To Our Readers

Ten years after 9/11 made combating terrorism the main focus of American foreign policy, the problem has not diminished. The continuing threats against American and western targets, of which the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner was the most recent, proves that something is still wrong with our strategy.

The message from our officials and media, a post-9/11 replay, is that we need better intelligence analysis and coordination to “connect the dots,” as well as im−prov−ed technologies to create a “fail-safe” system.

Amazingly, there has been almost no mention in this debate of acknowledging and applying policies to better deal with the motivation of extremists, primarily in the Arab and Muslim world, who want to kill us.

Smart counter-terrorism policy needs to address the causes, not just the symptoms of this evil. Security and intelligence methods can and should be improved, but unless we are dealing aggressively with the root causes, the risk stays high.

No single cause drives anti-American terrorism. Western troops in Muslim countries is one. But the “elephant” in our living room is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel’s occupation and settlements, and the perception that the U.S. is Israel’s enabler, are what one analyst calls the “prism of pain” that inflames Arab and Muslim societies worldwide and breeds terrorism.

President Obama and his deputies have acknowledged this, indirectly, by calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a national security threat. But as the President’s peace efforts threaten to founder on the shoals of Israel’s settlement and Jerusalem policies and Palestinian fratricide, some are repeating the mantra that “only the parties themselves can make peace.” That is true in the end. But without tougher, more persuasive U.S. diplomacy, the conflict will fester and America’s national security will remain at risk.