Friday, March 29, 2024 -
Print Edition

Egypt and Jordan answer ISIS

Jordan doesn’t waste time. Jordan knows an enemy when it sees one. ISIS burned to death one of Jordan’s pilots. Jordan retaliated at once. Egypt doesn’t waste time. Egypt knows an enemy when it sees one. ISIS beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians. Egypt did more than retaliate. It did that, but it also announced that it was forming an effort to destroy ISIS, at least next door in Libya.

Compare this reaction to the beheading of Americans by ISIS. We get speeches. We get promises to “degrade and destroy” ISIS. We also get military strategies based as much on what to hold back, what weapons not to use and not to deliver to local fighters against ISIS, as much as we get actual fighting against ISIS. We welcome the attacks. They are not enough; they are not designed to “degrade and destroy” ISIS quickly.

Speed is not a matter of revenge or instant gratification. It is a matter of self-defense. The longer ISIS stays on the scene, the more terrorists it recruits. The longer ISIS is able to fight, at whatever level, the easier it is to export its hatred and violence. The more time we take in destroying ISIS, the more determined, the more popular and the more widespread it becomes.

That’s why Jordan’s and Egypt’s immediate response to the murdersof their citizens by ISIS is wise and, we hope, inspiring.

Meanwhile, back at the White House’s Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, there’s a lot of talk about jobs for terrorists, about “nuance” in responding to terrorism and about an unwillingness to listen to other viewpoints on the topic. There is also the unwillingness to name the enemy: not “violent extremism,” but “Islamic extremism.” Please note: “ISIS” stands for “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (variation: ISIL, “Islamic State in the Levant”). Please note: the largest exporter of state sponsored terrorism is the “Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Also note: Jordan and Egypt, who do not flee from accurate nomenclature, are the only two Arab countries at peace with Israel. All three get it. It is time that the US act in proportion to its power and to the threat directed against it. The more powerfully and quickly ISIS is dispatched, the less its ill effects are likely to linger.

Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News




Leave a Reply