Friday’s attack against a synagogue in Jerusalem (Israel) by Palestinian terrorists, the deadliest in recent years, raises some serious questions – well beyond the obvious matter of ideological indoctrination and national security.
While the motives for the attack are rather self-evident – to assert and affirm radicals’ long-held belief that the State of Israel should be no more, and that in the pursuit of such ambition even the most obscene of violence can be rationalised, little has been said, if at all, on the economics of Terror.
Allow me to put it plainly. Terror does not exist in an ideological vacuum, it requires resources, and until such a time we ensure that access is denied, and short of that, at least restricted to a trickle through sanctions, then our outrage means nothing. I would actually argue that our tendency to over politicise Terror, feigning outrage to better score points against our detractors has become quite nauseating.
To fight terror is not a matter of political affiliation but rather an imperative necessity. However, to allow terror militants to access funds – whether directly or indirectly constitutes a violation of international law that ought to be challenged at every turn. And yet it is not.
If we consider that the Palestinian Authority openly features in its annual budget its pay-per-slay program, and still benefits from the largesses of our Western capitals we must not wonder why attacks such as that witnessed in Jerusalem continue to take place. Hate now stands a currency underwritten by our democracies.
One can hope, I certainly do, that our governments will at last realise that their support of the Palestinian Authority, and its proxies, stands the biggest impediment to peace, acts of aggression against both Israelis and Palestinians.