Uri Avnery: There is No Such Thing as International Terrorism
http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/uri-avnery-on-why-there-is-no-such-thing-as-in
ternational-terrorism
Uri Avnery
November 28, 2015
The Reign of Absurdiocy
There is no such thing as "international terrorism".
To declare war on "international terrorism" is nonsense. Politicians who do
so are either fools or cynics, and probably both.
Terrorism is a weapon. Like cannon. We would laugh at somebody who declares
war on "international artillery". A cannon belongs to an army, and serves
the aims of that army. The cannon of one side fire against the cannon of the
other.
Terrorism is a method of operation. It is often used by oppressed peoples,
including the French Resistance to the Nazis in WW II. We would laugh at
anyone who declared war on "international resistance".
Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian military thinker, famously said that "war
is the continuation of politics by other means". If he had lived with us
today, he might have said: "Terrorism is a continuation of policy by other
means."
Terrorism means, literally, to frighten the victims into surrendering to the
will of the terrorist.
Terrorism is a weapon. Generally it is the weapon of the weak. Of those who
have no atom bombs, like the ones which were dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, which terrorized the Japanese into surrender. Or the aircraft
which destroyed Dresden in the (vain) attempt to frighten the Germans into
giving up.
Since most of the groups and countries using terrorism have different aims,
often contradicting each other, there is nothing "international" about it.
Each terrorist campaign has a character of its own. Not to mention the fact
that nobody considers himself (or herself) a terrorist, but rather a fighter
for God, Freedom or Whatever.
(I cannot restrain myself from boasting that long ago I invented the
formula: "One man's terrorist is the other man's freedom fighter".)
MANY ORDINARY Israelis felt deep satisfaction after the Paris events. "Now
those bloody Europeans feel for once what we feel all the time!"
Binyamin Netanyahu, a diminutive thinker but a brilliant salesman, has hit
on the idea of inventing a direct link between jihadist terrorism in Europe
and Palestinian terrorism in Israel and the occupied territories.
It is a stroke of genius: if they are one and the same, knife-wielding
Palestinian teenagers and Belgian devotees of ISIS, then there is no
Israeli-Palestinian problem, no occupation, no settlements. Just Muslim
fanaticism. (Ignoring, by the way, the many Christian Arabs in the secular
Palestinian "terrorist" organizations.)
This has nothing to do with reality. Palestinians who want to fight and die
for Allah go to Syria. Palestinians - both religious and secular - who
shoot, knife or run over Israeli soldiers and civilians these days want
freedom from the occupation and a state of their own.
This is such an obvious fact that even a person with the limited IQ of our
present cabinet ministers could grasp it. But if they did, they would have
to face very unpleasant choices concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
So let's stick to the comfortable conclusion: they kill us because they are
born terrorists, because they want to meet the promised 72 virgins in
paradise, because they are anti-Semites. So, as Netanyahu happily forecasts,
we shall "live forever by our sword".
TRAGIC AS the results of each terrorist event may be, there is something
absurd about the European reaction to recent events.
The height of absurdiocy was reached in Brussels, when a lone terrorist on
the run paralyzed an entire capital city for days without a single shot
being fired. It was the ultimate success of terrorism in the most literal
sense: using fear as a weapon.
But the reaction in Paris was not much better. The number of victims of the
atrocity was large, but similar to the number killed on the roads in France
every couple of weeks. It was certainly far smaller than the number of
victims of one hour of World War II. But rational thought does not count.
Terrorism works on the perception of the victims.
It seems incredible that ten mediocre individuals, with a few primitive
weapons, could cause world-wide panic. But it is a fact. Bolstered by the
mass media, which thrive on such events, local terrorist acts turn
themselves nowadays into world-wide threats. The modern media, by their very
nature, are the terrorist's best friend. Terror could not flourish without
them.
The next best friend of the terrorist is the politician. It is almost
impossible for a politician to resist the temptation to ride on the wave of
panic. Panic creates "national unity", the dream of every ruler. Panic
creates the longing for a "strong leader". This is a basic human instinct.
Francois Hollande is a typical example. A mediocre yet shrewd politician, he
seized the opportunity to pose as a leader. "C'est la guerre!" he declared,
and whipped up a national frenzy. Of course this is no "guerre". Not World
War III. Just a terrorist attack by a hidden enemy.
Indeed, one of the facts disclosed by these events is the incredible
foolishness of the political leaders all around. They do not understand the
challenge. They react to imagined threats and ignore the real ones. They do
not know what to do. So they do what comes naturally: make speeches, convene
meetings and bomb somebody (no matter who and what for).
Not understanding the malady, their remedy is worse than the disease itself.
Bombing causes destruction, destruction creates new enemies who thirst for
revenge. It is a direct collaboration with the terrorists.
It was a sad spectacle to see all these world leaders, the commanders of
powerful nations, running around like mice in a maze, meeting, speechifying,
uttering nonsensical statements, totally unable to deal with the crisis.
THE PROBLEM is indeed far more complicated than simple minds would believe,
because of an unusual fact: the enemy this time is not a nation, not a
state, not even a real territory, but an undefined entity: an idea, a state
of mind, a movement that does have a territorial base of sorts but is not a
real state.
This is not a completely unprecedented phenomenon: more than a hundred years
ago, the anarchist movement committed terrorist acts all over the place
without having a territorial base at all. And 900 years ago a religious sect
without a country, the Assassins (a corruption of the Arabic word for
"hashish users"), terrorized the Muslim world.
I don't know how to fight the Islamic State (or rather Non-State)
effectively. I strongly believe that nobody knows. Certainly not the
nincompoops who man (and woman) the various governments.
I am not sure that even a territorial invasion would destroy this
phenomenon. But even such an invasion seems unlikely. The Coalition of the
Unwilling put together by the US seems disinclined to put "boots on the
ground". The only forces who could try - the Iranians and the Syrian
government army - are hated by the US and its local allies.
Indeed, if one is looking for an example of total disorientation, bordering
on lunacy, it is the inability of the US and the European powers to choose
between the Assad-Iran-Russia axis and the IS-Saudi-Sunni camp. Add the
Turkish-Kurdish problem, the Russian-Turkish animosity and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the picture is still far from complete.
(For history-lovers, there is something fascinating about the reemergence of
the centuries-old struggle between Russia and Turkey in this new setting.
Geography trumps everything else, after all.)
It has been said that war is far too important to leave to the generals. The
present situation is far too complicated to leave to the politicians. But
who else is there?
ISRAELIS BELIEVE (as usual) that we can teach the world. We know terrorism.
We know what to do.
But do we?
For weeks now, Israelis have lived in a panic. For lack of a better name, it
is called "the wave of terror". Every day now, two, three, four youngsters,
including 13-year old children, attack Israelis with knives or run them over
with cars, and are generally shot dead on the spot. Our renowned army tries
everything, including draconian reprisals against the families and
collective punishment of villages, without avail.
These are individual acts, often quite spontaneous, and therefore it is
well-nigh impossible to prevent them. It is not a military problem. The
problem is political, psychological.
Netanyahu tries to ride this wave like Hollande and company. He cites the
Holocaust (likening a 16-year old boy from Hebron to a hardened SS officer
at Auschwitz) and talks endlessly about anti-Semitism.
All in order to obliterate one glaring fact: the occupation with its daily,
indeed hourly and minutely, chicanery of the Palestinian population. Some
government ministers don't even hide anymore that the aim is to annex the
West Bank and eventually drive out the Palestinian people from their
homeland.
There is no direct connection between IS terrorism around the world and the
Palestinian national struggle for statehood. But if they are not solved, in
the end the problems will merge - and a far more powerful IS will unite the
Muslim world, as Saladin once did, to confront us, the new Crusaders.
If I were a believer, I would whisper: God forbid.
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For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. Excellently put.
Uri Avnery does not mention the Partisans of WWII, which undoubtedly were
seen to be 'terrorists' by the Nazis. But the 'Partisanim' considered
themselves to be freedom fighters. In any event, I believe that the cry from
the heart, "We are sorry," that I distributed a day or two ago, and also
included yesterday in the Occupation Magazine, makes the point very well:
the West is no more innocent for attacks on it than is Israel for attacks on
it. I don't support terrorism, but then I don't consider Palestinians
(particularly 13 to 16 year olds) to be terrorists. They indeed are fighting
for their freedom . And while I don't believe that armed struggle is the
best way to go about things, I do not know how I would have behaved had I
been Palestinian.
Dorothy
From: magazine=tikkun.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:magazine=tikkun.org@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tikkun
Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2015 6:04 PM
To: dor_naor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Uri Avnery: There is No Such Thing as International Terrorism
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u9U
http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ZRYw5s%2FKPAxQfjpZHFHnizICSfNKq
u9U
Editor's Note: Please share this widely. It is an important corrective to
much of the public discourse that has led us into evil paths to deal with
evil acts of others. You can read this onlien at:
http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/uri-avnery-on-why-there-is-no-such-thing-as-in
ternational-terrorism
Uri Avnery
November 28, 2015
The Reign of Absurdiocy
There is no such thing as "international terrorism".
To declare war on "international terrorism" is nonsense. Politicians who do
so are either fools or cynics, and probably both.
Terrorism is a weapon. Like cannon. We would laugh at somebody who declares
war on "international artillery". A cannon belongs to an army, and serves
the aims of that army. The cannon of one side fire against the cannon of the
other.
Terrorism is a method of operation. It is often used by oppressed peoples,
including the French Resistance to the Nazis in WW II. We would laugh at
anyone who declared war on "international resistance".
Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian military thinker, famously said that "war
is the continuation of politics by other means". If he had lived with us
today, he might have said: "Terrorism is a continuation of policy by other
means."
Terrorism means, literally, to frighten the victims into surrendering to the
will of the terrorist.
Terrorism is a weapon. Generally it is the weapon of the weak. Of those who
have no atom bombs, like the ones which were dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, which terrorized the Japanese into surrender. Or the aircraft
which destroyed Dresden in the (vain) attempt to frighten the Germans into
giving up.
Since most of the groups and countries using terrorism have different aims,
often contradicting each other, there is nothing "international" about it.
Each terrorist campaign has a character of its own. Not to mention the fact
that nobody considers himself (or herself) a terrorist, but rather a fighter
for God, Freedom or Whatever.
(I cannot restrain myself from boasting that long ago I invented the
formula: "One man's terrorist is the other man's freedom fighter".)
MANY ORDINARY Israelis felt deep satisfaction after the Paris events. "Now
those bloody Europeans feel for once what we feel all the time!"
Binyamin Netanyahu, a diminutive thinker but a brilliant salesman, has hit
on the idea of inventing a direct link between jihadist terrorism in Europe
and Palestinian terrorism in Israel and the occupied territories.
It is a stroke of genius: if they are one and the same, knife-wielding
Palestinian teenagers and Belgian devotees of ISIS, then there is no
Israeli-Palestinian problem, no occupation, no settlements. Just Muslim
fanaticism. (Ignoring, by the way, the many Christian Arabs in the secular
Palestinian "terrorist" organizations.)
This has nothing to do with reality. Palestinians who want to fight and die
for Allah go to Syria. Palestinians - both religious and secular - who
shoot, knife or run over Israeli soldiers and civilians these days want
freedom from the occupation and a state of their own.
This is such an obvious fact that even a person with the limited IQ of our
present cabinet ministers could grasp it. But if they did, they would have
to face very unpleasant choices concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
So let's stick to the comfortable conclusion: they kill us because they are
born terrorists, because they want to meet the promised 72 virgins in
paradise, because they are anti-Semites. So, as Netanyahu happily forecasts,
we shall "live forever by our sword".
TRAGIC AS the results of each terrorist event may be, there is something
absurd about the European reaction to recent events.
The height of absurdiocy was reached in Brussels, when a lone terrorist on
the run paralyzed an entire capital city for days without a single shot
being fired. It was the ultimate success of terrorism in the most literal
sense: using fear as a weapon.
But the reaction in Paris was not much better. The number of victims of the
atrocity was large, but similar to the number killed on the roads in France
every couple of weeks. It was certainly far smaller than the number of
victims of one hour of World War II. But rational thought does not count.
Terrorism works on the perception of the victims.
It seems incredible that ten mediocre individuals, with a few primitive
weapons, could cause world-wide panic. But it is a fact. Bolstered by the
mass media, which thrive on such events, local terrorist acts turn
themselves nowadays into world-wide threats. The modern media, by their very
nature, are the terrorist's best friend. Terror could not flourish without
them.
The next best friend of the terrorist is the politician. It is almost
impossible for a politician to resist the temptation to ride on the wave of
panic. Panic creates "national unity", the dream of every ruler. Panic
creates the longing for a "strong leader". This is a basic human instinct.
Francois Hollande is a typical example. A mediocre yet shrewd politician, he
seized the opportunity to pose as a leader. "C'est la guerre!" he declared,
and whipped up a national frenzy. Of course this is no "guerre". Not World
War III. Just a terrorist attack by a hidden enemy.
Indeed, one of the facts disclosed by these events is the incredible
foolishness of the political leaders all around. They do not understand the
challenge. They react to imagined threats and ignore the real ones. They do
not know what to do. So they do what comes naturally: make speeches, convene
meetings and bomb somebody (no matter who and what for).
Not understanding the malady, their remedy is worse than the disease itself.
Bombing causes destruction, destruction creates new enemies who thirst for
revenge. It is a direct collaboration with the terrorists.
It was a sad spectacle to see all these world leaders, the commanders of
powerful nations, running around like mice in a maze, meeting, speechifying,
uttering nonsensical statements, totally unable to deal with the crisis.
THE PROBLEM is indeed far more complicated than simple minds would believe,
because of an unusual fact: the enemy this time is not a nation, not a
state, not even a real territory, but an undefined entity: an idea, a state
of mind, a movement that does have a territorial base of sorts but is not a
real state.
This is not a completely unprecedented phenomenon: more than a hundred years
ago, the anarchist movement committed terrorist acts all over the place
without having a territorial base at all. And 900 years ago a religious sect
without a country, the Assassins (a corruption of the Arabic word for
"hashish users"), terrorized the Muslim world.
I don't know how to fight the Islamic State (or rather Non-State)
effectively. I strongly believe that nobody knows. Certainly not the
nincompoops who man (and woman) the various governments.
I am not sure that even a territorial invasion would destroy this
phenomenon. But even such an invasion seems unlikely. The Coalition of the
Unwilling put together by the US seems disinclined to put "boots on the
ground". The only forces who could try - the Iranians and the Syrian
government army - are hated by the US and its local allies.
Indeed, if one is looking for an example of total disorientation, bordering
on lunacy, it is the inability of the US and the European powers to choose
between the Assad-Iran-Russia axis and the IS-Saudi-Sunni camp. Add the
Turkish-Kurdish problem, the Russian-Turkish animosity and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the picture is still far from complete.
(For history-lovers, there is something fascinating about the reemergence of
the centuries-old struggle between Russia and Turkey in this new setting.
Geography trumps everything else, after all.)
It has been said that war is far too important to leave to the generals. The
present situation is far too complicated to leave to the politicians. But
who else is there?
ISRAELIS BELIEVE (as usual) that we can teach the world. We know terrorism.
We know what to do.
But do we?
For weeks now, Israelis have lived in a panic. For lack of a better name, it
is called "the wave of terror". Every day now, two, three, four youngsters,
including 13-year old children, attack Israelis with knives or run them over
with cars, and are generally shot dead on the spot. Our renowned army tries
everything, including draconian reprisals against the families and
collective punishment of villages, without avail.
These are individual acts, often quite spontaneous, and therefore it is
well-nigh impossible to prevent them. It is not a military problem. The
problem is political, psychological.
Netanyahu tries to ride this wave like Hollande and company. He cites the
Holocaust (likening a 16-year old boy from Hebron to a hardened SS officer
at Auschwitz) and talks endlessly about anti-Semitism.
All in order to obliterate one glaring fact: the occupation with its daily,
indeed hourly and minutely, chicanery of the Palestinian population. Some
government ministers don't even hide anymore that the aim is to annex the
West Bank and eventually drive out the Palestinian people from their
homeland.
There is no direct connection between IS terrorism around the world and the
Palestinian national struggle for statehood. But if they are not solved, in
the end the problems will merge - and a far more powerful IS will unite the
Muslim world, as Saladin once did, to confront us, the new Crusaders.
If I were a believer, I would whisper: God forbid.
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Copyright 2015 Tikkun Magazine. Tikkun is a registered trademark.
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Berkeley, CA 94704
510-644-1200
Fax 510-644-1255
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