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New Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has a unique opportunity – or challenge – to put Israel back on track.

Jerusalem – I am looking at the picture of Shalhevet Tehiya Pass, the baby girl gunned gown by Palestinian terrorists this week, and I can’t make sense of this atrocious crime. She is sitting on her father’s lap, her parents are smiling; she is looking into the camera with a typically innocent baby face. Shalhevet was killed in her mother’s arms at a kindergarten in Israel.

Her senseless death epitomizes the ugliness, hatred and bestiality of Palestinian terror: Shalhevet didn’t die as a result of a lost, ricochet bullet; this 10-month-old baby was deliberately murdered. How can anyone, even a combatant, raise his rifle, see the face of an infant through his telescopic lens and shoot to kill? I wonder what thoughts must cross the mind of such a man the second before he pulls the trigger that will cut off a baby’s life. Did he sleep later that night? Does he feel anything when his eyes rest on other infant-born of Palestinian mothers? Is he tempted to repent? Obviously not.

Throughout its relentless march toward independence, the PLO repeatedly has targeted children. «There are no innocents; if you are alive, you are involved. Innocence is meaningless,» said Ghassan Kanafani of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine decades ago. He then added rhetorically: “What does the life of an Arab child or a Jewish child matter if their death will help bring about the revolution?»

Three decades later, the «Palestinian revolution» has taken yet another life. The current mini-war (referred to worldwide as an uprising, or intifada) already has resulted in almost 70 Israeli and hundreds of Palestinian deaths. This time, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had no choice but to respond harshly. Otherwise, I fear we would be witnessing the beginning of the end of the Jewish state. Indeed, a nation that tolerates such an atrocity is doomed to extinction. This is a radical statement, in total harmony with the radical situation we are facing.

There must be limits to the current Israeli policy of accommodating to «political correctness.» During the Oslo process, every Hamas suicide bombing was explained away as an act committed by «the enemies of peace»; halting the peace talks would have been tantamount to surrendering to terror, so went the mantra.

In the context of the current hostilities, Israel’s need to exercise restraint is justified on similar pragmatic grounds: Yasser Arafat orders these horrible killings to precipitate a brutal Israeli response that will at least invite international intervention and at best lead to a regional war («at least» and «at best» as measured in Arafat’s terms). In light of this equation, and especially considering that an Arab Summit was taking place in neighboring Amman at the time of Shalhevet’s murder, logic would dictate that restraint continue as the name of the game. Not quite.

No longer feared

For too long already, Israel has been regionally perceived as a weak state. The day that Jordan expelled Israeli journalists who were covering this past Arab Summit from Amman, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa announced: «This shows no one is afraid of Israel anymore.» Indeed, Israeli weakness invites aggression.

Before the advent of the Oslo era, the Jewish state was hated in the Arab world – but it was feared, too. Now, after eight years of the peace process, Israel is still no less hated, but is no longer feared as well. In the face of a lax and hesitant Israel, the mood in the Arab street (particularly after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon) is one of pride, victory and self-confidence. In light of this reality, the name of the game should be deterrence, not restraint.

The current manifestation of Palestinian hostility is compounded by troublesome scenarios:

• Internationally, Israel does not enjoy the support of the Western world. The Jewish state is consistently vilified by human-rights organizations, the media, left-wing intellectuals and the United Nations when it adopts any measure in response to Palestinian aggression.
• Domestically, Israel’s people are divided. Half of the population is disoriented, confused and shocked after Arafat, the man they trusted and upon whom they projected their own peaceful aspirations, betrayed them – violently. The other half watches in pain as their predictions, sadly, materialize.

Sharon, the man who emerged victorious from the so-called national camp, has a unique opportunity – or challenge – to put Israel back on track. Ehud Barak failed; Benjamin Netanyahu wouldn’t have had the gall to do it.

«Only Sharon,» as the Likud election slogan promised, «will bring peace.» I will be more than happy if he brings security alone. For the sake of Shalhevet’s parents, and all the other grieving mothers in Israel, I hope he will.

Julián Schvindlerman is a political analyst and journalist in Jerusalem.