Instead of hiding Israel, America should stand proudly next to her. That’s a better way to show friendship and fight terror. David Suissa

There are two ways to look at the Obama administration’s decision to exclude Israel from its global anti-terrorism initiative. If you recall, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to Istanbul last month to convene the Global Counterterrorism Forum, the group of invitees included 29 countries and the European Union—but not Israel.
On the surface, this makes no sense: It’d be like having a global conference on social networking and not inviting Facebook. Seriously, is there any country in the world that has more experience fighting terrorism than Israel?
But if you listen to the U.S. State Department, this was all for Israel’s good.
In a calm and reasoned piece in Atlantic magazine, Zvika Krieger, senior vice president of The S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace and a Shalhevet alumni, writes: “The State Department found itself in a bind: Israel, one of the world’s foremost experts in fighting terrorism and a key U.S. ally on that front, would seem to be a natural candidate for participating in the forum. But organizers feared that Israel’s participation in the formative stages might have undermined the whole endeavor.”
He quotes a State Department official as saying: “The goal was to establish an apolitical and technical forum that included both our traditional [counterterrorism] partners and newer ones, a forum that could focus on practical issues of common concern rather than politics. We were concerned that if the central issue from the outset was whether or not Israel should be a member, that it would be difficult to pivot away from the politicized discussions happening at the U.N. and elsewhere.”
According to Krieger, the Obama administration “reasoned that the progress made by the organization would ultimately better serve Israel’s interests (not to mention those of the United States) than would the symbolic benefits of including it in a group that likely wouldn’t accomplish anything. They also concluded that once the organization was up and running, and its agenda was established, they could find ways to include Israel that would not be disruptive.”
In other words, the United States pretty much said to Israel and to its supporters: “Please don’t be offended if we consider Israel’s involvement in this forum disruptive. We have to deal with reality. Trust us: it’s better if you don’t make a big deal about this.”
It seems to be working. Krieger reports that according to his State Department source, “it is no coincidence that pro-Israel groups such as the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have been largely silent in public on the topic.”
But not everyone is keeping quiet. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, wrote to me in an e-mail: “We did protest Israel’s exclusion from that conference. We met administration officials on it as well and spoke to numerous members of Congress.”
The Zionist Organization of America also released a statement strongly critical of the decision, while, as Krieger noted, U.S. Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Mark Kirk, both staunch defenders of Israel on Capitol Hill, wrote a letter to Clinton expressing their disappointment with Israel’s exclusion.
But I have not met anyone who is as upset about the decision as Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance.
“This is an absolute outrage, on so many levels,” he told me. “Just look at the precedent we are setting. Now, any country has permission to exclude Israel from any global forum in the future. All they have to say is: If America can do it, then we can do it.”
Hier and his staff have been on a relentless campaign to “get answers” from the Obama administration. He shared with me his letter of protest to Secretary of State Clinton and a response from a State Department official. “We can’t get a straight answer,” he told me.
Maybe the answer is simply this: The Obama administration is just not willing to stick its neck out as a matter of principle, and say to the world: “Our trusted ally Israel has enormous expertise in fighting terrorism. It’s important that countries put their personal sentiments aside and welcome Israel’s involvement, which will be critical to the success of this global initiative.”
Krieger himself, while expressing support for the U.S. decision, admits that Israel’s exclusion “could send the wrong message and have a ripple effect, with Israeli officials expressing concern that it could give an unintended U.S. imprimatur to the marginalization and de-legitimization that Israel is encountering elsewhere in the international community.”
So, when I read Edgar Bronfman in Haaretz telling us this week that President Barack Obama should be judged by his “real actions” for Israel, not by his words or his “swagger,” my immediate reaction is: “Please, Mr. President, show me some real action for Israel. Put your swagger where your mouth is.”
Israel doesn’t deserve to be treated like an ugly date that helps you with your homework but you wouldn’t dare ask to the prom. The movement to isolate and delegitimize the Jewish state is itself a form of terror. A few words of swagger and support from the most powerful man in the world, not to mention a justified invitation to a prestigious global forum, are not just words—they are real, meaningful action.
Instead of hiding Israel, America should stand proudly next to her. That’s a better way to show friendship and fight terror.

How dare the world shun Israel on terrorism (Jose Maria Aznar)

How dare the world shun Israel on terrorism 

Forty years after Munich, we are wrong to block the country most affected by atrocities 

Jose Maria Aznar 

When we are about to mark the 40th anniversary of the terrorist attacks at the Olympic Village in Munich, in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian terrorists, it is a real paradox to see Israel excluded from the first meeting of the Global Counter-terrorism Forum. 

This initiative, led by the United States and attended by 29 countries and the European Union, took place last month in an effort to improve the co-ordination of counter-terrorism policies at global level. Why wasn't Israel invited? The meeting was held in Istanbul and no one wanted to "provoke" the host, the Islamist Government of the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Worse still, in July, the forum organised its first victims-of-terrorism meeting. Not only was Israel excluded, but Israeli victims had no place in its official speeches. When we see deadly terrorist attacks such as the recent one in Bulgaria, targeting tourists simply because they were Israeli, the marginalisation of Israel is totally unacceptable. 

As a terrorism victim myself, who was fortunate to survive a car-bomb attack, I cannot understand or justify the marginalisation of other terrorist victims just for political reasons. If we extrapolate Israel's experience of slaughter to Britain, it would mean that in the past 12 years about 11,000 British citizens would have died and 60,000 would have been injured in terrorist attacks. In the case of the United States, the figures would he 65,000 dead and 300,000 injured. Israel's ordeal is far from insignificant. 

It is even more poignant if one considers Israel's willingness to face up to terrorism and the practical experience that it has acquired to defeat it. Israel has much to contribute in this area and everyone else has a lot to learn if we really want to defeat the terrorists. 

Fiamma Nirenstein, the vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies (and a member of the Friends of Israel Initiative) has made a proposal that is as fair as it is attractive - to hold a moment of silence at the London Olympics in memory of the 1972 massacre. Remembering is important, first, because of the victims, but also because many Europeans adopted the wrong attitude towards Palestinian terrorism after the Munich attack. The culprits who were arrested were later quietly released for fear of further attacks. And because of that initial fear the terrorists knew hose to take advantage of the situation and to press for more rewards. 

I have experienced terrorism at first hand. Many of my friends and some political colleagues have been killed by terrorists whose only merit was to have a hood, a gun or a bomb. Nonetheless, even in the most difficult times, I have always believed that weakness and appeasement are the wrong choices. Terrorism is not a natural phenomenon; it doesn't happen spontaneously; its not something ethereal. It can and must be fought using all the tools provided by the law and democracy - and most importantly, it can be defeated if there is the will to defeat it. Israel has provided ample proof that it possesses that will, since its own existence is at stake. 

To marginalise or isolate Israel to avoid irritating Turkey is a big mistake. All of the Middle East, from Morocco to the Gulf, is undergoing profound, although not always peaceful, change, which is yielding very disturbing results. Although the elections in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt are something new and promising for the region, Syria is immersed in civil war and there is a danger that the region's largest arsenal of chemical weapons will spin out of control and become available to anyone - as happened with Libya's portable anti-aircraft missiles, which disappeared after the fall of of Colonel Gaddafi, In Egypt, the rise of Islamism threatens economic and political stability. Hezbollah is still in Lebanon, keeping alive its goal of eliminating Israel -just as members oft Hamas do in Gaza. Despite sanctions, Iran is moving forward with the development of a nuclear bomb in its effort to become the regional leader and to export its Islamist and revolutionaiy ideology as widely as possible. There are also other areas in turmoil that directly affect Europe, such as the Sahel region of Africa, south of the Sahara, which is now becoming dominated by al-Qaeda. 

Isolation not only renders Israel weaker against its enemies, but also makes all Westerners weaker. And the practitioners of terrorism know all too well how to exploit our differences. 

Remembering Munich 40 years on should be a useful reminder of our successes and failures. It should help us to enhance our collective abilities to light terrorism. Israel is key in this fight. Israel is a part of the West. Israel is not the problem; it is part of the solution. We will become the problem if we continue to cold-shoulder Israel, the country most affected by terrorism and, possibly, the one that knows best how to defeat it. 

Jose Maria Aznar was Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004 and is chairman of the Friends of Israel Initiative.