‘JIHAD’! P.B.S. SHOW DETAILS ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS’ WAR ON AMERICA — AND WHY U.S TROOPS ON GOLAN WILL BE AT RISK

(Washington, D.C.): In a masterful feat of
journalism, the Public Broadcasting System this evening
will broadcast a major expose: “Jihad In
America.” This program reveals in an
authoritative but shocking way not only the enormous
gravity of the threat posed by Islamic extremists to
American interests and allies overseas — notably Israel
— but also to the United States, itself. It argues that
those who perpetrated the World Trade Center bombing in
1993 have far bigger and even more destructive attacks in
mind, if not actually underway.

The program’s authoritiveness derives from the
exceptional familiarity subject of its executive
producer, Steven Emerson, with this subject and from the
powerful on-camera appearances by leading Islamic
political agitators now resident in the United States,
former U.S. government officials and other experts in
international terrorism.

The Enemy is Us

“Jihad In America” makes clear that the
objective of the Islamic extremist movement is nothing
less than a holy war against Western civilization in all
of its manifestations. Oliver Revell, former FBI Dallas
Bureau Chief, states the danger clearly:

“…If you listen to what [the Islamic
extremist terrorists] are really saying, they’re not
just aimed at the Israelis, they are not just aimed
at the Jewish state. Their goals are completely and
totally to eradicate any opposition to Hamas and to
Islam and to move against the United States
ultimately.”

According to the program, Americans overseas
are at particular risk of attack by Islamic extremists.
An influential figure in Islamic radical circles — Sheik
Mohammad Al-Asi, the religious leader of the Islamic
Education Center in Potomac, Maryland — appears, saying:

“If the Americans are placing their forces
forces in the Persian Gulf, we should be creating
another war front for the Americans in the Muslim
world — and specifically where American interests
are concentrated. In Egypt, in Turkey, in the Indian
subcontinent, just to mention a few. Strike against
American interests there.”

The FBI’s Revell explains the connection the Islamic
extremists make between the U.S. and its friends
overseas:

“If you listen to what they’re saying,
Israel, Egypt, Jordan are surrogates for the United
States, that they are puppets and we’re the puppeteer
and the way to strike at Israel, Egypt and so forth
is at the United States because without the
United States, they could not and would not exist so
we are the Great Satan that is their primary
and ultimate target.”

Meanwhile Back at the Golan

Such statements offer an important backdrop for the
decision reportedly discussed today by President Clinton
and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin: The idea of
deploying U.S. forces on the Golan Heights —
strategic and hotly disputed territory between Israel and
Syria — as part of an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement.
They also serve strongly to dispute arguments made by
Richard Haass, a former Bush Administration official, in
an op.ed. article published in today’s New York Times.
Specifically, Haass argues (in words that seem to reflect
Clinton Administration thinking):

“A [U.S.] Golan Heights presence would be
meant to keep the peace, not make it, and would be
designed for a consensual environment, not a hostile
one….History shows that peacekeeping can contribute
when the parties are committed to peace and able to
enforce it within their territory. Syria and Israel,
each strong and serious, meet this standard. Where
peacekeeping has failed, as in Lebanon and Somalia,
there has been no peace to keep and local parties
have been unwilling or unable to police it.”

In fact, in a Middle East awash with sentiments like
those documented in “Jihad” it is
extremely unlikely that U.S. forces on the Golan will be
able to operate in a benign environment — even if
Syria plays the constructive role imputed to it by
proponents of an American presence there. What is
more, there will be no consensual environment at all if
Syria winds up continuing its past and present practice
of sponsoring and utilizing terrorists to advance its
interests — albeit in a deniable way.

The Bottom Line

The Center for Security Policy — whose 26-page href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=00-golan94″>blue-ribbon study,
entitled U.S Forces on The Golan Heights: An
Assessment of the Benefits and Costs, appears as
a Special Report in Commentary Magazine this
month and remains the only rigorous analysis of
the Golan deployment idea published to date — urges
every American to tune in to “Jihad” tonight
from 10:10 to 11:10 p.m. tonight on PBS stations across
the country.

The Center earnestly hopes that President Clinton will
have an opportunity to be exposed to this program, as
well — before he winds up inadvertently
facilitating attacks upon U.S. forces by Islamic
terrorists as a result of putting them in close proximity
through a Golan deployment. And it agrees wholeheartedly
with Sen. Robert Dole, Republican of Kansas and
incipient Majority Leader of the United States Senate,
who said of the Golan deployment idea on yesterday’s
edition of This Week With David Brinkley:
“I don’t think that is a wise idea at all.”