Op-Ed: The Myth of the Lone Terrorist
Published: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 12:34 AM
A problem which cannot be brushed off.
Dr. Joel Fishman
Dr. Joel Fishman writes from Jerusalem.After an Arab from East Jerusalem used a bulldozer as a weapon for murdering innocent civilians on Jaffa Road last Wednesday, the police announced to the press that the terrorist had acted on his own. Such a statement has a certain finality which tends to stifle further discussion. It implies that the crime was what the French call, un acte gratuit, something done "without logic, motivation, and/or incitement."
If one considers that the terrorist from Jabel Mukaber, East Jerusalem, who murdered eight students at the 
Terrorism is neither the consequence of poverty, nor of an unhappy childhood.
Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva on 11 March 2008, also acted on his own (according to the police), it becomes clear that we are confronted with multiple acts of individual terror. Here is a problem which cannot be brushed off as something beyond our comprehension, like an earthquake or a tsunami.
Terrorism is neither the consequence of poverty, nor of an unhappy childhood.
Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva on 11 March 2008, also acted on his own (according to the police), it becomes clear that we are confronted with multiple acts of individual terror. Here is a problem which cannot be brushed off as something beyond our comprehension, like an earthquake or a tsunami. The question which one should ask is: What type of environment could have incited or motivated these individuals to commit murder? As recent scholarship has shown, terrorism is neither the consequence of poverty, nor of an unhappy childhood.
One of the first persons who devoted attention to the problem of the lone terrorist was Rabbi Avraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Cooper identified the prototype not in an act of personal jihad, but in the attempt of the 26-year-old Maxime Bruneri to assassinate President Jacques Chirac on Bastille Day 2002, near the Arc de Triomphe. The police knew about Bruneri's right-wing affiliations, but "officials always stressed that he was acting independently of any political group."
As applied to the Palestinian war against Israel, Eyad Kishawi, an activist living in San Francisco, published a treatise in January 2006 dealing with the strategy of political warfare. He wrote that it is better that the efforts of anti-Israel activists be decentralized. What is important, however, is that they should convey the same coherent message. Kishawi emphasized the need for decentralization and individual initiative as a means to avoid the reach of the American law enforcement agencies and "Israeli extra-judicial and illegal activities." It is not a big step to adapt this principle to terrorist warfare.
This refinement of method represents a danger to the public. The state must counter this type of incitement by 
The real dimensions of the problem are much greater than the police are prepared to admit.
establishing heavy penalties both for those who incite to violence and those who are moved to action. Indeed, it is necessary to neutralize an environment which incites individuals to perform crimes of hatred.
The real dimensions of the problem are much greater than the police are prepared to admit.
establishing heavy penalties both for those who incite to violence and those who are moved to action. Indeed, it is necessary to neutralize an environment which incites individuals to perform crimes of hatred. Actually, the real dimensions of the problem are much greater than the police are prepared to admit, because they exclude hidden acts of terror, namely those of Arab drivers who use their cars and trucks as lethal weapons. To describe a frontal collision with murderous intent as a traffic accident is a misnomer. Indeed, it is necessary to call such acts of terror by their correct name.
When the police speak of the "lone terrorist," such a catchword should prompt us to ask tough questions, rather than to be lulled into a complacent passivity.
An abridged version of this article appeared in Hebrew in Makor Rishon on 4 July 2008.