Why terrorism works

Alan Dershowitz says the world community opened the door to al-Qaida by rewarding Palestinian terrorists -- and makes the case for national I.D. cards and torture.

By Suzy Hansen

Sep 12, 2002 | It's hard to forget that post-Sept. 11 Osama bin Laden video, the one where he and his comrades sit slouched around a room, beaming, almost giggling over their masterpiece terror act. It's as if even they couldn't believe they pulled it off. To them, Sept. 11 was a wild success.

But was it? What makes a terrorist act "successful"? The number of people killed? The grievances aired? The underlying goals achieved? In "Why Terrorism Works," celebrated defense attorney and controversial author Alan Dershowitz argues that the European community, the United Nations and the Vatican have rendered terrorism successful by rewarding terrorist leaders -- especially Palestinian terrorists. Dershowitz, a fervent supporter of Israel who this year argued in the Jerusalem Post that Israel should formally announce that it will destroy Palestinian villages in response to terror attacks, cites the fact that in 1974, PLO leader Yasser Arafat was invited to speak at the United Nations General Assembly shortly after a string of deadly Palestinian attacks on airlines and Israeli civilians, including children.

More significantly, Dershowitz suggests that without the achievements of Palestinian terrorism, Osama bin Laden might not have been so inspired to mastermind Sept. 11: "Global terrorism is thus a phenomenon largely of our own making." Dershowitz spoke to Salon from his summer home on Martha's Vineyard about how we reward terrorism, how we can stop it and why torture might be necessary to prevent further violence.

What do we refuse to recognize about terrorism?

There are two kinds of terrorism. Rational terrorism such as Palestinian terrorism and apocalyptic terrorism like Sept. 11. You have to distinguish between the two.

The first thing that we fail to recognize is that neither is caused by frustration, disenfranchisement or poverty. That is the big lie of terrorism. That may help explain how terrorist leaders can recruit people to blow themselves up, but it doesn't explain why the terrorist leaders who are wealthy, well-educated and calculating opt for the tactic of terrorism. And the reason they opt for the tactic of terrorism is because it has a proven track record of success, particularly certain kinds of terrorism, and particularly [because of the reaction of] the European community, the United Nations, the Vatican and some liberal churches.

And your main example of this "success" is Palestinian terrorism?

Well, that's the one that's worked. You can't think about terrorism without thinking about Palestinian terrorism. Palestinians began international terrorism. It started with them in 1968. They used it as the first resort, not the last resort. They invented it, they perfected it, they benefited from it and they taught the world how to use it and that it would be successful.

But how has it actually been successful? What have the Palestinians really gained? They don't have a state.

I'll give you an example. I gave a speech the other night in front of 500 people. I asked the people how many of them favored a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. I think every person in the audience raised their hand. Then I asked how many people favor a Kurdish state. People looked at me like I was crazy. Then I asked how many people favored an Armenian state inside of Turkey. Same thing. Then I asked how many people favor an independent Tibet? A few hands went up. How many people favor an independent Basque state? How many people favor a Chechen state? People didn't know what I was talking about. Everybody knows of the plight of the Palestinian people. And yet when you put the Palestinian situation in comparison to, say, the Kurds, the Tibetans and the Armenians, those claims are certainly no greater. In fact, they're probably considerably lower; the Tibetans have been under occupation for a far longer time period, there are many, many more of them, and they've never been offered a state. The Palestinians were offered a state in 1948 and they turned it down. They could have had a state between 1948 and 1967 and they turned it down. They were offered a state at Camp David and they turned it down.

So when you do any kind of a moral comparison, you ask yourself, why has the Palestinian cause leapfrogged over all other causes? Why has the pope met with Arafat seven times and never met with a Kurdish leader or an Armenian leader? It's a reflection of the success of Palestinian terrorism. Now, that doesn't mean that it's the only way of achieving success; my own personal view is that the Palestinians would have actually achieved a state had they engaged in civil disobedience, Martin Luther King-like. But they opted for the tactic of terrorism and for them it has worked. In the book, I quote Palestinian leaders who say that they were surprised at how well it worked.

Is any kind of violence used by the Palestinians morally acceptable in your view?

Not against civilians, no. It's never acceptable to target civilians. It violates the Geneva Accords, it violates the international law of war and it violates all principles of morality. The idea of blowing up an American student at a cafeteria or an Israeli child in a day school is morally unacceptable. That's why we have soldiers. If they want to attack soldiers, that's a war.

So there is a difference between Palestinians attacking civilians and attacking soldiers?

Yes, I don't think they're justified in attacking soldiers either. But they are certainly not justified under any circumstance in attacking civilians.

In that case, do you think that terrorism can be viewed as "asymmetrical warfare"?

It's not asymmetrical warfare. Asymmetrical warfare is a euphemism for terrorism, just like collateral damage is a euphemism for killing innocent civilians. There's no such thing as asymmetrical warfare when you're targeting civilians. It's never justified and that's what we have to teach the world. Otherwise, anybody can talk about asymmetrical warfare. Let me put it this way: If Palestinian terrorism against civilians is justified, so is al-Qaida terrorism against the World Trade Center. There is no difference.

So can violence used by any colonized or oppressed group against its oppressors be justified?

No, we wouldn't justify African-Americans using violence against us in the 1950s. There are a hundred groups in the world that think they're colonized. Why do the Palestinians think that they're the only group that has the right to use terrorism? And remember: The Palestinians were offered a state in 1948 and they turned it down and engaged in terrorism. They slaughtered bunches of doctors and nurses on the way to Hadassah hospital instead of accepting a state which would have been twice as large as Israel. They had a state anytime they wanted between 1948 and 1967. They were offered a state in 2000. It's nonsense to think that they're a colonized country. They're a country that has used terrorism simply as an alternative to diplomacy. The Tibetans are a colonized people, the Kurds are a colonized people, the Armenians are a colonized people. If you had to rank the Palestinian case for statehood, it ranks 30th or 40th. It's a three on a scale of 10.

Is terror used by the Kurds justified? Or the terrorism used by the African National Congress [ANC]?

No, not against civilians. The terrorism used by the ANC was counterterrorism. The government of South Africa was using terrorism against innocent civilians and the ANC was using counterterrorism. But it was still wrong. Menachem Begin was wrong to use terrorism. [Before becoming Israel's prime minister in 1977, Begin led the Revisionist Movement and its terrorist-military wing, the IZL, and masterminded the most famous act of Jewish terrorism against the British, the bombing of the King David Hotel, which killed 91 people, including Jews and Arabs as well as British, in April 1946.] You can't justify killing civilians. Begin was killing adult English civil servants. That's still wrong.

Right, many people and historians consider Begin a terrorist. But how is he more respectable than Arafat?

There's no comparison between Begin and Arafat. Begin limited himself to killing British civil service people, whereas Arafat has killed babies and children. On a scale of 10, Arafat's an 11 and Begin's a three or four. Mandela's a three or four. The Irish Revolutionary Army is maybe a six.

But Arafat and the Palestinians are the worst. There's never been a group in the world as bad as Palestinian or Islamic terrorists, ever. There's never been a group that has a lower moral claim to doing what they're doing. One of the ironies, of course, is that because they've killed so many people, people have elevated their claim. People think they must have a more important claim than the Kurds and the Armenians because the Palestinians use global terrorism and the Kurds and the Armenians don't.

So you believe that all terror absolutely should be condemned?

Right, and it should never be rewarded. No government or government organization like the U.N. or the Vatican should ever embrace terrorists.

But you ranked those terrorists before, implying that some are worse than others. So are you saying they all should be punished, but punished according to how bad they are?

Yes, but according to how bad they are, not according to how just their cause is. Terrorists who kill innocent children, who indiscriminately kill ... for example, the PLO has killed Jews at prayer in Ankara, Turkey. Most of them weren't even Zionists. To me, the PLO is indistinguishable from the Ku Klux Klan in that they have both targeted children at prayer, and synagogues and churches. Yet everybody condemns the Klan as a terrorist organization, even though they were fighting for preservation of their way of life much the way that al-Qaida is fighting for preservation of its way of life. Mainstream African-Americans never used terrorism and we condemned those who did -- the Black Panthers and others.

Should counterterrorism be punished as well?

It's wrong but it's less wrong. Remember that the Jews, the French resistance, the Polish resistance, did not slaughter German children in response to the Holocaust. They had a higher moral standard.

It's a hazier argument -- what is counterterrorism and what isn't? Many groups could argue that another group is using terror against them.

Of course, and al-Qaida thinks that Americans are terrorists. You can always call your enemy a terrorist.

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