UK, Spanish or Israeli?

Will the British follow the Spanish or the Israeli model in responding to
acts of terrorism directed against them on public transport? The Spanish
model is to give in, to cave, and alter one's policies to accommodate the
Islamist extremists. Specifically after the Madrid train bombings the
Spanish changed their government, and elected one that they knew would
withdraw their forces from Iraq. The Israeli model is not to allow the
terrorists to set Government policy, but to continue undeterred.
In the UK one could say that the Israeli model is represented by Tony Blair,
who fortunately is PM, and the Spanish model is represented by Ken
Livingstone, who unfortunately is Mayor of London. In everything he says
Livingstone exhibits anti-Israel and pro-Arab rhetoric that is inconsistent
with the reality of the attacks on his city. He has already stated that the
war in Iraq is the cause of the terrorism in London, because the British
have been killing Iraqi civilians. There is not a shred of evidence that
the terrorism is due to the conflict in Iraq, or that such attacks would not
be happening anyway, as they did on 9/11 in the US long before the Iraqi
war. As PM Howard of Australia said today, this terrorism is not "incident
specific" but is a general attack on the freedom and culture of the West.
People think that there are differences between Spain, the UK and Israel, in
the sense that the existence of the Spanish and British States are not
threatened as Israel is. But, that is not true, since the overall aim of
the Islamic extremists is to replace all Western Governments with Islamic
States that would not be democratic and would eventually combine to form a
new Caliphate. If you don't believe this then listen to the views of some
of the Islamic scholars who have been interviewed on the BBC and elsewhere,
who state quite openly that they are against democracy and in favor of an
Islamic State in Britain. What would have happened to a German who had
openly declared that he was working for a Nazi State or a Russian who said
he was working for a Communist State in Britain.
Unfortunately, the British have taken their supposed liberality too far.
London, or "Londonistan" as it is known, has become a haven for all sorts of
Islamist and extremist groups. Other countries, including Egypt, the US and
France have been frustrated in their attempts to deport wanted terrorists
from the UK. Maybe now after the 7/7 bombs and today's incidents, and the
moves to change laws in the UK, the British won't be so liberal in their
protection of Islamist extremists.
The people of Israel are very sympathetic to the suffering of those killed
and injured in the bombings in London, but this attitude has not been widely
reciprocated. Over the past five years Israel has lost ca. 1,200 dead to
terrorism. If this had happened in the UK it would be equivalent to 24
repetitions of the 4 bombings that took place in London last week. But,
Israel has a much smaller population than the UK (6 vs. 60 million),
therefore to have the same impact this would have to be multiplied by ten,
giving 240 days of such bombings. Could the British people survive such an
onslaught? The effects of continuing attacks such as those in London today
is to terrorize people so that they change their life, such as not going
out, not using the tube, change their opinions to identify with the aims of
the bombers in order to try to buy peace, and to stop tourism, so that the
economy is hit. This is especially true if it is clear that the security
forces are unable to deal with the attacks.
We Israelis wonder why there has been such little sympathy for our suffering
in the democratic UK. Of course, if you blame the suicide bombings in
Israel on the poverty, "occupation" and "desperation" of the Palestinians,
as Livingstone does, you can justify anything. But, no cause whatsoever can
justify malicious, random killing of innocent civilians. Given that the 7/7
London bombers were British-educated, relatively successful, middle class
people, none of the former excuses work.
I myself was brought up in a slum in the Jewish East End of London. We were
poor, deprived and frustrated, but none of us took a violent path against
our fellow citizens. The difference between us and the current situation is
that Islam is now the guiding ideology. The murderer of Theo van Gogh in
the Netherlands himself confessed that it was "conviction" and nothing else
that drove him to kill. Now that it is clear that extremist Islamist
ideology is the motivation of the London bombers, will the British follow
the Spanish or the Israeli response?