America just concluded the anniversary of the horrific tragedies of September 11, 2001, with a sense of unease. We know that we are in the right, that the terrorists' taking of innocent life is absolutely unjustifiable and morally wrong. That they are evil. We know our country is strong. But we are also anxious and uneasy, particularly given that we may soon be at war with Iraq. That may mean more terrorism to come.

Just a few days ago, The New York Post emblazoned their front page with a shrieking headline about a "Doomsday Plot." The story speculated that Iraqi operatives would use al-Qaeda terrorists in America to carry biological weaponry cloaked in briefcases and to set them off. USA TODAY recently quoted one suspected al-Qaeda operative as promising to "hit America's shopping malls, stadiums and kindergartens." Right now, that quote may strike many Americans as just boasting. But there are Arab and Muslim terrorists intent on doing just that to our country.

Our physical distance from the conflicts of the Old World -- Europe and the Middle East -- always provided us with a sense of confidence in ourselves. We could go our own way, live our own lives the way we saw fit, free from the old conflicts and old traditions that limited the opportunities and liberties of so many living in the Old World. The 20th Century totalitarian `ism's' that took root in much of the Old World -- Fascism and Communism --never did so here. America's physical distance made it difficult for our enemies to even touch our nation's mainland in World War II. During the Cold War, there was plenty of anxiety about nuclear warfare, but our strength in nuclear weaponry made even the most hawkish members of the Soviet military pause before even thinking about launching a nuclear assault against us.

But now we must be wary about Islamic terrorists attempting to repeat an attack along the lines of what they did last year.

A glimpse of a short documentary on CD-Rom called "Seeds of Hatred" that the Israeli Embassy is distributing should be a bracing wake up call to all Americans that what we saw on September 11, 2001 is unlikely to be a one-time event if the Arab and Muslim terrorists have their way. Hollywood, with all its special effects, could not produce a more unsettling movie than what you will see in this short film because it is really happening.

"Seeds of Hatred" starts with a tranquil, pastoral scene of a swan swimming in a park where people on the shore appear to be enjoying themselves. The narrator solemnly intones that the scene is misleading because the people live with the constant threat of terrorism. Seconds later, the screen is filled with scenes of bloodied bodies on stretchers being carried amidst the rubble left from the bomb blasts of Palestinian suicide bombers. It is made clear that many Israelis live in constant dread. Mothers send their children off to school realizing that the worst could happen. Fathers take the bus to work never sure that they will make it back to work for dinner with their family. "Only those who live in a country where terrorism is part of the daily news can understand the magnitude of the mental pressure experienced by the residents," explains the narrator.

What Israel now faces from the suicide bombers is unsettling enough, what it may face in the future is even more frightening. Because the CD-Rom's purpose is to alert Americans to the fact that a whole generation of Palestinian children is being indoctrinated to follow in the footsteps of today's suicide bombers.

The Palestinian children are encouraged by the news media, their school textbooks, even comic books to dislike Jews, even to commit jihad against them. A clip from one children's television program shows a young girl singing, "I will become a suicide warrior in battle dress!" as the host cheers her on. Young children are shown marching with guns. A suicide bomber -- a so-called `hero' for having decided to take innocent life - explains that he does so to satisfy Allah and to take revenge against Jews.

It is unconscionable that more attention has not been paid by the news media to what is happening. That more people have not denounced the Palestinian Authority for allowing suicide bombers to be glorified as heroes to young children. A Palestinian psychologist's study of the attitudes of Palestinian children toward the suicide bombers is cited in "Seeds of Hatred." His finding: Many children age 6 to 11 dream of becoming suicide bombers. The psychologist predicts that in ten years Israel will be confronting a very murderous generation of young Palestinians.

But it is also important to realize that we too may very well be forced to face down those suicide bombers. In the film, an American flag is shown being burned. A sermon delivered on a Palestinian TV station urges: "Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans."

Al-Qaeda is not just an isolated gang of terrorists able to arrange a one-day tragedy, as many Americans would like to believe, but the Middle Easterners most capable of expressing in unforgettable terms the hostility that many Arabs and Muslims harbor toward our country.

Israel is a country up to the challenge of fending off the Arab and Muslim criminals who cloak themselves in righteousness but whose desire to kill innocent life proves that they are devoid of the decency and morality that symbolizes the Judeo-Christian tradition. They are nothing but killers and there is no justification for what they do -- neither the suicide bombings nor the attempts to turn young children into the violent killers of tomorrow. Israelis are bound by a strong faith in their country. It is their willingness to fight that has enabled their country to survive for so long.

But what about our own country that appears to have lost its faith in God and he American Way, replacing it with a multiculturalism that disparages our own traditions and beliefs. The Barna Research Group found that soon after September 11 that those Americans who believe in eternal "moral truths or principles" declined from 38% to 22%. That is one question in one poll. Americans, the Barna Research Groups says, say they are `more spiritual' since 9/11/01 but that has not translated into any lasting increases in church membership or more Bible reading or even greater faith among the `unchurched.'

In the summer of 1942, a young German girl named Sophie Scholl, dismayed at the immoral regime that was ruling her country, wrote in her diary that the age she was living in might very well be the last. She added that no matter what age we live in, that one could die at any moment and therefore one should be ready to have God call us to account for our lives. It was that belief that motivated Sophie Scholl and a handful of like-minded believers to attempt non-violent resistance against the Nazi regime that they knew was immoral. Caught and sentenced to death, Sophie Scholl could account for her life before God.

Let us hope that we are spared the kind of terrorism faced by the Israelis and our own country on September 11, 2001. That we are spared the bio-bombs in brief cases and the `dirty' nuclear bombs discussed in the news media. Living in the kind of world we do, we may not be that fortunate. As confident as I am that the United States will eventually prevail, we may have to learn to live with even more unthinkable terror. If we must, then at least let us hope that more of our fellow Americans will learn to ask of themselves: "What shall I say if God asks me to account for my life?"

Paul Weyrich is president of the Free Congress Foundation.

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