Major Changes Needed to Combat Global Terror, Analysts Say
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
July 08, 2005
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The Western world has no "recipe" for dealing with international terrorism; it is "reacting, not initiating," reserve Israeli Army Maj.-Gen Jacob Amidror said here on Friday.
Drastic changes are needed from both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities if the Western world hopes to wage an effective war against the global threat, other analysts agreed.
More than 50 people are now confirmed dead following four separate bomb blasts in central London on Thursday.
Amidror, who was in London at the time of the blasts, praised the British response to the attacks and described the situation as one of "calmness." But he said the British have a "huge problem."
"They don't control the Muslim community inside of England," said Amidror, a former head of Israeli army intelligence assessment. "They cannot admit that [their] citizens are part of the problem."
According to Amidror, the solution for winning the war on terrorism requires three elements.
"Inside each country [the authorities must] control the communities that might be connected [to terrorism]. A the end of the day, not all Muslims are terrorists but most terrorists are Muslims," Amidror told Cybercast News Service.
The global community also needs to build an international anti-terrorist organization -- one that would go beyond the current level of intelligence-sharing between countries, he said.
And as part of the long-term war against terrorism, some of the "good habits" enjoyed by the democratic countries such as open borders and open societies might have to be limited, he said.
For example, people using public transport systems might have to pass by bomb-sniffing dogs or through explosive-detecting machines. People would adjust, he said, just as the Americans have done when it comes to air travel. They now know that they must arrive early at the airport before taking a flight and cannot rush in at the last minute.
'Curb civil liberties'
Unfortunately the way to crack down on terrorists involves limiting human rights and civil liberties, said Dr. Ely Karmon of the International Policy Institute on Counter-Terrorism.
London and the United Kingdom have long been refuges for Islamist leaders, and only recently did the U.K. pass anti-terror laws resulting in the arrest of certain suspects, Karmon said.
"If, in the end, the perpetrators [of the London attack] were members of the Muslim community in the U.K., the government will have to [take] much more control and the population at large will suffer," he said.
Ephraim HaLevy, former director of the Mossad, Israel's secret service, said the public must get much more actively involved in the fight against terrorism, and radical changes must be made in the way the West thinks.
The public will have to trust in the decisions of its leaders, the rules of combat must be altered to allow Western civilization to defend itself, and each country must declare itself to be at war against terrorism, HaLevy wrote in an article published in Friday's Jerusalem Post.
"Profound cultural changes will have to come about and the democratic way of life will be hard-pressed to produce solutions that will enable the executive branch to perform its duties and, at the same time, to preserve the basic tenets of our democratic way of life," HaLevy said.
But counter-terrorism expert Yoram Schweitzer from the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv said there is another aspect to the war against terrorism.
Islamic leaders, particularly those in Europe, must be more forceful in their rejection of the radical Islamic element, said Schweitzer in a telephone interview.
Ironically, Schweitzer's new book, Al Qaeda and the Globalization of Suicide Terrorism, was published in Hebrew on Thursday. In it, he analyzes how al Qaeda transferred its ideology of suicide bombers to its affiliates.
He concludes that moderate Muslim leaders must be encouraged to come out against extremism.
"Besides the need to increase [international] intelligence cooperation, law enforcement and interception of such atrocities...Islamist scholars [need to consolidate] a new ideology of the interpretation of Islam," Schweitzer said.
The majority of Muslims are silent about terrorism, but they don't want to be equated with it. The Western world cannot formulate a new ideology for them. They must do it themselves. But the West can encourage them and must do so, he said.
"The alternative for them is that Islam will be blemished forever," Schweitzer said, and "we'll see more and more [attacks] like this."
"One of the goals [of these kinds of attacks] is to isolate the Muslim community from the government [of any given country], said Karmon.
If the Muslim community feels isolated from the rest of the country in which it lives, then it would be easier for the extremist Islamic element to influence and radicalize the people, Karmon said.
"[The Muslim community] must be much more decisive in its rejection of the radical element," he said."
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