However, stubborn Israeli radical Zionists—precursors of US neocons—touted a strange argument: that Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon (which satisfied the terrorists) would actually invite more terrorist attacks. They held their breath. But all was quiet in southern Lebanon; no more terrorist attacks occurred. The ultra-conservatives were proved dead wrong. Not only did terrorism reach its just goal, but it halt upon achieving it. Terrorists are not extortionists, but in reality negotiators who have been denied a redress of grievances. Take care of their problems, and away they go.
Justice, Dignity, Freedom: Keys to Defeating Terrorism
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who also served at different times as foreign minister, defense minister and prime minister of Israel, once said that there are two ways to confront a conflict: “With the power of power or with the power of wisdom.” To be sure, the Lebanese civil war was a long and complex conflict, in which terrorism played a major role. It was Israel’s over-retaliation against renegade PLO terrorists, and aggression toward the PLO government itself, that ultimately transformed the conflict into such a roaring conflagration. But with all its military might and repeated attempts to frighten its “cowardly” foes into submission, Israel was ultimately forced to concede victory to the terrorists of Lebanon.
Let this be a lesson to America as it strives to overcome global terrorism. For eighteen years, thousands of Muslim terrorists in Lebanon were murdered and their infrastructure pummeled to pieces, yet they succeeded in withstanding—and defeating--the greatest military force in the Middle East. The Lebanese civil war proves beyond any doubt that “the power of power” as Peres puts it, or “the language of strength and force” as Hannity says, cannot possibly deter terrorists, much less defeat terrorism. There is something very powerful lurking under the surface that motivates the terrorists of Al-Qaeda, just as it did the PLO and Hizballah terrorists of the 1980s. According to Jewish historian Arthur Goldschmidt, “Terrorism is an old method of warfare practiced in most parts of the world whenever individuals and groups cannot attain dignity, freedom, or justice against powers that rely on armies, police, and other conventional forces to maintain their control. Its basic aim is to force other individuals or groups—and their countries—to take unpalatable political actions serving the needs of the terrorists.” Terrorism is a response to injustice, a warning to the “powers that rely on armies” that no power on earth can squelch the cry of the innocent victim forever. Only in “the power of wisdom” is there any hope for peace.
May this reality of the terrorism-injustice connection lead us to undertake a thoughtful, candid review of our own foreign policy in the past decades, to identify our unjust actions which provoked terrorism. By digging into the realities of the past, we can learn a few lessons and apply them to our current situation. In short, we’ve got a choice to make. Our anti-terrorism policy will respect the dignity, freedom, and justice of all human beings without exception. Or America will learn the lessons of history the hard way.
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