One of the quandaries facing academic researchers, military and security professionals and politicians is the…
The need to define our terms
One of the quandaries facing academic researchers, military and security professionals and politicians is the question of “defining terrorism.” The prevailing opinion is that there is no international agreement on the phenomenon of terrorism, nor can there ever be such agreement. Indeed, the number of definitions in use today is at least as great as the number of researchers. And yet, the strategic war against terrorism requires international cooperation against terrorist organizations and the countries that sponsor them. Such international cooperation requires us to reach an internationally accepted definition of terrorism – based on objective and measurable criteria – on which an international strategy for fighting terrorism can be established.
Such a definition should be based on the rules of warfare established in the Geneva and Hague Conventions (and which most of the world’s countries have signed). These conventions make a very important distinction. On the one hand there is warfare that is seen as “legitimate,” in the course of which military personnel intentionally attack enemy military personnel. On the other hand there are “war crimes,” defined as any intentional attack by military personnel on civilians. The emphasis in this distinction is placed on the intention behind the actions – only the intentional targeting of civilians is be defined as a war crime, and not merely a mistake made in battle or an attack on civilians without prior intent.
By the same token a distinction can be drawn between terrorism on the one hand, and guerilla warfare on the other. Terrorism can be defined as “the use (or threat to use) violence against civilians in order to achieve political, ideological, religious and other objectives.” Guerrilla warfare is “the use (or threat to use) violence against military and security personnel in order to achieve political objectives.”
At times the same political objectives are used to justify the use of both terrorism and guerrilla warfare. In such cases, the two types of action can be distinguished from each other only by their targets and modus operandi. Thus, it can be determined that guerrilla warfare is a form of (legitimate) warfare, while terrorism is a form of war crime. The definition of terrorism as a war crime will enable states to act forcefully against terrorist organizations and can provide a firm basis for international cooperation.
The states faced with terrorism and guerilla warfare have at their disposal a wide range of defensive and offensive punitive measures against terrorist organizations, as long as they do not violate the moral criteria of the accepted rules of war, first and foremost the intentional harming of civilians. True, these limitations make it difficult to conduct the war against terrorism – especially as the terrorists are not themselves bound by them. However, without them the state’s moral basis to fight terrorism is null and void.
Hizballah: a case in point
The Israeli government’s decision to change the rules of the game in Lebanon, thus restoring the initiative to Israel in determining the “redline” vis-a-vis Hizballah, was a step in the right direction. The agreements signed by the previous government at the end of Operation Accountability and Operation Grapes of Wrath determined “red lines” which sound, on the face of it, reasonable and equitable, but which in reality serve Hizballah. These “red-lines” were based on the principle of refraining from harming civilians.
Hizballah endorsed the principle set forth in the agreements, according to which any harm to civilians by Israel – whether intentional or not – would lead to retaliation against Israeli citizens in the North. Hizballah, operating as it does from inside civilian towns, often in civilian guise, and enjoying full civilian patronage, is fighting against military personnel in Lebanon. Any attack, or even defensive action, against Hizballah is thus liable to lead to unintentional casualties among civilians – an eventuality that must send the residents of Northern Israel running for air raid shelters.
It was clear to many – and certainly to the Israeli government – that there was an urgent need to change the rules of the game and to determine a new redline. This new line must rest on the requirement that the enemy pay a high price for any attack on the northern communities. The usual response – Israel Air Force retaliation against Hizballah targets – has so far been unsuccessful in deterring the organization from firing missiles at Israel. The attempts at large-scale ground operations in Lebanon also failed to yield the desired results. What remains is to try and attack other targets, with the aim of putting indirect pressure on Hizballah, and force the organization to think twice before firing missiles at Israel. Israel’s aerial superiority should indeed be exploited, however this air power must under no circumstances be turned on civilian targets – even infrastructure-related targets such as power plants, water facility, etc.
Air power should be directed against Lebanese and Syrian military facilities in Lebanon – against bases and command centers of the Lebanese Army, and against Syrian dispositions in Lebanon – and not against civilian targets. The pressure on Hizballah must come from the Lebanese and Syrian governments, not from civilians. The intentional attacking of civilian infrastructure (outside of an all-out war) will bring in its wake harsh international criticism, pressure and sharp resolutions by the international community, which ultimately will cause a rethinking of any decision to target civilian infrastructure.
Founder & Executive Director, International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), Ronald Lauder Chair for Counter-Terrorism, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel Prof. Boaz Ganor is the Founder and Executive Director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and the Ronald S. Lauder Chair for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel. He previously served for five years as Dean and ten years as Deputy Dean of the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy & Strategy at the IDC Herzliya. Prof. Ganor serves as the Founding President of the International Academic Counter-Terrorism Community (ICTAC), an international association of academic institutions, experts, and researchers in fields related to the study of terrorism and counter-terrorism. In 2019-2020, Prof. Ganor spent a sabbatical year as a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), Australia; as an Adjunct Professor at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security at Charles Stuart University, Australia; and as the Aaron and Cecile Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor and Israel Institute Fellow at Georgetown University, United States. Prof. Ganor previously held positions at Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, the Hoover Institution (Koret Distinguished Visiting Fellow), the Monterey Institute of International Studies, MIPT (The National Memorial for the Prevention of Terrorism), Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University. He was also a member of the International Advisory Team of the Manhattan Institute (CTCT) to the New York Police Department (NYPD). Prof. Ganor is a member of the International Advisory Council of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS), Nanyang Technological University, The Republic of Singapore. He is also a co-founder of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR), a partnership between the University of Pennsylvania, United States; the Interdisciplinary Center, Israel; King’s College, London; and the Regional Center on Conflict Prevention (RCCP), Jordan. Since 2014, Prof. Ganor has been a Member of the Executive Committee of the Academic Advisory to the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy (ISGAP). Prof. Ganor has given briefings and/or testimonies to the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED), the Australian Parliament, the United States Congress, the US Army, the FBI, the US Department of Homeland Security, as well as numerous intelligence, security and police services throughout the world. He has given hundreds of guest lectures at top universities and research centers throughout the world including at Columbia University, Syracuse University, Georgetown University, the Wilson Center, RAND and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. In 2001, Prof. Ganor was appointed as a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Israel National Security Council on Counter-Terrorism, and he has previously served as a Member of the Israeli Delegation to the Trilateral (American-Palestinian-Israeli) Committee for Monitoring Incitement to Violence and Terror. Prof. Ganor also advised the Israeli Delegation for Peace Negotiations with Jordan on Transportation Safety, the Israeli Counter-Terrorism Coordinator at the Prime Minister’s Office and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. In 1995, he was a consultant to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his book “Fighting Terrorism – How democracies can defeat domestic and international terrorism”. Prof. Ganor has published numerous articles on terrorism and counter-terrorism. His book, "The Counter-Terrorism Puzzle – A Guide for Decision Makers" (Transaction Publishers, 2005), is used as a text book in universities worldwide and his book, “Global Alert: The Rationality of Modern Islamist Terrorism and the Challenges to the Liberal Democratic World” was published by Columbia University Press in 2015. He has published several articles in “Studies in Conflict and Terrorism”, “Terrorism and Political Violence”, “Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflicts”, Orbis and the International Law Studies. He is also the editor of "Countering Suicide Terrorism" (2001) and "Post-Modern Terrorism" (2006). He is the co-editor of “ISC 2005 – Security, Terrorism and Privacy in Information Society” (2005), "Trends in International Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism" (2007), "Hypermedia Seduction for Terrorist Recruiting" (2007), "Terrorism Informatics – Knowledge Management and Data Mining for Homeland Security" (2008), and “The Global Impact of Terrorism” (2008). Prof. Ganor is a member of the Editorial Board of Springer Intelligence & Security Informatics (ISI) journal and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Counter-Terrorism Review (ICTR). Prof. Ganor has contributed book chapters for many publications, including to Oxford University Press, Routledge, Springer, and the U.S. Institute for Peace. Prof. Ganor chairs ICT's Annual World Summit on Counter-Terrorism, the world's leading international conference in the field of Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism. In addition, he co-directed numerous research projects for NATO and the Ministry of Public Security. Prof. Ganor is a frequent media and television commentator and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, CBS, ABC, the New York Times, the Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and many other Israeli and international publications.
