Thank you Edith,

We are now in the Days of Repentance, the days, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In a few days we will pray on this holiest day and ask God to inscribe us into His book of life. We present God a list of potential catastrophes and ask in the "Netane Tokef," to save us from all these terrible ways of dying. We used to wonder about the long list of calamities, - like to be killed by sword, pestilence or fire, but nowhere was it mentioned to die, as the victims of terror did last week.

Listeners of this program have heard for a long time already of warnings from this kind of new danger. To have been right, gives a person usually a feeling of satisfaction. Yet, in this case it makes us only very sad. It is said, that the smart person learns from someone else's error. The - not so smart person, learns from his own errors, the ignorant person, does not even learn from his own errors. We hope that we will learn from our own error, though we could have learned from somebody else's - such as the lessons given to Israel by the Palestinians.

An even older lesson could have been learned by observing the up's and down's of the various empires that alternatively ruled the world in history. As long as they were strong, they were up on top of the world. At the moment they changed the sword in their hand to a pen, to write poems or a harp to play, they where pushed out. Another people holding the sword took over from them.

The world of Islam was for centuries the ruling Empire. They achieved it, as the Koran commanded, with the sword. When culture and beautiful art took over, they where again conquered by others and degraded. They where oppressed by the Mamelukes, the Ottomans, a guy named Napoleon, and the new Empires - the British and others. Colonialism, which was equated to Western culture, became their enemy. Nationalistic demands from their leader-dictators, united with passionate calls by their clerics invigorated the people to seek new pride and power. Their riches and importance of oil strengthen their beliefs in their ordained role as supreme power amongst the nations. When we are aware of all this, the behavior of the Arabs toward the ruling Western world becomes understandable. The problem with Israel is part of it. Yassir Arafat is part of it and Bin Laden is part of it.

For those who did not see the real danger so far, it became very clear on September the 11th. This day of infamy has to serve as wake up call. We have to see the danger as it develops and may imperil the whole world.

The Western world, and foremost the United States, has to be aware of the magnitude of the danger. Complete defense against people who are willing to commit suicide is impossible.

According to commentators on Islam, their religion commands peace. On the other hand, there are other clerics who interpret the Koran in a much more violent manner. The United States has to decide for a total war, though a war under the new circumstances has to be a war with other means. The promise, to catch the terrorists is an empty promise. Upon death - they will turn into martyrs, each of them creating hundreds more. Alive in prison, ransom will be demanded by the terrorists under the threat of perhaps - poisoning a town.

No pressure will eradicate terrorism. Even every decent Arab feels today pride in the awakened power of his people. The terrorists will always find support by part of the population as long as they are not endangered themselves. The solution can only be found, when the Arab population will feel endangered and therefore will want, in their own interest, to get rid of the terrorists.

The way to achieve this is in the hands of the United States, even without the assistance of an extremely unreliable "coalition." It has to start with the choice of one town, which hosts terrorists. They have to be warned and given a short time to save their lives by evacuating.

Long range missiles should make their town look like the World Trade Towers, yet compassionately without corpses. This tactic has to be repeated, so that any town harboring terrorists may expect to be the next target. The feeling of supremacy today has to be changed to constant fear. In time, people will get the message and will stop supporting the terrorists. By letting their voices heard, maybe they turn their countries into Democracies. If one of our listeners or reader has a better idea - please let me know.

I hope that our Yom Kippur prayers should be heard by the Almighty and make the world a better and safer place.

Shanah Tova.

I am Barry Cohen

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