FIGHTING TERRORISM SERIOUSLY

FROM:  R Froikin
              Reuven Efraim


FIGHTING TERRORISM SERIOUSLY
   
President Obama and John Kerry have remarked that one cannot defeat a terrorist movement because doing so requires changing minds and hearts that cannot be defeated by bullets and bombs.

That’s like saying that Naziism could not be defeated in Germany with bombs and bullets,  or that the USSR fell because of the Voice o America.  Of course both are absurd.

Nothing changes minds and hearts faster and better than making the cost too high to maintain destructive beliefs.

Understanding Terrorism and Terrorist Movements

Terrorism requires an ideology,  a belief system that says “we are the down-trodden,  the victims, who are being attacked, abused and killed, and need to fight to beat back those who are doing this".  Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, the Iranian Regime, The Nazis under Hitler, the Communists, and yes, some Christian groups,  all start with an ideology that presupposes being victims that wallow in a victim mentality, seeking scapegoats to blame and then justifying violence to get a sense of justice,  too often the most extreme and inhumane behaviors.  One can confront them with the facts again and again, and the facts will mean nothing in the face of the conspiracy and the false histories they believe.

Terrorism requires an infrastructure.  A support environment that lends its explicit or unstated approval for terrorist acts.  This can be a mosque, a church, family members, or a government. It can also be foreign governments,  charitable groups that blindly excuse terrorism out of racist attitudes or misplaced idealism.

Terrorist movements require money.  Bullets cost.  Suicide vests cost.  Travel - to move people around to support terrorist acts or to do such acts,  costs.  In the case of ISIS, paying fighters,  feeding fighters and volunteers, providing stipends,  costs.  In the case of the Palestinians, paying stipends to families of dead or imprisoned terrorists (often more than they would earn working), costs.

Post World War II,  perhaps as an excuse to ignore reality, the West developed this theory that peace would come if one can “change minds and hearts”,  but not one time has this approach worked.  Nazi Germany was not defeated by radio broadcasts convincing Germans to law down their arms and stop killing Jews.   It took massive destruction and losses to convince Germans to change their attitudes. Communism was not defeated by the Voice of America changing minds and hearts, and the “Third World” did not suddenly embrace the West because of flush toilets and  televisions.  So to defeat terrorist movements, one should not waste ones time trying to attack ideologies.  The ideological component of terrorism is the most difficult to remove.  One must devise an approach that removes other parts of the equation to defeat these movements to the point that its adherents recognize that they have to find a different way.

REMOVING THE ELEMENTS OF TERRORISM’S INFRASTRUCTURE.

Human behavior responds to reward and punishment.  Nothing new.  Pavlov established that this is not even unique to people.   The fact is that you get more of any behavior that is rewarded and less of any behavior that ins punished.   So the rule in ending terrorism has to be methods to punish terrorist behavior  AND to reduce the rewards terrorist have been getting from it.

There are several types of rewards Arab and Muslim terrorists receive for terrorist activities.  (1)  Encouragement from their social environment.  A rock thrower, a fire bomb thrower, someone who stabs a Jew in Jerusalem,   someone who kidnaps a soldier,  is rewarded by family and friends by their approval,  by their calling him (or her) a hero,  and by community prestige, and there are even monetary rewards for those imprisoned (families of terrorist families can often get stipends paying more than a job) or for their families if they are killed from the Palestine Authority or Hamas (from the International funds these organizations receive and from the illegal profits of terrorist enterprises.).  (2)  Religious encouragement  -- by religious leaders who create the image of the martyr with a promise of heaven and the rewards of heaven, attractive for the ignorant.  When Jews are injured or killed,  Muslim and Arab leaders praise the killers and claim they are heroes for their faith and sermons even at major Israeli institutions encourage hate and violence.

And it goes beyond the Israel-Arab conflict.  Murdering people in a French market or in Paris theaters was a cause of celebration in Arab communities with Arab leaders calling the murderers heroes and martyrs deserving of praise.    Hijacking three aircraft to fly into the World Trade Center - a suicide mission - praised by the Muslim World, celebrated in the Arab streets worldwide.   Who can forget the pictures of Arabs celebrating as if they had a great victory?

And what about punishment?

When Israelis capture terrorists,  they are put in prison where they get free support,  free education, free entertainment, family visits,  they are called a martyr for Islam and heroes of Palestine by their families and even by their leaders, and of course there is always the hope of release if some Jew is kidnapped.  In short,  for them,  it is not so much of an effective  punishment.   The Americans capture terrorists,  act confused as what to do with them and free then shortly thereafter.

And if they are freed,  they return home as heroes and get to pick up their pay from the Palestinian Authority or the Muslim Brotherhood,  or any one of the alphabet of current Muslim movements.

Unless there is an effort, a more realistic effort,  to completely remove all the rewards of terrorism,  terrorism will continue.

When the West captures terrorists,  they treat it as if it is petty crime,.  Courts,  prison,  release in a couple years.   And when they leave,  they are heroes,  martyrs to the cause. Examples to be praised.

Here are some suggestions:

 Stone throwers are the cheap schoolyard bullies of the Palestinian Movement.  Generally a couple leaders driven by ideology lead and then there are the followers out for fun, for kicks,  for excitement, and for the promise of going home as heroes. Rock Throwing is not a game.  It is premeditated attempted murder and many times has graduated to murder.  Lethal weapons (stones) should be responded by lethal weapons.  Arresting the stone throwers does nothing to erase the motivation to do it by others.  It is not a deterrent.   Killing a few of the stone throwers would be a deterrent.  It would be a statement that if you try to hurt Jews,  you may die.  The ones out for kicks might not want to take the chance anymore.

 So called “lone wolf terrorism”.  There is no lone wolf terrorism.  All terrorism exists because of its back-up,  it’s infrastructure,  the encouragement of family, leaders, friends.   So, how to deal with lone attackers?  Kill them.

3.  Groups plotting attacks.  Arrest them.  Question them.  Make them disappear.  Take away the martyrdom.  Take away the heroism.  No prison.  No visits by family.  No stipends from the PLO and PA.

No bodies to parade through the streets of Ramallah or Ramadi.   No statements to the press.  And for terrorists in the West or terrorists trying to murder in India, same rules apply.

 Cut off the Money.  Seize all the support and stipend money that has been used to reward terrorism as reparations for terrorist acts.    In Israel,  that means seizing Palestine Authority Funds and using it to pay for the electric and medical care bills that otherwise do not get paid.    In Syria,  that means ending oil sales through Turkey that supports ISIS.

 Arrest as criminals all Palestinian political and religious leaders who have encouraged, motivated, and excused terrorism against Jews.  Deport them all.   Those that have participated in terrorist acts - in the planning, financing or other activities,  treat as terrorists themselves, and yes,  that includes Mohammed Abbas.

 Seize properties of families of terrorists and deport them for their support of terrorist activities explicitly or implicitly.  Being accessories before or after the act to a criminal act,  in this case murder and attempted murder, is recognized as a crime worldwide and in many jurisdictions expropriation of money and property is a penalty.

So the question is this.  Is the Israeli Government going to be serious about ending terrorism or not?  If it is,  they should consider the above suggestions -- or come up with better solutions.

In the meantime,  maybe the Israeli public,  the Israeli taxpayers should have some input into the system that is just not working all that well,  while costing, just to keep 4700 prisoners inside, almost NIS 600 Million a year and promising to increase dramatically.

Think about it.