have caused this war, but his aim: to get rid of the United States and its satellites, the Arab kings and presidents, throughout the Middle East.
In order to pursue its war, the United States has set up a worldwide coalition. Everyone joining it has been issued an American permit to call their enemies "terrorists": Putin in Chechnya, China in its Muslim regions, India in Kashmir, Sharon in the occupied territories-all are now fighting against "terrorists." Everyone and his bin Laden.
Many years ago I coined a definition I am quite proud of: "The difference between freedom fighters and terrorists is that the freedom fighters are on my side and the terrorists are on the other side." I am glad that this definition has been adopted by my biggers and betters.
Since the New York atrocity, it has become fashionable to talk about "terrorism." As a result, it has lost all precise meaning.
"Terror" means extreme fear. The root of the word is the Latin "terrere"-to frighten or be frightened. The modern term was first used to describe the regime of terror instituted by the Jacobins, one of the factions of the French Revolution, to destroy their opponents by beheading them with the guillotine during the years 1793-94. In the end, their leader, Robespierre, suffered the same fate.
Since then, the term has acquired a more general use. Terrorism is a method of attaining political goals by frightening the civilian population. It does not apply to the frightening of soldiers. The Japanese who attacked the American fleet in Pearl Harbor were not terrorists. Neither were the Jews who attacked the soldiers of the British occupation regime in Palestine.
Clausewitz said that war is the continuation of politics by other means.68 That is true for terrorism, too. Terrorism is always an instrument for the attainment of political aims. Since these may be rightist or leftist, revolutionary or reactionary, religious or secularist, the term "international terrorism" is nonsense. Each terrorist body has its own specific agenda.
There is hardly a liberation movement that has not used terrorism. Algerian women put bombs in the cafes of the French settlers (some of them were caught and horribly tortured by French parachutists). Nelson Mandela spent 28 years in prison because he refused to order his followers to abstain from terrorism. The Maccabees were terrorists who went around killing Hellenized Jews. So were the Irgun fighters who in 1938 put bombs in the Arab markets of Jaffa and Haifa in retaliation for Arab attacks. Shlomo Ben-Josef committed a terrorist act when he shot at an Arab bus (and I joined the Irgun when he was hanged by the British).
Generally, terrorism is the weapon of the weak. A Palestinian "terrorist" recently said: "Give me tanks and airplanes, and I shall stop