Against this backdrop, Israel faced anew a quondam quandary: either it could pursue the West’s vain hope that Arafat would work for peace, or it could write him off and fight terrorism alone. Having endured suicide bombings of a scale that the United States would never stomach, Ariel Sharon chose the latter. America should have supported its ally. Instead, motivated by the highly questionable view that restraining Sharon would win Arab support for U.S. action against Saddam Hussein, President Bush scolded Sharon for doing in Palestine what America did in Afghanistan; and in so doing, Bush vitiated the clarity of the doctrine which bears his name and holds that America will not differentiate between terrorists and those who harbor them.

Arafat’s defenders—among them European leaders who recently lamented the lack of a procedure to revoke the Nobel Peace Prize from Shimon Peres (of all people!)—claim that Arafat never had the authority to eliminate terrorism. But even if true, that claim is beside the point. Nothing can erase Arafat’s refusal to use the authority that was available to him. Nothing can blot out his calculated cultivation of terrorism.

The United States has absolved Arafat’s transgressions so many times that he has grown indifferent to sin. None but a fool would think he has undergone a change of heart now. Our only leverage is to make him understand that this time, the choice between peace and terror has a consequence. And that requires an ultimatum.

If Arafat rejects the ultimatum, he must be cast aside. Negotiations with an enemy who lacks the desire for peace are as dangerous as they are futile. By severing ties with Arafat, the United States would open the door for a new Palestinian leadership. When the people of Palestine understand that terrorism produces political failure, that leadership will be a trustworthy one. And in the meantime, Israel will be able to defend itself—which it surely cannot do if bullied into a premature withdrawal that leaves the terrorist network intact, enraged and supported by the Palestinian Authority.

But more is at stake than Israel. The Arabs who strap bombs to teenaged bellies would see America defeated too. Those Palestinian crowds cheering on Sept. 11 were no coincidence. Suicide bombers were blowing apart Tel Aviv, Netanya and Jerusalem long before Mohammed Atta learned to fly commercial jets. Make no mistake: if we permit terrorists to strong-arm political concessions in Israel, we shall suffer atrocities that make the spectacle of skyscrapers falling in a plume of smoke look like the product of a child’s tantrum.

Jason L. Steorts ’01-03 is a philosophy concentrator in Dunster House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.