Containing the Threat of Islamic Radicalism

Since the 1979 takeover of Iran by Khomeini and his supporters, Islamic radicalism has emerged as the most dangerous threat to pro-Western nations in the region. Islamic extremists have taken over Sudan and turned it into a terrorism center, instituting the most vicious oppression of Christians and animists anywhere in the world; they have murdered thousands of civilians in Algeria and are threatening to take over the country; and they have assassinated foreign tourists in Egypt and terrorized Israelis. Additionally, several other pro-Western countries in the region have active radical Islamic movements, including Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait.

It is of particular concern that Islamic radicalism has reached America's shores. Islamic extremists perpetrated the World Trade Center bombing, and the radical Islamic Sheik Abdel-Rahman was convicted of participating in a conspiracy to blow up additional landmark targets in New York. The current leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad came from the University of Florida.

The forces of Islamic radicalism will doubtless continue their relentless campaign to undermine the Middle East's pro-Western governments, thus destabilizing the entire region and endangering the free flow of Persian Gulf oil.

The replacement of the Shah by the anti-American fundamentalist regime of Ayatollah Khomeini replaced a pro-Western bastion and force for stability in the Gulf with an anti-Western -- anti-American (the "Great Satan") in particular -- force for revolutionary change. The 1979 Iranian taking of American hostages epitomized this change.

Similarly, the 1989 military coup in Sudan brought to power Islamic radicals who have supported terrorism against Americans and American allies, placing Sudan on the U.S. terrorism list. In 1996, the danger to American personnel compelled the United States to close its embassy and urge all Americans to leave Sudan.

Radical Islamic forces continue to threaten an Algerian takeover. Should they succeed, the continued existence of pro-Western regimes in northern Africa -- particularly Tunisia and Egypt -- would be seriously threatened. And even if the Islamic radicals fail to take over Algeria, the threat to Egypt will continue. Islamic terrorists earlier this month massacred 18 tourists in Cairo, and they are active in the south. Furthermore, the government's failure to deal effectively with Egypt's crushing social and economic problems virtually ensures the perseverance of radical Islamic forces in the country.

Finally, the terrorist acts perpetrated by Islamic radicals have seriously disrupted the Arab-Israeli peace process. Unless these radicals are contained, their attacks may bring the process to a halt. Promoting the Arab-Israeli Peace Process

Although the Soviet Union is no more, the Gulf war has demonstrated that regional wars can entangle the United States even if there is no superpower confrontation. Another Arab-Israeli war -which the forces of Islamic radicalism might precipitate -- is particularly dangerous. It could risk:

♦ disrupting the stability of the entire region, thus creating internal and external threats to important allies and trading partners of the United States;

escalating to a point that forces direct American involvement, thereby putting U.S. lives at risk -- especially at a time when rogue states are acquiring unconventional weapons and generating billions of dollars in direct costs to the United States;

♦ disrupting the supply and/or driving up the price of Middle East oil, with potential costs to the United States of tens of billions of dollars;

♦ disrupting and destabilizing the global economy.

Middle East peace not only would avert these threats, but would also hold major benefits for the United States. It would: bring stability to the Middle East and help to reduce the threat of terrorism against Americans inside and outside the United States; isolate and decrease the influence of radical Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, Iraq, and Libya, thus reducing one of the biggest post-Cold War threats to American security; expand Middle Eastern markets for U.S. exports, providing new opportunities for U.S. investments, and reduce the chance of international crises disruptive to markets and commerce; encourage Arab governments to reallocate resources from military to civilian needs -such reallocations would help improve the Arab economies, thus undercutting extremists who feed on poverty and threaten U.S. regional allies; and facilitate the emergence of a bloc of moderate Middle Eastern states, including Israel along with Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and others, which could advance American interest in the long-term stability of the region.

Helping the Democratic State of Israel To Survive and Thrive

Since the Declaration of Independence, Americans have viewed the right of all people to democratic government as one of their most cherished values. Americans, moreover, have discovered that fellow democracies are reliable allies capable of making vital contributions to U.S. national security. Another core American value is the right of all persecuted people to a safe haven.

In the Middle East, Americans have looked with admiration at Israel's five-decade-old struggle to maintain itself as a Western democracy and as a haven for persecuted Jews from around the world in the face of repeated attempts by its authoritarian adversaries to defeat it. As the sole democracy in the region, Israel has also proved to be a vital and reliable U.S. ally, helping advance American interests at a relatively small cost.

Since 1948, Arab states have threatened Israel's very existence by waging three major wars and amassing huge arsenals of conventional and unconventional weapons.

The immense military buildup of Arab armies since the 1970s has posed a grave threat to Israel. It is only thanks to U.S. military aid that Israel has been able to match Arab military power.

Israel continues to be threatened by the massive Arab and Iranian efforts to develop unconventional weapons, and missiles capable of hitting Israel with unconventional warheads. In particular, Israel's survival continues to be threatened by Iraq and Iran's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons program. The 1991 Scud attacks on Israel demonstrated that Iraqi missiles are already capable of reaching Israel.

Expanding Economic Opportunities in the Region

With a rapidly-growing population of over 250 million, the Middle East could become a huge market for U.S. goods, creating millions of new American jobs. Today, the economy of Canada (population 30 million) is far larger than that of all Middle Eastern countries combined and U.S. exports to Canada greatly exceed U.S. exports to the entire region. Clearly, the potential for growth in U.S. exports to the Middle East is enormous.

U.S. economic opportunities are hampered by widespread poverty in much of the region. But other factors are at work as well. More than a third of the Middle East's population is ruled by antiAmerican rogue regimes -- Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Libya where a U.S. economic presence is virtually non-existent. The need to defend themselves against the rogue regimes has squeezed the economies of conservative Arab nations, preventing them from fully developing their economies. The Arab-Israeli conflict also has drained the resources of important Arab countries. Islamic radicalism continues to threaten conservative Arab countries; should they come under its control, U.S. economic opportunities would further diminish.

IL AID TO ISRAEL: A COST-EFFECTIVE INVESTMENT IN U.S. SECURITY

ISRAEL PROMOTES VITAL AMERICAN INTERESTS

The U.S.-Israel relationship has been cooperative in the truest, bipartisan sense of the word. Just after the Gulf war, then-Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney said that the crisis "has been a demonstration of the value of maintaining Israel's strength, and her ability to defend herself, and also the value of the strategic cooperation between our two countries." In 1994, Secretary of Defense William Perry stated that the U.S. strategic relationship with Israel is "as strong as it has ever been" and "is going to deepen...in the future." Just a few days ago here in Washington, Secretary Perry said that "we must not lose sight of the reality that it is only because of Israel's strength, and the strength of the U.S.-Israeli security partnership, that the Middle East has any prospects of a comprehensive peace." He added that as long as he was Defense Secretary, Israel's qualitative edge would be upheld. Finally, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS) declared in November, 1995, that it was time for the United States to establish a "newly-invigorated defense relationship" with Israel in order to deal with the mutual threats faced by the two allies.

The U.S.-Israel relationship is at the heart of realizing key U.S. objectives in the Middle East: Protecting the Flow of Middle East Oil

During the Cold War, the vital American interest in the free flow of Middle East oil was repeatedly threatened by Soviet-backed Arab nationalist regimes seeking to undermine the Persian Gulf conservative Arab monarchies in whose countries the oil is found. The crushing military defeats Israel inflicted on these regimes stemmed the nationalist surge and helped curb its threat.

Prior to 1967, Egypt's Arab nationalist President Abdel-Nasser made persistent efforts to undermine Saudi Arabia and other conservative, oil-rich Arab states. As a result of the June 1967 defeat, Egypt was forced into dependence on annual Saudi subsidies and gave up its radical campaign.

In September 1970, Syrian troops invaded much weaker Jordan. In close coordination with the U.S., Israel moved forces toward the Syrian border. The Syrian troops withdrew from Jordan. Had they succeeded in taking over the country, Saudi Arabia would have acquired a dangerous pro-Soviet neighbor on its border.

In October 1973, Egyptian and Syrian forces simultaneously invaded Israeli-held territories. Had they succeeded in defeating Israel, an unstoppable Arab nationalist surge would have ensued, almost certainly engulfing the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula. Israel defeated the invading forces, and a productive period of Arab-Israeli peacemaking followed.

As a result of a massive military buildup in the early 1980s, radical Syria was once again emerging as a dangerous regional power. The overwhelming defeat, in June 1982, of the Syrian air force -- which lost 80 jet fighters to Israel's 0 -- greatly reduced the potential Syrian threat to the oil-rich Arab nations.

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The gravest -- and most direct -- threat to the oil-rich countries of the Arabian Peninsula came in August 1990, when Saddam Hussein's army invaded and occupied Kuwait. Had Iraq possessed nuclear weapons, the United States would almost certainly have avoided taking military action, leaving Iraq in control of Kuwait and possibly of the nearby Saudi oil fields shortly afterward; that would have been a unimaginable catastrophe for America and its Western allies. The reason Baghdad did not possess nuclear weapons in 1990 was the destruction of Iraq's nuclear reactor by the Israeli air force in 1981, for which then-Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney publicly thanked Israel after the Gulf war. Furthermore, Israel in effect guaranteed Jordan's integrity by declaring that the entry of Iraqi forces into Jordan would be regarded as an act of war against Israel. Iraq was deterred from entering Jordan.

Today, Israel's battle against Islamic radicalism and international terrorism is helpful in preventing further destabilization of the region, which would endanger the free flow of oil.

Since the end of the 1991 Gulf war, the Arab-Israeli peace process has greatly contributed to the stabilization of the Middle East. Regional stability is essential for the security of Persian Gulf oil; the peace process has been made possible by Israel's willingness to take risks for peace.

Preventing Regional Nuclear Proliferation

In the only act of its kind in history, Israel took direct action to destroy the nuclear capability of a rogue state. In June 1981, U.S.-made Israeli jet fighters demolished the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad, setting back Iraq's nuclear weapons program by more than a decade. After the Gulf war, thenSecretary of Defense Richard Cheney publicly thanked Israel for this act. And President Clinton stated in November 1992, "If Israel had not conducted a surgical strike on Iraq's nuclear reactor, our forces might well have confronted a Saddam with nuclear weapons ten years later." Senior Israeli officials have stated that Israel will take similarly decisive action against Iran if its nuclear weapons program progresses too far.

Israel has shared its unrivaled intelligence on the Arab world and Iran -- including on nuclear and other unconventional weapons programs -- with the United States and other Western allies. The detailed March 1995 briefing Secretary of Defense William Perry received in Israel on Iran's nuclear capabilities points to Israel's intelligence contribution to countering this dangerous threat.

Blocking Mideast-Originated Terrorist Threats

For more than two decades, Israel has been in the forefront of the Western world's battle against Mideast-originated terrorism. Among many hard blows to international terrorism, Israeli commandos freed over a hundred passengers of an Air France airliner hijacked to Entebbe, Uganda, on July 4, 1976 - America's Bicentennial. This bold act inspired other Western countries to take direct action: In 1977, German special forces freed the passengers of a hijacked German airliner in Mogadishu, Somalia, and in 1979 French police shot Palestinian terrorists preparing to massacre passengers at a Paris airport.

Israel's unparalleled experience in combating terrorism has been placed at the disposal of many other nations. Israeli training has been provided to anti-terrorism units of major Western countries, as well as a large number of Third-World nations. Seasoned Israeli experts continue to provide security services to many governmental agencies throughout the world. Moreover, Israeli law-enforcement authorities work closely with their American counterparts to track Middle East terrorism; Israel's skills, location and environment make its information on this threat of unrivaled value. For several years, the United States and Israel have been jointly engaged in the Counter-Terrorism Working Group, which develops a range of technologies applicable to the fight against terrorism.

Containing Islamic Radicalism

Having lost over 120 lives last year alone to terrorists of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, Israel stands at the forefront of the battle against this menace. As the originator of direct action against Islamic terrorists and as the source of unsurpassed intelligence on Islamic radical activities, Israel has been an invaluable partner to the United States in countering Islamic extremism.

Israel's advancement of the peace process through its willingness to take risks for peace has brought tangible benefits to the Palestinians, greatly strengthening the supporters of peace at the expense of the Islamic radicals -- as witnessed by the successful Palestinian elections of January 20, 1996. There are indications that this reversal is beginning to generate positive reverberations throughout the region. The moderate Arab regimes are increasingly allying themselves with the United States and Israel against the forces of radicalism.

Promoting Arab-Israeli Peace

Israel's demonstrable willingness to take risks for peace has made possible a quantum leap in the peace process, in which the United States has a vital interest, greatly reducing the chance of another major war that could entangle the United States. Israel has been able to take these risks thanks to American aid and support, whose continuation will keep Israel sufficiently strong to deal with the risks and deter Arab attacks on Israel.

Israel's three agreements with the Palestinians (the September 1993 Declaration of Principles, known as "Oslo I"; the May 1994 Gaza-Jericho accord; and the September 1995 "Oslo II" Interim