• To describe the histories of the key terrorist groups involved in the Intifada.
• To underscore the differences among these groups (Islamic vs. nationalist) and, more fundamentally, the similarities in their goals (destroy Israel, hostility to the U.S.) and tactics (terrorism).
• To underscore the suffering these groups’ operations have caused. |
1. Compare the charters of Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah. (Find them at StandWithUs.com under flyers.)
2. How have the terrorist groups been influenced by radical Islam? What terrorist tactics were used in the 1960s
through the 1980s (attacks in Israel, attacks on Israelis around the world, which declined in the ‘80s)? When
was suicide bombing first used? How did it differ from earlier tactics? What was the world/Israeli response?
3. What do terrorist groups hope to accomplish through terrorism? They clearly can’t win a military battle against
Israel. Do they hope to make life so unbearable for Israelis that they will leave? Alternatively, is their main goal PR and world attention? Or is their goal a combination of these two motives, or others?
4. How does terrorism differ from legitimate forms of rebellion? For example, would one call America’s Minutemen in 1776 terrorists? Were revolutionaries in France or Russia terrorists? What are the differences or similarities? (One difference is that Israel was in the midst of peace negotiations with the PA, which had agreed to stop violence. Another difference is that terrorists target civilians, while the Minutemen and French and Russian revolutionaries targeted political or military figures and installations.)
5. Who supports the various terrorist groups? (This important question is addressed in the Israel 101 booklet.)
Have the nations who are supporting these groups changed? (Iran has taken the place of Egypt, and Jordan is out of the picture, but the other players are the same.) How do foreign countries’ involvement change the way you look at terrorists? How much it is a local revolutionary movement and how much a tool used by other Arab/Muslim states to continue the war against Israel?
6. If you lived around these terrorists groups and knew that your society glorified suicide bombers as martyrs on TV, in other media, in school and in your religious institution, how do you think it would affect you? How would or could you resist these messages? (Think about a movie, that strongly influenced you and your friends. How did you resist the message of the movie, or did you accept it?) What impact do you think this kind of societal message has on the prospects for peace for the next generation?
7. Is suicide bombing a response to poverty and desperation, or is it a tactic/weapon (“human bomb”) that terrorist groups have consciously chosen? How would you go about researching this question? |
