and make it clear they will not tolerate terror… Absent that, Arab leaders should not expect that we would intervene decisively on Arab-Israeli peace.\"