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BACK IN AMERICA

On July 23rd the news media worldwide was shaking with rage at Israel for killing women and children.

On the night of the 22nd an Israel jet operating on intelligence data sent an air to ground rocket into the hiding place of Hamas terrorist leader Salah Shedadeh. This is the man who had organized and ordered attacks on Israeli civilians over many years. Shehadeh, founder and top commander of Hamas' military wing, Izzadine el-Qassam, was linked to the Islamic militant group's deadliest homicide bombings, including a March attack at a Natanya hotel that killed 29, and a June 2001 disco bombing that killed 21. Known by the nom de guerre Abu Mustapha, just this year he arranged the killing of four soldiers in a raid on an Israeli army outpost in Gaza in January and the March killing of five teen-age students in the Jewish settlement of Atzmona, also in the Gaza Strip.

According to informers Shedadeh was alone in the building with his body guard. It turns out that there were women and children in the apartment as well. A total of fourteen were killed including his wife, a fourteen-year-old daughter and other children.

The story was carried for days and the new International Court of Justice that President Bush refused to join for this very reason may seek to try Israel's leaders. That court, however, can see nothing wrong with the murders committed by Shedadeh. The world is upside down. Western governments condemn Israel for defending itself from terrorists and can find no fault in the terrorists. Is it fear? Do the Europeans fear the Muslims so much that they have decided to side with them on these issues? Do Europe's leaders believe that by coddling the Muslim extremists they themselves will never be attacked? If Western nations continue to pretend that Islam can be their friend they will only awaken when the number of deaths in their own nations is so great that the threat can no longer be ignored.