Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Terrorists, not militants

THE SUICIDE BOMBER who blew up several families, both Jewish and Arab, in a Haifa restaurant wasn't a militant. She was a terrorist.

The suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of women and children in Jerusalem wasn't a militant. He was a terrorist.

The recent play on words by the Associated Press, New York Times and several other media giants isn't going unnoticed. Recently the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) felt it necessary to pay for the following advertisement:

"Terrorists are those who target and kill noncombatants (including, as on the USS Cole, military people not engaged in hostilities) for the purpose of spreading fear and terror. No definition more accurately describes the aims and actions of Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that have murdered or maimed thousands of innocents since September 2000.

"Yet many news organizations justify not using the word 'terrorist' to characterize the perpetrators of mass killings of Israeli civilians. (On occasion they may paraphrase Israeli officials using the term -- yet rarely use it directly themselves.)

"Many substitute 'activists,' 'militants,' 'bombers' or 'factions' for 'terrorists.' At the same time, other groups, including those associated with Al Qaeda, the killers of thousands of Americans on 9/11, are unambiguously -- and correctly -- termed 'terrorists.'

"Some media outlets will call attacks on Israelis 'acts of terror,' but refuse to label the perpetrators 'terrorists.' They seek to shield the criminal from the crime. This is neither objective or neutral; those who commit acts of terror are terrorists -- even when their victims are Israelis.

"Many journalists claim they should not 'judge' or 'take sides' by using the negative label 'terrorist.' But refusing to attach the term to groups that target and kill Israeli men, women and children is also taking sides. The terrorists' side."

In late March and April I watched the broadcasts of Arab media in the Middle East. The killers were never identified as terrorists but only as militants, refugees, or freedom fighters. This encouraged me to visit with Dr. Boaz Ganor in Herzliya, Israel at the Interdisciplinary Center. Ganor is known around the world as an expert on terrorism and war. He found it rather easy to separate violence of guerrilla warfare from the violence of terrorists.

Following my visit with Ganor, I reported our conversation in a column. He clearly stated that: A violent act against a military ship or base by a group seeking liberation can be seen as guerilla warfare. The same amount of violence brought down on civilians is easily defined as terrorism. Guerilla warfare is just that -- war -- and should be answered by military action. The act of violence against civilians is terrorism and must be considered an act against civilization.

Last year Ganor wrote in a policy paper: "Hiding behind the guise of national liberation does not release terrorists from responsibility for their actions. Not only is it untrue that 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter,' but it is also untrue that 'The end justifies the means.'

Ganor went on to write: "The end of national liberation may, in some cases, justify recourse to violence in an attempt to solve the problem that led to the emergence of a particular organization in the first place. Nevertheless, the organization must still act according to the rules of war, directing its activities toward the conquest of military and security targets; in short, it must confine itself to guerilla activities.

"When the organization breaks these rules and intentionally targets civilians, it becomes a terrorist organization, according to objective measures and not according to the subjective perception of the definer."

The people designing and using weapons and methods for killing busloads of children or families dining in restaurants are terrorists of the lowest order. They aren't militants, freedom fighters or activists, and media calling them by these names won't change them into being such.

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