Advice from Londonstan

The British apparently have an obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It started with Prime Minister Tony Blair, who after the terror attacks on London's tube repeatedly emphasized that the conflict was behind the rise of new global terrorism.

It was interesting to hear Pakistani President Musharraf speaking right after Blair and declaring that the attacks originated from radical Islamic organizations that were outlawed in Pakistan and the Arab world - yet still enjoy full freedom to operate in England's cities.

Now, Blair's Home Secretary John Reid adopted his prime minister's line when he argued that our regional conflict fans the flames of international terror. We should remind Reid that al-Qaeda was not born following one of the Arab-Israeli wars, but rather, in 1989.

And what happened that year? Osama Bin Laden initiated the wave of terror in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan that for him came to symbolize radical Islam's victory over a superpower.

Most of al-Qaeda's activity initially focused on faraway conflicts – in Chechnya, Kashmir, the Philippines, and the Balkans. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was marginalized at the time.

No correlation

Would the peace process solve the problem of international terrorism? Minister Reid must recall that it was in the 1990s – from Oslo through Hebron and the Wye Agreement and up to the Camp David Summit - that Israel offered unprecedented concessions.

Yet those did not have any effect on al-Qaeda's operational decisions, which started with the first attack on the Twin Towers in 1993, continued with the attack in Saudi Arabia two years later, hit US embassies in eastern Africa in 1998, and struck a US Navy vessel in Yemen in 2000.

It turns out there is no correlation between what Israel does on the diplomatic front and what Bin Laden and his associates plan against the West.

What the Brits should be doing now is dismantling "Londonstan," which was established at the heart of their capital and threatens many countries. It cannot be that the Muslim Brotherhood's magazine, which is illegal in Egypt, openly appears in London.

It is better for London to first and foremost address the terror growing in its midst instead of proposing that Israel undertake actions that do not eliminate al-Qaeda's threat – yet could very well boost the vulnerability to Middle Eastern terrorism.

Dr. Dore Gold served as Israel's UN ambassador and current serves as the president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs