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From: steinber@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (Louis Steinberg)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish,net.politics
Subject: Re: Terrorism Inc.
Message-ID: <3969@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Wed, 9-Oct-85 20:05:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.3969
Posted: Wed Oct  9 20:05:48 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 21:29:36 EDT
References: <488@ittvax.ATC.ITT.UUCP>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 44
Xref: watmath net.religion.jewish:2543 net.politics:11420

> Terrorism is once again on the rise all over the world.
>  ...
> 2) Israeli war-jets ... raid a palestininan camp in the suburbs of
> Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, killing 20 tunisians and 40
> palestinians.
> 

How was this an act of "terrorism"?  Do you think "terrorism" and
"violence" are synonyms?  THEY ARE NOT!  Furthermore, by using them as
synonyms you blur the distinction and reduce the moral repugnance your
listeners naturally feel towards terrorism.  This leads to an atmosphere
in which terrorism is condoned, and thus encouraged.  In other words,
wittingly or unwittingly, your message acts to increase acceptance of
terrorism, despite your surface protestations against it.

Terrorism is violence directed at innocent bystanders or other
non-combatants, with the aim of indirectly influencing others, either
by getting publicity or by frightening or depressing these others.
For instance, the recent hijacking of an ocean liner was terrorism.
Attacks in which the PLO placed explosives in public market places in
Israel were terrorism, since the intent was not to directly damage
military targets but rather to cause chaos and disruption in civilian
life.  The Allied bombing of Dresden during World War II may well have
been terrorism.  (I'm not up on my WWII hsitory, so I've qualified
that.)  If Israel were to choose a village in Lebanon at random and
bomb it, with the warning to the nearby villages not to cooperate with
the PLO or else suffer a similar fate, that would be terrorism.

The bombings in Tunisia were surely an act of violence, but they were
not terror.  The "camp" as you call it was not a residential center,
it was a major headquarters of the PLO, and contained facilities that
had been and were being used to plan and carry out attacks against Israel
and Israelis.  Most of these attacks against Israel were terroristic
in form, which should draw our condemnation of the PLO;  however even
if these attacks had not been terroristic, e.g. had consisted of attacks
on Israeli military facilities, surely Israel had a right to respond
to them with force.

Please, nobody respond with the statement that "that's not what *I*
mean by 'terrorism'."  The point is that we need SOME term for attacks
directed towards innocent bystanders, simply so we can express our
disgust at such actions. If you want to use a different term, please do
so, but don't try to covertly condone such actions by refusing to make
a distinction between them and other violence.