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How Else is Israel Meant to Deal with Terror?

(International Herald Tribune) Uri Dromi - I wouldn't take any lectures from hypocritical Europeans on how to deal with terror. Especially not from the French, who, when faced with the Algerian terror in the 1950s, resorted to wide-spread torture, or from the British, who tried to calm down the Middle East by bombing villages and by hanging people right and left. I would listen to Brigadier Sir Robert Thompson, the legendary expert on counterinsurgency, whose wise advice was to never waste time on chasing just the guerrillas, but rather to target the more important figures: the political instigators, because they are the root of all evil. What was Israel supposed to do when a man was sitting in Gaza and masterminding the killing of its civilians? Appeal to the High Court of Justice in the Hague and wait until a Dutch policeman knocks on Yassin's door and serves him an arrest warrant? Letting Yassin carry on with his terrorist leadership would have meant the death of many innocent Israelis in suicide attacks, followed by the death of many Palestinians in Israel's subsequent reprisals. The writer is the director of international outreach at the Israel Democracy Institute, Jerusalem.
2004-03-24 00:00:00
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