Watch out, Opie, Sheriff Andy just might not be able to protect you from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Why, you may ask – in an article about homicide bombings in Israel – would I invoke the image of a TV show about idyllic small-town life in middle America? Let me explain.

As thanks for Israel’s pullout from Gaza, a Palestinian homicide bomber today struck a bus station in Beersheba, a southern town in the democratic, Jewish state. At least 10 people were wounded, 2 of them seriously.

The Palestinian leadership responded with the usual half-hearted “condemnation:”

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, condemning the attack, described it as a "terrorist operation".

But he also described a recent Israeli raid in the West Bank in which five Palestinians died as a "provocation".

The “provocation” Abbas describes was an Israeli operation, the purpose of which was to do the job that the “Palestinian Authority” is unwilling to do: clean up the terrorists who still roam free in the West Bank and Gaza.

It is now a moot point as to whether Israel was right or wrong in unilaterally disengaging from Gaza. All Israelis who lived in Gaza have been removed. Prime Minister Sharon saw his vision of disengagement through to the end. At least he is consistent, and did what he did with the approval of his people – which cannot be said of Abbas, an appointed “leader” of terrorist-controlled chaos.

The root problem is that Israel has no “peace partner.” The West Bank and Gaza is not a democratic state. These territories are a terrorist Wild West. Israel cannot hope to negotiate any type of peace settlement with terrorists. No democracy could be expected to. Terrorists and dictators have no need to keep any type of promises as they have no one to answer to; no type of political transparency to scrutinize their actions.

By leaving Gaza, Sharon hopes to strengthen Israel proper. Defending settlements was costly and difficult. But Palestinian terrorists see the withdrawal as vindication for their terrorist war and as an Israeli defeat. Maybe Sharon will reap a long-term gain from his disengagement. Short-term, the terrorists will be emboldened.

The Western World, including Israel, is playing a very dangerous game by fighting a half-hearted war on Islamist terrorists. Europe and Canada are obsessed with political correctness when dealing (or not dealing) with terrorism. Europe is most certainly considered the weakest link by al-Qaeda. Remember Spain’s “3/11” in Madrid?

Even the U.S. is still not completely convinced that it must fight an all-out blitzkrieg against the Islamists. Look at Iraq. The Kurds and Shia want to move on with a constitutional democracy, but American diplomats are pressuring them to make concessions to the Sunnis, the group most responsible for terrorist atrocities in Iraq.

War. Killing. Terrorism. Ugly business. Yes, fear is natural. But a paralytic fear is suicidal. Too many in the West are too comfortable and too afraid. When you live in Mayberry, it is easy to believe that the fight is “over there.” Wish upon wish, hope upon hope, dream upon dream, many Westerners do not want to believe how ugly and savage the Islamist enemy really is.

Despite the terrorist beheadings, stabbings, shootings, and driving car bombs into crowds of children waiting for a piece of candy, the “peaceniks” want to rationalize terrorism.

“If we just listened to the terrorists, maybe they would negotiate.”

“The terrorists are so desperate; this is how they lash out.”

We “can only accept gigantic, systematic, white-skinned wealthy American crimes, not the smaller retaliatory crimes of dark-skinned impoverished people. Suicide bombings and ‘terrorism’ are tactics, like night attacks or ambushes.”

And then there are the hordes of Westerners who are so drunk with materialism, intoxication, pleasure and/or comfort, that they do not even know what is going on around them.

Maybe the Brits are starting to see the light after the subway bombings. Maybe the Australians have straightened up a bit after Bali. Maybe the Dutch lost a little bit of political correctness after Theo Van Gogh was murdered in downtown Amsterdam. Maybe…

The coalition fighting Islamist terrorism still lacks the necessary cohesion and resolve to finish the job sooner rather than later. It will get worse before it gets better. Unfortunately, it will take an Islamist atrocity somewhere in Middle America (Mayberry) to shatter the illusion of safety and awaken the “sleeping giant” that is Western democracy.