This excellent documentary conjures up the book that a young Benjamin Netanyahu edited about confronting terrorism. In some ways, that book was the beginning of the launching of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political career. It is indeed rather challenging to develop a comprehensive and effective plan to fight against isolated terrorists, terror groups and terrorist states.
The threat has only grown over the last 40 years as radical Islam continues to spread beyond the Middle East and into Western countries. Israel has had an ongoing battle with radicals and has experienced occasional defeats and many successes. But this issue will not disappear following Israel’s effective yet costly dismantling of the entire Hamas infrastructure in Gaza. However, the terror threat will be reduced to an absolute minimum and Israel will have to persist in rooting out the leftover weeds that still sprout terror on it’s southwestern edge.
But the most vital part of the battle against radical groups is in the minds and hearts of young children. The best place to fight them is via social media. The best psychologists and the best experts in Arabic culture need to be employed on this front. The goals should not necesarily be to bring modernity to the forefront. That may be too big of a step. The goals may very well be to discourage the younger generation from fighting a futile war and accepting that the ways of their parents will lead them to nothing but oblivion. This or some other form of effective messaging must be done in a way that will appear to not be combatting the Muslim religion. But in truth, the violence that pervades so many who practice the Muslim religion is indeed the problem. That delicate issue is a major challenge, but it is at the core of dealing with the problem.
Violence must be confronted with weapons, but also with keyboards, graphic designers, psychologists and sociologists who understand the complexities of Arabic culture.