Combatting international terrorism is far from a “one shot operation” according to the former head of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
Gen. (res.) Meir Amit told leaders of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith that “intelligence gathering, preventive action, retaliation, education, psychological warfare and–above all–international cooperation” are essential if terrorism is to be curbed.
Amit was part of a panel on extremism which addressed members of the ADL’s national commission at the Center for Special Studies, a memorial for Israel’s intelligence community, in Herzliya.
LACK OF COOPERATION CITED
He said that “unfortunately, what we call the ‘Free World’ is quite divided and not ready to cooperate. Even the United States has been slow to recognize the extent of the terrorist threat and to apply the needed response.” He added that recently the situation “has improved a little bit.”
Other speakers were Gen. (res.) Aharon Yariv, former head of Military Intelligence and now head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, and Col. Shmuel Limone, an officer of the Israel Defense Force Intelligence Corps.
Yariv said that waging war by terrorism has been a historical tradition in the Middle East since the 12th century, and noted that it has been augmented in the 20th century by modern technology.
He warned against terrorist use of remote controlled detonation devices in the future and also decried the extent of terrorist access to the media.
ARAB TERRORISM WILL CONTINUE
Yariv and Limone said that they expected state-sponsored or state-supported terrorism involving Arab groups to continue, regardless of a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Yariv noted that Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat has been quoted as saying that–since the Israeli exodus from Lebanon–more Palestinians have been killed by Arabs than by Jews in Lebanon, including an increase in loss of life in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps.
Limone said that approximately 3,500 Arabs have either been killed or wounded by Arab terrorists from 1967 to 1986.
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