Editor's Letter

jam:

Dissecting Terror

A

merica was at a teachable moment on 9-11,
that fateful day in 2001 when Osama bin
Laden loyalists from Al Qaida brought the
terrorist fight to our soil and shocked us from our
ignorance about the new world order.
The airliner assault spurred us to mull our vul-
nerabilities individually and as a
nation. In our innocence, we
couldn't comprehend anyone
plotting to murder 3,000 inno-
cent people in the name of Allah.
Following the 1991 collapse of
the Soviet Union and end of the
Cold War, America seemed safer
Robert A. Sklar during the 1990s despite the first
Editor
Al Qaida attack on the World
Trade Center occurring in 1993.
Come 9-11, we faced a more pronounced danger:
Muslim terrorists unafraid to tell the world they
hated the West, Zionism and Jews.
It was against this backdrop that Dr. Warren
Bass, a member of the 9-11 Commission's profes-
sional staff, spoke at Congregation Shaarey Zedek
in Southfield on "Who's Winning the War on
Terrorism?" As Jews and Americans, we live with
the threat of terror, but what is terrorism? Dr. Bass
defined it at Shaarey Zedek's Tapestry program fol-
lowing Havdallah on Oct. 29. Rabbi Lauren Berkun
met Dr. Bass when they were Wexner Graduate
Fellows.
While I understand the sweep of its impact, ter-
rorism remained somewhat of a mystery to me. I
now had a chance to dissect it with Dr. Bass, a
Toronto-raised Jew with a doctorate in history from
Columbia. Today, he's a New York-based journalist.
I listened intently.
"I think sometimes there is a tendency to think
of terrorism as just some blind, unreasoning force
of hatred and violence — that it's just killing for
killing's sake," Dr. Bass said.
Yes, America has laws to fight terror and those
who harbor terrorists. But you must define terror
before you can legislate against it.
"First, it's killing civilians," Dr. Bass said. "In the
Just war' theory, there is a bright line that is drawn
between killing soldiers in time of war and killing
people like you and me who don't have weapons,
who aren't pressed to exercise on behalf of the gov
ernment, who are just ordinary citizens going
about their day-to-day business. These people are
considered out: You are not allowed to kill them
with armies or with terrorism bombs!'
He said terrorism also is political violence born
from a sick belief that you'll improve the world.
Further, it's the work of non-state actors — of
small bands of improvisers who beg, borrow and
steal to acquire-their cherished asset: high-powered
weapons.
I flinched as Dr. Bass finished the definition.
"Terrorism:' he said, "is about getting a reaction.
It's a provocation strategy. The violence is designed
to send a message. It's designed to be done in front

mg

November 10 2005

of TV cameras. It's designed to be broadcast to the
world."
Indeed: It's meant to both stir people sympathet-
ic to the terrorists' message and plant fear in those
aghast by the horror driving the shadowy cause.
The same day that Dr. Bass spoke, Hamas placed
on its Web site a new video publicizing a renewed
commitment to annihilating Israel and remaining
the "resistance" group of choice for Palestinian and
other anti-Zionist terrorists. Just as Al Qaida sees
America as an evil power preying on all Muslims,
Hamas sees Israel as a hateful occupier out to con-
trol all Palestinians.
Based on Dr. Bass' strategy for how the U.S. could
break Al Qaida, I extrapolated what Israel must do
against Hamas and other jihadists: It must unmask
them so that their ideology repulses the Arab
world. The process must take root within the Arab
political culture; Israel can't just will it.
Just as the Arab political structure must conclude
that bin Laden is no friend, the Palestinian people
(who also are Arabs) must realize that terror cells
like Hamas are ene-
mies, not saviors. In
each case, the West can
help the. process but it
also can hinder it.
Ultimately, funda-
mental change must
bubble up from within
the Arab soul.
As Dr. Bass put it:
"We have to start show-
ing that there are some
other appealing ideas
as well, which is some-
thing that Arab politics
Dr. Warren Bass: "I think
has not done — pro-
sometimes there is a
tendency to think of ter-
viding an alternative. If
rorism as just some
I had an easy answer
blind, unreasoning force
about how to get it
of hatred and violence."
done, I would have
shared it with my own
bosses on the 9-11 Commission. This is a very dif-
ficult and long haul proposition.
"But I do think that is the challenge we are
engaged in."
I left his talk primed for the long haul if not
enlightened. ❑

Is it realistic to think anti-Zionist
indoctrination in the Middle East
can be reversed?

Can societal pressures to reform
overcome the apparent allure of
terrorist ranting?

E-mail your thoughts to:
Z
IL letters@thejewishnews.com .
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