Exactly 31 years ago, I was sitting in Jordan as a hostage with 37 other Americans after our TWA flight was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In retrospect, those were relatively "benign" days of international terrorism, as after three terrifying weeks we all got out safely.

It is sad that it took the horrific events of a week and a half ago to move the United States to a sincere resolve to root out such terrorism. The US is right to build as broad an international base as possible, including moderate Arab and Islamic states, given the difficult and dispersed effort that will be required.

But it would be a disgrace to the United States if Syria and Iran were part of that coalition at this time. Syria to this day harbors the same PFLP that hijacked me, as it does other terrorist organizations which have attacked US and Israeli citizens.

Syria encourages and abets the Hizbullah in Lebanon, letting arms flow to this terrorist organization through its airport in Damascus and overland. Iran is a prime sponsor of terrorism, providing funds and arms to Hizbullah, Hamas, and other virulent terrorist groups. The inclusion in the coalition of either country, which are both currently designated by the State Department as state sponsors of international terrorism, would sully its moral mission.

It would further be a disgrace to all victims of terrorism if the Palestinian Authority, under its current leadership, were part of that coalition. Not only are the PA's roots in terrorism, with its leadership coming from the PLO, but it is today still actively engaged in terrorism. Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz stated in a recent interview that 70 of the deaths of this past year were caused by PA forces, despite PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's sacred vow eight years ago to forswear violence. And certainly the PA harbors and encourages Hamas and Islamic Jihad in their terrorism against Israel. Even in these very days, the PA has not clamped down, and terrorism against Israel persists. And perhaps worst, the PA has incited its entire population to support terrorism. An opinion poll conducted by the Program for Educational Development of Bir Zeit University in Ramallah, published in the official PA owned daily, Al-Hayat al-Jadida on November 11, 2000, found that 73 percent of Palestinians support suicide missions against American interests in the Middle East. A more recent poll conducted in August 2001 by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion indicated that only 10% of Palestinians unconditionally oppose suicide bombings against Israel.

But it would be most disgraceful of all if America's friend and ally, Israel, were not invited to be an equal member of the coalition. During the Gulf War, Israel was asked to sit silently by, even as its cities were attacked, so as not to affect the "sensibilities" of some of the coalition partners. But this is different. The Islamic terrorist attack on the US is precisely the kind of attack that Israel has been confronting for years and for which Israel has paid a tremendous toll.

Most Americans may not fully comprehend that, proportionate to its population, Israel has suffered in this past year alone a human loss numerically comparable in magnitude to the loss the United States has just suffered. Israel has been calling for years upon the world to realistically address the problem and rightfully deserves to be invited to play an equal and public role as part of the team.

If this indeed is a new kind of war, as the US administration avers, then it requires a fresh approach. If this is to be a battle against despicable behavior, not against Islamic ideology, then it must include all those who have cause to battle such behavior and it must exclude, at least until they demonstrate convincingly that they have changed, those who have been a part of it.

What better demonstration of this fresh approach and the true objective than to have Israel shoulder to shoulder with moderate Arab/Islamic countries which also wish to root out this scourge? And, if the battle against terrorism is to be meaningful, what better way to show it than to demand that leaders who have had a sudden epiphany, take concrete action over a sustained period before they are let into the coalition.

The US should no longer strain to find grains of moderation in the ambiguous words of leaders whose actions in support of terrorism until now thunder a thousand times louder.

If the US constructs the coalition with such a clear and forthright approach, then perhaps we will finally see the dawn of the new Middle East that we all long for.