Terrorism Persists Because It Works
Terrorism Persists Because It Works
by Alan M. Dershowitz, Gatestone Institute, May 23, 2017
Every time a horrendous terrorist attack victimizes innocent victims we wring our hands and promise to increase security and take other necessary preventive measures. But we fail to recognize how friends and allies play such an important role in encouraging, incentivizing, and inciting terrorism.
If we are to have any chance of reducing terrorism, we must get to its root cause. It is not poverty, disenfranchisement, despair or any of the other abuse excuses offered to explain, if not to justify, terrorism as an act of desperation. It is anything but. Many terrorists, such as those who participated in the 9/11 attacks, were educated, well-off, mobile and even successful. They made a rational cost-benefit decision to murder innocent civilians for one simple reason: they believe that terrorism works.
And tragically they are right. The international community has rewarded terrorism while punishing those who try to fight it by reasonable means. It all began with a decision by Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian terrorist groups to employ the tactic of terrorism as a primary means of bringing the Palestinian issue to the forefront of world concern. Based on the merits and demerits of the Palestinian case, it does not deserve this stature. The treatment of the Tibetans by China, the Kurds by most of the Arab world, and the people of Chechen by Russia has been or at least as bad. But their response to grievances has been largely ignored by the international community and the media because they mostly sought remedies within the law rather than through terrorism.
The Palestinian situation has been different. The hijacking of airplanes, the murders of Olympic athletes at Munich, the killing of Israeli children at Ma'alot, and the many other terrorist atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists has elevated their cause above all other causes in the human rights community. Although the Palestinians have not yet gotten a state – because they twice rejected generous offers of statehood – their cause still dominates the United Nations and numerous human rights groups.
Other groups with grievances have learned from the success of Palestinian terrorism and have emulated the use of that barbaric tactic. Even today, when the Palestinian authority claims to reject terrorism, they reward the families of suicide bombers and other terrorists by large compensation packages that increase with the number of innocent victims. If the perpetrator of the Manchester massacre had been Palestinian and if the massacre had taken place in an Israeli auditorium, the Palestinian authority would have paid his family a small fortune for murdering so many children. There is a name for people and organizations that pay other people for killing innocent civilians: it's called accessory to murder. If the Mafia offered bounties to kill its opponents, no one would sympathize with those who made the offer. Yet the Palestinian leadership that does the same thing is welcomed and honored throughout the world.
The Palestinian authority also glorifies terrorists by naming parks, stadiums, streets and other public places after the mass murderers of children. Our "ally" Qatar finances Hamas which the United States has correctly declared to be a terrorist organization. Our enemy Iran, also finances, facilitates and encourages terrorism against the United States, Israel and other western democracies, without suffering any real consequences. The United Nations glorifies terrorism by placing countries that support terrorism in high positions of authority and honor and by welcoming with open arms the promoters of terrorism.
On the other hand Israel, which has led the world in efforts to combat terrorism by reasonable and lawful means, gets attacked by the international community more than any other country in the world. Promoters of terrorism are treated better at the United Nations than opponents of terrorism. The boycott divestment tactic (BDS) is directed only against Israel and not against the many nations that support terrorism.
Terrorism will continue as long as it continues to bear fruits. The fruits may be different for different causes. Sometimes it is simply publicity. Sometimes it is a recruitment tool. Sometimes it brings about concessions as it did in many European countries. Some European countries that have now been plagued by terrorism even released captured Palestinian terrorists. England, France, Italy and Germany were among the countries that released Palestinian terrorists in the hope of preventing terrorist attacks on their soil. Their selfish and immoral tactic backfired: it only caused them to become even more inviting targets for the murderous terrorists.
But no matter how terrorism works, the reality that it does, will make it difficult if not impossible to stem its malignant spread around the world. To make it not work, the entire world must unite in never rewarding terrorism and always punishing those who facilitate it.
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It will be interesting to see who on NT disagrees with the wisdom of Alan Dershowitz on this..
Terrorism has worked for centuries, this isn't the first or the last time it will be used.
That said, I just saw a expert of terrorism on TV and it was quite interesting and in many way's he agreed with Dershowitz and in some area's he didn't.
Mostly in the root cause area. In that area I tend to agree that there is a root cause, though it is not acceptable. If you look at the terrorist most are petty criminals, unemployed or in bottom of the rung jobs. Not all are educated, successful so I do believe that both are correct in their own ways.
I should add that these people that are at the lower rung of society become powerful when they become terrorists. Even though it will cost them their lives.
It is the only way they can obtain the power they are incapable of earning - although they may rape as many virgins on Earth as they think they will be rewarded in heaven.
I am no more afraid of terrorism then I am afraid of being struck by lightning. It just does not scare or worry me personally, nor should it.
Of course, but I'll bet you wouldn't walk out into an open field in a lightning storm. When I was a kid I would have thought the same even if I had known what the word meant. But then there were a few thousand people in the WTC who were not afraid as well. I don't fear it where I am now, but I fear for the well-being of innocent people where and when it is happening, and it seems to be happening more and in more places these days than when I was younger.
Well that depends on if I wanted to get to the other side for something. It still wouldn't worry me all that much as the odds would still be pretty small.
There is no doubt that it is happening more and more, either that or the world of reporting has shrunk a lot (which I think has contributed to it a lot) via 24 hour cable news and faster news and stories that happened but never would have made the 6pm news that we were all used to growing up. I think part of the problem is that we are more aware of it more is because it is reported more and that it is happening more because it is being reported more. In other words if all the news we received was still based only on the once a day newspaper and the once a day evening news, then I don't think terrorism would be nearly as big of a problem because, beyond the local area where it happened, who would here of it? Except of course for stories such as OKC and 911.
Notwithstanding the greatly increased media response, even now it is minimized by describing it as anything but what it really is - e.g. workplace violence, mental illness, or overzealous PC denying identifying reality. And as well it is being censored by governments where much of the terrorism takes place.
I am not surprised that in certain quarters of NT the Manchester attack would be swung around to an applauding of Israel and an attack on the Palestinian cause.
Dershowitz has lost perspective, some time ago actually, and the Gatestone Institute never had any.
A prevalent explanation for ISIS is that, in addition to the religious extremism, it is fed by the conditions in the Sunni dominant Muslim countries where there is no opportunity for the young people to make anything of themselves.
I don't think they commit terrorism because it "works", but because it is their only means of waging war on their "enemies".
"I am not surprised that in certain quarters of NT the Manchester attack would be swung around to an applauding of Israel and an attack on the Palestinian cause."
I see no applauding of Israel, and whatever the "Palestinian cause" (such as pushing Israel into the sea) may be, Dershowitz's essay is to show that terrorism works, giving reasons why, and you cannot deny that it doesn't.
I would venture to say that a lot more people would consider YOU to have lost perspective, rather than Dershowitz, who a lot more people respect than probably respect you. However, it's no news that you would determine to be worthless that which or whose words are not in lockstep with your opinions.
Palestine is a word Arafat dreamed up.
Actually, that isn't so. The word existed before he left his Egyptian birthplace. To him, Palestine stretched from the river to the sea, and did not contain anyone who would identify as being Israeli. THAT was his dream.
Somewhere I read at an article about the Manchester bombing, these words:
"This is war. But the West is fighting it bound and gagged."
And I realized it was because of those who criticize voices like Alan Dershowitz and sources like Gladstone Institute, and the refusal of the mainstream media to tell the truth.
Even MSNBC gets it right sometimes, not often and certainly not as often as the Gatestone Institute.
Does terrorism work? Ask a cartoonist if he would dare do a cartoon of Mohammud.
Dear Friend Buzz: I join you in agreeing with Prof. Dershowitz's analysis.
If terrorism didn't work,. if its agents, funders and supporters never succeeded it would rapidly disappear.
E.