Terrorism - Lessons from Israel & Russia [Part 2]

Israel can be a great example in handling terror not only for India but for the entire world. Just ponder over this. Israel is the only country in the entire world which has Jews as the majority. It is surrounded by Islamic nations some of them which have considered Israel as their arch enemy. India, with one hostile nation is suffering so much. Think of Israel which has four hostile nations as its neighbors! Though the process of creating the nation of Israel in 1948 can’t be completely justified, still once a sovereign nation is created it is the duty of the sovereign nation to protect its sovereignty at any cost.

                The main organizations which are against Israel are Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad & Hezbollah. These groups are convinced that they can’t defeat the Israeli army (Israeli Defense Force) on the battle field; therefore they target the Israeli citizens to give a deathblow to the national will. We face a very similar situation here in India. Some of our neighboring nations are convinced that they can’t win the war against our army in the battlefield. So, they target the civilians to plummet the will of the nation. Because Israel and India both face threats from Islamic terrorists who are prepared to sacrifice their lives, many of the lessons learned by Israeli counter terrorism experts over the last five decades are very relevant to India.

Hamas

Hezbollah

Shinbet

 The role of intelligence can’t be emphasized enough in the war against terrorism because an effective intelligence can easily avert many possible terrorist attacks. Israel has rightly prioritized intelligence over defense and protection. It has two intelligence agencies like that of U.S: one is for domestic intelligence (Shin Bet) and the other for foreign intelligence (Mossad). They prepare closely to prepare the threat assessment and submit the report to the prime minister every year. Israel uses both humans and technology to gather intelligence but lays more emphasis on the former.

                Israeli counter terrorism operations are designed to dislocate the infrastructure of the terrorists. This includes various other operations like attacking bomb factories, gathering intelligence, arresting key terrorist leaders. Several organizations have specialized in these operations (Sayeret Matkal). Israel tries to prevent the suicide operations by disrupting the Palestine terrorists at organizational, training stages before they become martyrs.

Sayeret Matkal

Mossad

                Israel’s expertise in aviation security is top-class which is even much ahead of the U.S. El Al’s (Israeli national airline) passenger screening is unique which relies on psychological profiling techniques backed with hi-tech equipments. The profiling process relies on access to intelligence and careful observation of passengers. This method has been very successful .The last hijacking of El Al happened in 1968 and none have happened since then despite extreme threats is a testimony to the fact. Plastic explosives can now be disguised in almost every form, including shoe soles, toys, cell phones, and clothing. So, Israeli methods stand effective despite these things.

Of course, military action alone can’t be a panacea for the epidemic of terrorism. Terrorism has many times deep roots. The problem may be political, religious or social. They have to be addressed. War against terror and treating the root causes for it should go in tandem. It is not a short term fix. As an expert in international policy of counter-terrorism observed “The fight against terrorism resembles a marathon race and not a sprint.”

In the next part of this, I will write about a few audacious operations that Israel carried out which might be unthinkable for many countries.