So, there’s this Global Counterterrorism Forum comprised of 32 countries, including the United States, Columbia, Canada, South Africa, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand. It also includes the European Union, nine European countries, 10 Arab/Muslim countries and three Asian ones.

This group was formed last year, under the United States’ leadership, for policymakers and experts in the counterterrorism field to share insights and best practices.

Great idea, right?

Inexplicably, however, not included in the forum is Israel, easily in the top three on the list of the world’s most frequent terror targets and likely the most skilled at fighting the scourge.

There are few possible explanations for this. They include a caving in to the terrorists or a shift in U.S. policy away from Israel (right) and toward the Islamists (wrong). Neither is very encouraging.

Since no explanation has been offered by our government, we are left to speculate about why this is happening, and I suspect that were they to deign to explain their actions, Obama Administration officials would likely say it’s about getting the nations where the terrorists are spawned to help fight them, without pissing them off by inviting the Jews. It’s the only thing they can say, really. But I’m not buying it. And I’m not the only one.

After it was learned that the United State’s “best friend and closest ally” was excluded from this forum, our country’s officials assured those expressing concern that “a way would be found” to include it.

I find it peculiar, since we created the forum and Israel is among our closest allies and an expert on the issue, that a special way must be found to include it, different from the way the others came to be on the panel, but, evidently, it does.

However, it’s been a year and nothing has changed. Maybe they thought no one would notice.

But, at least two U.S. Senators did notice and wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who attended this forum, and demanded to know why this glaring omission remains uncorrected.

Also, the Simon Wiesenthal Center took exception to the blatant insult, not to mention the stupidity of failing to include the player with the most direct experience with the phenomenon and the best track record at fighting it, and fired off an urgent letter of protest to Ms. Clinton.

The center’s founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, reportedly wrote of his awareness that Turkey and some others “oppose an Israeli presence,” but notes that – SO THE EFF WHAT?

Are we trying to fight the most deadly dangerous threat to humanity to ever have slithered out of hell, or are we trying to appease the Arabs?

Rabbi Hier also said that “having a Global Counterterrorism Forum and not including Israel, is like having a global technology conference and excluding the United States of America.” And, noting “there is no one with more experience at combating terrorism or educating civilians about it, than the State of Israel,” he said, “I think the time has come for the United States to make it very clear why Israel continues to be excluded.”

Me, too. But, I’m not sure we’ll get an honest answer, or, if we do, we’re prepared to hear it.

The first, and most obvious explanation, is that the Arab/Muslim contingent “objects” to the Jewish state’s inclusion. In other words, the bully objects to the victim’s presence at a discussion ostensibly designed to stop bullying.

It’s a phenomenon similar to the so-called Anti-Racism conference in Durban, South Africa, which was actually an officially sanctioned, international Jew-and-Israel-bashing free-for-all, with a name that really only served to add insult to injury.

It’s another act of bullying, right in our face, and we – and by we I mean the United States and the rest of the free, normal-thinking world – is afraid to set the crazies off by defying their demands.

And were we to stand up to the Arabs/Muslims and insist on doing the right thing, what would happen?

Maybe the Arabs/Muslims would walk out in protest.

So? This way we could have a discussion among the targets without the perpetrators present. Might help keep the bad guys from knowing the various plans’ details.

Doesn’t sound half bad to me.

The so-called “Arab Street” might also violently erupt worldwide, and we would have to be prepared to deal with that.

But, I’m not sure this is the entire reason, though, unfortunately a fear of the Muslim reaction to Israel’s inclusion is likely part of it. This is unfortunate, obviously, because it’s proof certain that terrorism is working to cow even the world’s greatest powers.

But, an even scarier possibility is that the Obama administration’s idea of fighting terrorism comes from an entirely different place than that of past administrations.

It’s possible, I’m afraid, that we may be suffering from a sort-of international Stockholm syndrome and the current U.S. government has elected to quietly adopt the Islamist world view, which contends Israel (and the U.S.) are the terrorists as they attempt to hold the dark cloud of totalitarian Islam at bay.

In this world view, “peace” requires the destruction of Christians, Jews and the Jewish state and the acquiescence and eventual conversion of the United States and the West to the world’s total Islamization.

I suppose there is more than one kind of peace, if we define the word as being an absence of open hostilities. But some “peace” – the type that would result from the latter scenario – is not necessarily worth living with. It’s a peace through intimidation, without freedom or human rights.

I would be pleased and relieved to learn of another explanation for the composition of the counterterrorism forum, but the lack of any explanation doesn’t bode well, I’m afraid.

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