44 Friday, March 7, 1986

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

A DAGGE

AIMED AT THE
HEART OF DEMOCRACY

Experts assert that terrorism is "the law
of the jungle. And once it starts, we don't
know where it will end."

BY JOSEPH AARON

Special to The Jewish News

Call it World War Two and a Half. Call
it whatever you want, because you're in
the middle of it.
It's a world war in which the battlefields
are places like a TWA flight numbered 847
and an Italian cruise ship named Achille
Lauro. A war in which the soldiers are
anyone not in a uniform — children and
grandmothers and 68-year-old crippled
men in wheelchairs.
You, we, all of us, are part of it, part of
a war that can break out anywhere at any-
time involving anyone for almost any rea-
son. A war that is breaking out more and
more. Less than 20 years ago, in 1970,
there were 293 incidents of terrorism
around the world. Last year, from January
to September, there were 2,265 incidents
which resulted in the deaths of 4,906'peo-
ple and the wounding of another 3,901.
And 1986 promises to be an even bigger
year.
But while it's happening more often, ter-
rorism is something that's been around a
long time. The first airplane hijacking took
place back in the 1920s, political murder
goes back to the ancient Greeks.' What is
new is the scope and threat of terrorism
today. Interviews with experts helped
focus on the reasons for terrorism and
avenues of response.
"It is a dagger aimed at the heart of
Western democracies," says Herbert
Cohen, an expert on terrorism and advisor
to the State Department and the National
Security Council. "It is the breakdown of
essential law and accountability in inter-
national affairs," agrees Israel's UN Am-
bassador Benjamin Netanyahu. "It is the
law of the jungle. And once it starts, we
don't know where it will end up."
It is nothing less than "an open declared

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