Russia, Israel Agree on Anti-Terror Union

Based upon the shared burden of what is increasingly, albeit belatedly, recognized as a common enemy, Russia’s foreign minister has welcomed an offer by Israel of assistance against terror. It seems, however, that Russia isn’t quite to the point of understanding the story being played out on the global stage.

While showing willingness to work with Israel against militants, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said any counter-terrorism alliance would have to include Arab countries — in a nod to Russia’s traditional allies in the region.

“We appreciate the very strong readiness of the Israeli people to help Russia at this hour and this will certainly strengthen the counterterrorist coalition these days,” Lavrov said.

“We certainly are taking into account the need to be more effective,” he told reporters during a visit to President Moshe Katsav.

In a meeting with Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres, Lavrov said terrorism is one of the biggest challenges facing the international community.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news – web sites), in a telephone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin (news – web sites) on Sunday, proposed expanded intelligence coordination between the two countries.

However, Lavrov was careful to point out that Israel was one of several Middle Eastern countries with which Russia coordinated on security issues, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Arab states.

“Terrorism doesn’t have any nationalities,” he said. “I believe the key to the solution of the problem is to bring all countries to fight terror and I can assure you that in addition to our very close counterterrorist cooperation with Israel we have similar counterterrorist cooperation with Arab countries.”

Yes, I see some value in saying any mideast alliance would have to include Arab nations. That value would be the maintenance of Russia’s traditional regional allies, who are, unfortunately, part of the problem currently. Also, the insistence of the inclusion of an Arab state precludes the inclusion of Israel.

I also note the “terrorism doesn’t have any nationalities” portion. While this is true, it would also be true, and in my mind crucially important, to finally admit that Islamic terrorism most assuredly has tendencies towards a small number of nationalities.

The global war on Islamic terror is currently being fought in four theaters:

• Israel and the Israeli-controlled regions
• Afghanistan, involving the U.S., NATO and other allies
• Iraq, with the U.S, British, Polish, Australian, Japanese forces, among others
• Russia, with essentially anywhere and anyone in that vast region a potential target

Unfortunately, short of the Afghani and Iraqi theaters, there is little if any realization that these four hotspots are related. In fact, the American and Euro left have worked feverishly to separate Iraq from the campaign against Islamic fascism. This is essentially akin to arguing that Operation Torch, the invasion of Vichy-controlled Northern Africa in 1943 was not part of WWII because Hitler was in Berlin.

No, these four areas must certainly be linked if the radical and expansionist Islamist movement is to be stopped. In fact, future battlegrounds assuredly lurk in the near future (e.g. Sudan, Syria, Iran, heck, many, many more, potentially). The sooner the good guys (and I have zero qualms phrasing it that way) realize the scope of the situation and that we are now entering World War IV, the sooner the Allies can intertwine and bolster each other’s efforts. The more radIslam spreads, the greater the eventual bloodbath will be.

I’d wager that even some in France realize this.