MARINA DEL REY, CA--It is time for the United States to declare the PLO a terrorist organization and let Israel deal with it as we are dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaida, said a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute.

For years," said Dr. Andrew Bernstein, "Israel has been attacked by fanatical Palestinian suicide bombers, who have deliberately targeted and murdered hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians. Each time, the United States has pressured Israel to appease and negotiate with the Palestinians. Given our own military response to the terrorism of September 11, it is hypocritical to continue to demand that Israel appease and negotiate with the PLO."

"As a free nation, Israel has as much right to act in its self-defense as the United States," said Dr. Bernstein. "The PLO's demise will strengthen Israel, our only true ally in the area, who will no longer have to live under the daily threat of terrorism. The PLO's demise will also prevent the creation of a Palestinian state, which would only add another terrorist state hostile to the United States."

"Israel is the only country in the Middle East," said Dr. Bernstein, "that stands for freedom, individual rights, secularism, reason, science and prosperity. Every Arab government is a dictatorship--be it a monarchy, theocracy or military state. Only in Israel is there freedom of speech and of the press, freedom of religion and the right to private property. Arabs living in Israel enjoy far greater freedom than they would under any Arab regime. Israel, as the sole pro-Western nation in that region, must be encouraged to apply its military superiority to achieve victory over the terrorists."

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ARI senior fellow Dr. Andrew Bernstein is available for interviews on this topic.  For further information, contact ARI Media Relations.  Phone: (949) 222-6550 ext. 213; fax (949) 222-6558; e-mail: interview@aynrand.org or visit ARI's Web site at: http://www.aynrand.org. 

 
The Ayn Rand Institute, an educational organization established in 1985, seeks to advance novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and its principal tenets: reason, rational egoism and laissez-faire capitalism.