“I have been deployed to fight terrorism — I’ve seen the results of terrorism in an up-close and personal way.”
Terrorist acts have been around for hundreds of years. It was the tool of choice by those not in power to force change on ruling governments; this is the way terrorism was perceived and used in the past.
Today’s terrorism is more political, but still has all the trappings and hallmarks of supporting and participating in acts against innocent victims. The world has generally accepted this type of terrorism. Other terrorist organizations have learned from it and are using the same blueprint.
A History to Be Studied
The Palestinians fight against Israel is longstanding, but this particular conflict uses terrorism to its fullest advantage. The grievances of Palestinians have been accepted by many countries, as well as the United Nations. The Palestinian Authority (PA), a designated terrorist organization in many quarters, has a seat in the body of the UN. Even though their tactics are clearly acts of terror, the world has turned a blind eye — other terrorist organizations have taken notice.
Fatah was organized as a Palestinian nationalist group in 1954, it exists today as a political party in Palestine. In 1967 it joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella organization for secular Palestinian nationalist groups formed in 1964. The PLO began its own armed operations in 1965. The PLO’s membership is made up of separate and possibly contending paramilitary and political factions, the largest of which are Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
Factions of the PLO advocated or carried out acts of terrorism. Abu Iyad organized the Fatah splinter group Black September in 1970; the group is best known for seizing eleven Israeli athletes as hostages at the September 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. In what was later known as the Munich massacre, all of the athletes and five Black September operatives died during a gun battle with the West German police.
The PFLP was founded in 1967 by George Habash. On September 6, 1970, the group hijacked three international passenger planes, landing two of them in Jordan and blowing up the third. Fatah leader and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat publicly renounced terrorism in December 1988 on behalf of the PLO, but Israel has stated it has proof that Arafat continued to sponsor terrorism until his death in 2004.
A Dirty Secret the World Ignores.
Monetary payments by the PA and the PLO to terrorists and the families of dead terrorists reflect the core identity of the general Palestinian public. According to Palestinian leaders, achieving their national goal of establishing their state over all of Palestine commits them to struggling against Zionism, including using terrorism to achieve their stated aims. Therefore, according to the Palestinian Authority, terrorists, even more than those who struggle through other means, are heroes fighting for a national and religious cause and should be glorified and rewarded without any hesitation.
The salary payments to terrorists from all Palestinian terror organizations, including Hamas, as well as those who carried out terror attacks after the Oslo agreements came into effect, are made according to Palestinian Authority legislation. That legislation refers to the terrorists specifically as “fighters.” It makes clear that the Oslo accords are not considered by the Palestinian leadership as a deviation from, or an end to, the battle against Zionism. Ironically, the U.S. alone gave an estimated $133 million in aid to the PA last year.
Success Breeds Repetition
Terrorism will never cease until the world makes it unsuccessful. Success for a terrorist is different from one group to the next. To one group a success may be the use of terrorism as a tool for recruiting more like minded individuals. To another group, it may be for publicity. Sometimes terrorism is used as a tool for material gains, as it was in several European countries. England, France, Italy, and Germany were convinced to release Palestinian terrorists they held to prevent attacks on their soil. Their concessions only set them up as more probable targets. Proving once again, that terrorism and terrorist acts were profitable and fruitful for the cause.
False Causes
What has caused the rise in terrorism is the grievance based attitude many countries have adopted. Wednesday May 24th, former Secretary of State John Kerry said this in his commencement speech at Harvard: “Surely, we can prevent tomorrow’s extremist by offering young people the promise of modernity and good governance.”
I am sure most remember State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf’s argument that one way to defeat the Islamic State is to help them find jobs. Harf said that the U.S. can’t focus on killing terrorists, and instead needs to help them find work. She said the U.S. needs to get to the cause of terrorism, which includes “lack of opportunity for jobs.”
Attitudes and ideas such as this are exactly the reason we have a rise in terrorism. Deciding the problem is jobs, or school, or benefits is not the answer. Just saying that all the terrorists need is understanding and to be embraced is idiotic.
ISIS Terrorism is of a Different Nature
A few weeks ago there was a terrorist attack in England against young concert-goers. These victims had no connection to any government, any military, or anything else. They were innocent victims in the purest sense. Several celebrities have opined that all we need to do is love each other and the carnage will stop.
ISIS conducts terror and atrocities for terror’s sake. Where the PLO and PA engaged in acts of terror for what they felt were specific grievances, ISIS is conducting a holy war against the entire world. They see enemies in all that oppose their perverted belief. In this effort, ISIS claims responsibility for all attacks worldwide, whether connected to their organization or not. They use all attacks of terror as tools to show they are relevant. Where the PLO and the PA are seen as more legitimate, even if that is a skewed vision of them, ISIS is purely a terrorist organization bent on destruction. No appeasement will slow their efforts. No negotiation will cause ISIS to retreat into their enclaves. ISIS and Radical Islamic Terrorism, which they represent, must be eradicated.
I have been deployed to fight terrorism — I’ve seen the results of terrorism in an up-close and personal way. The privileged speakers, liberal politicians, and celebrities that are pampered and isolated from the rest of the world have no basis for their opinions. The opinions of John Kerry, Katy Perry, Madonna, and others do nothing to solve the problem. In fact, opinions like those are the problem. They naively embrace the fallacy of grievance based terrorism.
