You should read this post at The Astute Blogger.

Reliapundit charges that blaming Israel for jihadist terrorism is where the liberals look for explanation.

Excerpt:

SO why does he (and why do so many Europeans, AND so many on the Left – the “chatterati” ) single out ISRAEL? WHY DON’T THEY PRESSURE ANY OF THE OTHER NATIONS WHICH ARE IN CONFLICT WITH JIHADISM? Why do they think that Israel is the ultimate flashpoint and recruiting tool? It’s unfair, and unreasonable – AND IT DISTORTS THE TRUE NATURE OF OUR COMMON ENEMY.

Israel has every right to defensible borders, and we should no more force Israel to live adjacent to a terrorist state than we should cede Zarqawi the al Anbar province. Or force Russia to recognize a Chechen republic. Or China an independent Uighur state. Or force India to cede Kashmir. Or allow Jihadists to take over Morocco, and Saudi Arabia and Algeria and the southern Philipines. And Spain.

Timothy Garton Ash’s views -as expressed in these two essays – are generally well thought out and logically argued. He makes many good points. BUT: On this issue he shows a long-term bias which not only smacks of anti-Semitism (or at the very least an allergy to Jews – something now common among the chattering classes in Britain and on the Continent, and prevalent on the Left all over the world), it can – most importantly – yield no effective policy for defeating the Jihadists. It merely plays into their hands.

Only people who believe that giving Hitler the Sudatenland was a good, just and an effective way to diminish the chances of war should keep pressuring Israel to give into Jihadism. I for one believe that giving into to Hitlers and Arafats and and Saddams and Bin Ladens can never bring anything but more terror.

The Jihadists did not attack New York, London or Madrid because of the West’s support of Israel, or of Iraq. The Jihadists are attacking the West because, as Christopher Hitchens said after the recent London bombings:

We know very well what the “grievances” of the jihadists are.

The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won’t abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor’s liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.