points of view
>> Send letters to: letters®thejewishnews.com
Essay
Editorial
Defining Terror
Israel Must Be Wary
Of Egyptian Tactics
The festering issue has become a
national priority for Washington.
W
hat exactly is terrorism?
Israelis know it dwells in
Palestinian hatred toward Jews
and their ancestral homeland.
Westerners have seen it flow from
the desire of Islamists to curb the
influence and power of "infidels:' all
nonbelievers in the radical politi-
cal form of Islam. Islamists have
perverted the religion practiced by
Muslims.
Lack of a clear definition of what
constitutes terror has caused plenty
of confusion, disgust, anger, fear
and opaqueness in the civilized
world.
America offers only this vague
definition of terrorism: "a non-state
actor attacking civilian targets to spread fear for
some putative political goal:' So reports con-
servative analyst Daniel Pipes of Philadelphia-
based Middle East Forum. Such lack of clarity
has stripped the legal authority of the term,
making it indeterminate within the U.S. system
of laws.
Pipes is absolutely
correct: "Terrorism,
with all its legal and
financial implica-
tions, cannot remain
a vague, subjective
concept but requires
a precise and accu-
rate definition, con-
sistently applied:'
Without such pre-
cision on the home
front, it will remain hard for the U.S. to uni-
formly indict, interrogate, prosecute and sen-
tence terrorists as well as defend victims' rights.
Even U.S. news reporters are caught in this web
of imprecision.
The Way Forward
In short, how do you fight terror if you can
barely describe it?
No one argues the acts of Al Qaida, Hamas,
Hezbollah, ISIS, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and groups of similar ilk
aren't terrorist in standing.
But fog rises when investigations turn to lone
wolf shooters; there's no consistency in this
realm, as Pipes underscores. In some cases,
the U.S. government is quick to brand a lone
wolf an unadulterated terrorist, like the gun-
man who fired eight rounds at the White House
in 2011. In other cases, Washington begs off
28
November 13 • 2014
IN
the terrorism label, like the Boston Marathon
bombings. Other violent examples draw the ter-
rorist tag from one U.S. spokesman, but a less-
definitive impression from another,
wreaking havoc when it comes to
settling on a motive and a charge.
Israel has no problem citing
lone-wolf terrorist attacks by Jew-
hating Palestinians as acts of terror.
Consider the two Palestinian motor-
ists who in recent weeks defiantly
drove into people gathered at two
light rail stations in Jerusalem —
killing at least four, including an
Israel Police officer and a 3-month-
old girl, and injuring at least 22. In
a Nov. 11 terrorist attack near a Tel
Aviv train station, a Palestinian teen-
ager stabbed to death an Israeli soldier.
Israeli authorities believe the three attackers
acted alone, but found inspiration in recur-
ring anti-Zionist incitement from Hamas, the
terrorist organization running the Gaza Strip,
and its political partner, Fatah, which governs
Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank
"Terrorism ... requires
a precise and accurate
definition, consistently
applied."
- Daniel Pipes
and boasts its own terrorist wing, the Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades. Hamas expelled then-rival
Fatah from Gaza in a 2007. They have reunited
under the rubric of President Mahmoud Abbas'
Palestinian Authority, which seeks a sovereign
Palestinian state any way possible.
Coming Together
In the wake of contrariety over isolating what
constitutes terror here in America, it's incum-
bent on President Barack Obama to name an
ad hoc terrorism czar to decide when violence
crosses into terrorism and becomes subject to
tougher aspects of U.S. law.
As a nation, we need to find common ground
on this matter quickly. Not agreeing on what
turns violence into terror is proving one of our
gravest national perils.
We're wrong to let this go unaddressed. The
stakes will only mount.
❑
hile it's not surpris-
ing Egypt found
hundreds of tun-
nels snaking their way between
the Gaza Strip and the Sinai
Peninsula, two areas steeped
in lawlessness, the news rein-
forces how desperate Hamas
is to destroy Israel. Still, Israel
shouldn't rush to join Egypt in a
kind of super anti-tunnel force
until Cairo's defensive tactics
become clear.
Hamas is the terrorist organi-
zation ruling Gaza since driving
out Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas' West
Bank-based political party, in
2007. You can bank on Hamas
striving to rebuild tunnels into
Israel by tapping into its interna-
tional reconstruction funding.
Hamas also is Fatah's rein-
stated partner within the
Palestinian Authority, which
eyes a Palestinian state in Gaza,
parts of the West Bank and east
Jerusalem. The P.A., of course, is
Israel's supposed partner in pur-
suit of a negotiated peace.
Egypt used satellite imagery to
spot the Hamas tunnels leading
into northern Sinai. Cairo made
the discovery while mapping the
Sinai for an eight-mile-long buf-
fer, replete with a watery trench,
to deter Gaza-based terrorists
and smugglers. The tunnels have
enabled Hamas to bypass the
Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the
coastal strip.
Egypt's Response
Cairo, already battling Islamist
terrorists in the Sinai, had little
choice but to close its border
with Gaza and issue a three-
month state of emergency to
bolster the buffer.
Cairo acted following an
October terror attack, alleg-
edly condoned by Hamas and
other Gaza terror groups, on an
Egyptian army checkpoint near
the town of Sheikh Zuweyid. The
attack killed 31 soldiers.
Perhaps most hurtful to the
people of Gaza who only want
a better life will be Egypt's
indefinite closure of the Rafah
Crossing, the only non-Israeli
passage for Gazans. Blame
Hamas for the closure. Rafah is a
divided Palestinian-Egyptian city
of 130,000 residents.
In a contentious act, the
Egyptian army is in the process
of uprooting 10,000 residents
and demolishing 800 homes to
create the surveillance zone.
The uprooting may be necessary
to stave off Hamas, but unless
Egypt treats displaced Sinai
dwellers with a degree of com-
passion, already strained rela-
tions will weaken. Such tension
can't be dismissed, but neither
can it blur Hamas' obsession with
smuggling goods and weapons
through the Sinai as well as with
infiltrating border towns.
Be Wary
The buffer isn't a new idea.
Previous Egyptian leaders
backed away because affected
residents saw evacuation as com-
pelled displacement, according to
the Times of Israel.
To calm the current situa-
tion and apparently moderate
a hostile government campaign
against evacuation opponents,
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi
did a quick turn-around in autho-
rizing compensation for evacu-
ees. The Times of Israel quoted
him as saying: "Egypt will never
forget its honorable people of
Sinai, their well-documented
patriotic stances and their sacri-
fices to the nation."
Yes, Israel needs a partner
tunnel fighter; the below-grade
routes are Hamas' lifeline to out-
side access and terror. But the
Jewish state must give Egypt
some distance until time vali-
dates or dispels el-Sissi's publi-
cized intentions.
During its 2005 flight from
Gaza, Israel realized the devas-
tating impact of a government
summarily evicting its own peo-
ple. Jerusalem is capable of pro-
tecting its borders from Hamas
digging. Teaming up pro-actively
with Egypt against the tunneling
would make good sense only if
Cairo doesn't run roughshod over
north Sinai inhabitants.
❑