The new Commentary has a review by Jonathan Tobin of a book about a notorious 1947 case in Palestine, in which a 16-year-old Jewish boy was abducted and killed by a British intelligence officer on suspicion of being a terrorist. The boy, Alexander Rubowitz, was a supporter of the terrorist Stern Gang, but not a combatant, Tobin says (his piece is abstracted here). The case inflamed the Jewish population of Palestine against the British; especially when the murderer, Roy Farran, was let off after a show trial. A year of so later the Stern Gang tried to murder him him in England by delivering a package bomb to his home. Ala Kaczynski, it killed his brother, an innocent.
David Cesarani is the author of the book, which is called Major Farran’s Hat, after a clue in the case, and he says that western forces in the Middle East should heed the British lesson here-- and not alienate the locals by targeting civilians, even civilians who are supportive of terrorists.
Tobin reaches his own conclusion. “Counterterrorism can only be successful when those whom it seeks to protect actually want to be protected and cooperate with the forces fighting the terrorists. Farran found himself turning to extralegal violence because he was trying to root out Jewish groups that were in many cases not only acting to protect their own people but also whose existence was a legitimate expression of suppressed Jewish political ambitions.”
Pretty sophisticated attitude, huh? Tobin goes on to say that such a standard would allow “targeted killings” of al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives. Well, I guess that’s true. But then he adds: “the State of Israel’s attempts to forestall Arab terrorist attacks on its population cannot be compared with the last gasps of the British Empire in the same territory.”
I don’t understand which principle is at work here. Why can't Hamas terrorists aspire to the same shelf in Tobin's regard: "a legitimate expression of suppressed [Palestinian] political ambitions.” Doubtless, they too have the support of many of their people. Many a 16-year-old boy is filled with rage against the Israelis and wants to join the freedom fighters. Yes, Israeli terrorists were fighting colonialism, per Tobin; but Palestinian terrorists are fighting a neo-colonialist ideology that is denying their right of self-determination.
Our leaders don’t understand the principle working here either; their answer, including Obama’s, is Special OPS, more American “consultants,” more boots on the ground, and–widely used now in our especially developing wars–drone attacks.
Thus they sow the seeds for future blowback, breed more “terrorists.” Certainly keeps
the USA-ISrael military-industrial-security complex working, with the Israelis using our tax dollars to partner with Us in the big business of war weapon sales and mongering.
The principles at work are hypocrisy and exceptionalism.
The pre-state Jewish terrorists are even to this day revered as heroes in Israel. Schoolchildren learn about them and never seem to make the connection to Arab freedom fighters.
“the State of Israel’s…. cannot be compared with”
That’s their Achilles heel, in a way. The arrogance to tell the world what must not be conflated, what thought-paths are acceptable. Every time I see that from a Zionists, I just think: “wanna make a bet?”
There are literally thousands of teenage Palestinians that Israel has abducted “on suspicion of terrorism” — and God knows how many have been murdered in those unseen prison camps, or even just outright.
One single incident is enough to anger the Zionist Jewish population, but then they turn around and inflict the same event on the Palestinians, over and over and over again, for sixty years?
This just goes to show why Zionism is such a corrupt philosophy — in Zionism, only Jews and Jews alone are extended full rights as human beings. The racism is so pervasive that double standards such as this one — Stern Gang are fallen heroes whose actions were the natural byproduct of oppression, but Hamas are demonized villains for reacting in a similar fashion — aren’t just common, they’re unavoidable. Because you have to sacrifice your ability to sympathize with anyone other than other Jews to be Zionist.
Us Brits were (and are) no bloody better at fighting ‘terrorists’ than anyone else.
The term, in itself, only applies to inhabitants of a country that ‘we’ own. If we disapprove of the occupying country, then they are freedom-fighters.
To make an issue of this ancient, piddling little matter in an age such as ours, is quite ridiculous. ‘We’ kill 700 civilians for every 5 known terrorists:
link to dawn.com
Philip,
I would appreciate you labeling links that are behind paywalls as “subscription required”, or something similar.
Nice piece, but w/r/t the last line, I’d note that what the Palestinians are fighting, and what’s preventing them from exercising their right of self-determination, is not just an ideology, but some all-too-concrete realities. Who would care what the Zionists have in their heads if they didn’t have the institutional means (above all military, but also economic, “legal,” diplomatic, etc.) to impose their will on the people of Palestine?