What! Appeasement Doesn't Work?

This is really difficult to comprehend. Lefties have been telling us that if we don't make the terrorists mad, they'll leave us alone. We've been told that our being in Iraq has made terrorism worse. Cindy Sheehan, the new darling of the American left, even went as far as to declare, "You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism." So I'm really having trouble understanding how the following two stories are possible.

In August and September, the Israelis pulled out of the Gaza Strip as part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. That should have been it. No more terrorist attacks on the Israelis, at least not in the Gaza area. But then, a shocker! On Friday, September 23, a group of Hamas militants mishandled explosives during a celebration in Gaza, causing an explosion that killed 19 people. They promptly blamed Israel for the explosion and began firing rockets at Israeli towns.

Elsewhere, our appeasement-loving liberal friends, the French, are facing a "very high level" of terrorist threat.

Calling the risk of a terrorist attack against France very high, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has outlined new anti-terror legislation that will include expanded video surveillance of public areas and police access to phone and Internet records.

Sarkozy, who is also head of President Jacques Chirac's majority UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) party and a strong contender for the 2007 presidential elections, unveiled the measures in the wake of a dawn police sweep outside Paris which rounded up nine Islamic militants suspected of plotting attacks.

Speaking on the France 3 television network, Sarkozy said France needed to revamp its anti-terror laws because "the terrorist threat exists. It is at a very high level."

Asked to rate the threat on a scale of one to five, Sarkozy said it was closer to four than to three.

O.K., I can somewhat understand the Hamas rocket attacks against Israel. They're probably still a bit huffy because the Israelis were in Gaza to begin with. So what's a few rocket attacks against an old enemy?

But terrorism against France? No way! They've never been in Palestine. They're not in Iraq. They don't make anyone mad. They make yummy pastries, for goodness sakes!

It just doesn't make sense. Appeasement doesn't work? I'm bummed.