JERUSALEM — With Osama bin Laden blaming Israel for the attacks on America and a Newsweek poll showing that most Americans believe ties to Israel helped provoke the attacks, Israel’s Foreign Ministry has launched an information campaign to refute these charges.
A Foreign Ministry official described the connection of Israel to the Sept. 11 terror attacks as “very dangerous.”
“We are in a difficult position,” the official said. “On the one hand, we want to keep a low profile. On the other hand, we don’t want it to be so low that we don’t counter attempts to link United States to bin Laden’s attacks.”
In its attempt to disprove the connection between the attacks and America’s ties to Israel, the ministry has drawn up a number of talking points for its foreign delegations. In addition, the ministry will be sending a number of prominent Israelis abroad to dispute these theories.
These talking points include instructions not to bring up the issue, but to be prepared with answers if it comes up in the local media. The talking points include the following:
*The Sept. 11 attacks on the United States were not the result of any specific U.S. policy, but were directed toward what the United States represents. The attacks are part of the war that fundamentalist, undemocratic forces have declared on the enlightened, democratic world.
*The 1991 Gulf War was an ideological turning point for these extremist movements, when the United States stationed forces in Saudia Arabia, the home of Islam’s two holiest sites.
Several years later, bin Laden published various religious edicts against the United States, claiming that the United States was defiling the place where the Prophet Muhammad lived.
*Bin Laden has been behind a number of terrorist actions in Muslim states. His basic goal is to replace secular Muslim regimes with regimes based on Islamic law — a plan that has no connection at all with Israel.
*Bin Laden told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica in August 1998 that the “International Islamic Front declares that the war has begun.” The preparation for the recent attacks in the United States started no later than June 2000, before the Camp David summits, when negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians were going strong — which shows that the attacks were divorced from any connection to the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process.
*Attempts to show “understanding” for terror must be utterly rejected and dismissed as attempts to “justify the unjustifiable.” Those who show an “understanding” for terror are justifying and encouraging it.