Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak outlined an aggressive plan for fighting terrorism worldwide in a speech at Elon College Wednesday night.
"Nine-eleven changed the world forever. At stake is everything we hold dear," Barak said to an audience of several thousand in a crowded gymnasium. He called the current conflict against terrorism the first world war of the 21st century and expressed his confidence in the Bush administration.
"The American people have a top-notch A-team for defeating world terror at the present time," he said.
The former Israeli leader has a long record of dealing with terrorism. Before entering politics, he served as a commando in the Israeli army, where in 1972 he led the rescue of a hijacked Belgian airliner, and in 1973 attacked a Palestinian group responsible for murdering Israeli Olympic athletes.
He served as Israel's interior minister and foreign minister before being elected prime minister in 1999, defeating Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak was voted out of office in 2001, due to perceptions that he had failed to make peace with the Palestinians.
He defined three common terrorist objectives in the Middle East: running the U.S. military out of the Arabian Peninsula, toppling moderate governments in the region and destroying the state of Israel. He then stated a list of steps he sees as necessary to eliminate terrorist organizations.
First, he said, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and its Taliban accomplices must be eliminated, as is being done now in Afghanistan. Second, Barak said, terrorists must be tracked down in Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. He said he perceived these governments as relatively weak and willing to comply with foreign demands with little or no military action.
Next, Barak expressed his support for the use of force against organizations headquartered in Syria and Lebanon--two nations that he sees as logistical hubs for hostile networks across the globe. Finally, he stated that the international community should crack down on the governments of Iran and Iraq, both of which he contended are sympathetic to terrorists.
Barak argued that the United Nations Security Council should call for a halt to Iraq's attempts to produce weapons of mass destruction.
He said he does not think Iraq would comply, leading him to the conclusion that Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, must eventually be removed by force.
Barak then discussed issues that more directly related to Israel, namely the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Barak called Arafat, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a liar and a recent sponsor of terror against Israel. "Arafat does not recognize the moral and political right of the Jewish people to have a state," he said.
He contended that Arafat had several opportunities to make peace with Israel, notably the Oslo peace accords with former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, which granted Palestinians limited autonomy. But Barak argued that Arafat always failed to follow through in practice. "We are going to appeal to the Nobel committee to replace [Arafat's] peace prize with an Oscar," he joked.
Barak stated that in the long run, he believes both Israel and the United States will be free from the threat of terrorism. However, serious challenges and conflicts will arise in the short term, he said.
"We have to summon in ourselves the courage, strength and faith of the greatest generation [that fought World War II] along with the perseverance of those who won the long twilight struggle of the Cold War," he said.
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