Essay on "International Terrorism Violence in the Middle East"

Quoted Instructions for "International Terrorism Violence in the Middle East" Assignment:

I'm requesting Freelance *****.

Below are 5 essay questions in parentheses. below each essay question is my research, please rewrite my research in your own words. please add at lease one reference per essay question also please write 1 page per essay question.

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1( The text offers three sources of (or reason for) violence in the Middle East. Which of the three sources do you think is most responsible, if any? Explain your answer. Also, given these sources, what do you think can and/or should be done to secure a lasting peace in the Middle East?)

Religion fuels the fire for this violence, which burns in the Middle East and has been for centuries. The differences appear to be as simple as Muslim, Jewish, or Christian, however the fact is that religion in the Middle East has a broader reach and these differences are the main cause for violence among Arabs and Jews. What we see today in Iraq being on the edge of a civil war between the Shiite government and the Sunnis. The elements are the Land, the inhabitants or the trespassers of depending on ones view and one*****s religious beliefs. The Palestine*****s have argued that based on continuous residence in the area for hundreds of years, and the fact they are the majority and not the minority they feel that they should be the ones that control the land and that Israel has no claim to its state. They reject the idea that a biblical-era kingdom constitutes the basis for a modern land claim (Israel*****s interpretation). If the Palestinians do entertain the biblical argument, they maintain that since Abraham*****s son Ishmael is the forefather of the Arabs, then God*****s promise of the land to the children of Abraham includes the Arab*****s as well. They also feel they should not have to forfeit their land to compensate Jews for European crimes against them. Groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas have been fueling the anger of radicals that want nothing more than to abolish the Jewish State from the face of the earth. And on the other side Israel has produced its own brand of religious fanaticism, the Moshe Amon; they want nothing more than to destroy all of the Arab states surrounding Israel. Now how do you arrange peace with between these warring states?

Both states must suppress the radicals with in their boarders and move the majority to a resolution of peace with shared interest such and economic and government empowerment. Religious beliefs between Arabs and Israelis will never parallel each other and they should not. They both should have the same rights similar on our American constitution and the first Amendment. The Oslo Accord made great strides in empowering the Palestinians to govern their own state and to reclaim land that was taken over by Jewish settlements. Both sides must recognize and identify those groups that disrupt the peace process and together initiate a common fight to suppress and rid the area of violent terrorist and their rhetoric. Only then can they make a true effort towards peace and stability coming into the Middle East.

2. (What is Hamas? Hizbollah? Islamic Jihad? What are the differences between them? Are these groups a threat to the United States? If so, how so? Under what circumstances, if any, should we negotiate with terror groups such as these.)

Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) is a radical Islamic fundamentalist organization was formed in December 1987 at the beginning of the first Intifada. Well know for its suicide bombings, HAMAS was formed as an outgrowth of the PLO (People*****s Liberation Organization). Sheik Ahmed Yassin created the Hamas because he wanted to steer the resistance movement along a more religious course. Hamas published the Hamas Charter in 1988, in which they declared that Palestine was God-given land and that the Israelis could not be allowed to live there. HIZBOLLAH (Party of God) is a product of the 1978 *****“ 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Struggle with Israel. Hezbollah came into existence from smaller Islamic groups such as the Islamic Jihad, Organization of Oppressed Earth and Revolutionary Justice Organization.

At its inception one of the main objectives of Hizbollah was to spread the Islamic Revolution.

After emerging from the civil war during the early 1980s as an Iranian sponsored resistance movement for Lebanon*****s Shia community, Hezbollah is determined to remove the state of Israeli and western forces and influence from Lebanon. Hezbollah is the principle suspect in several notable attacks on American, French and Italian forces while they tried to stabilize

Lebanon. Elements of the group have been linked to involvement in kidnapping, detention and interrogation of American and western hostages in Lebanon. After the signing of the Taif Agreement in 1990, Hezbollah again changed its tactics. Hassan Nasrallah took over the organization and set forth to create a regional militia. From 1990 *****“ 2000 Hezbollah conducted military operations in South Lebanon which it felt was illegally occupied by Israel. In 2000, Israel was forced to withdraw and Hezbollah took the credit. Hezbollah now has control of 23 seats in the Lebanese parliament. The country of Lebanon praises the group for is economic contributions to education, and rebuilding of war torn areas.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is a terrorist group based in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and most of its financial backing comes from Iran. The group operates primarily in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and has conducted attacks into Jordon and Lebanon. The PIJ*****s main strongholds in the West Bank are Hebron and Jenin. The organization was lead by Fathi Shaqaqi from the early 1970s to his death in 1995. In 1982 Shaqaqi took his newly formed PIJ to Lebanon were he first came in contact with Hassan Fadallah and the Hezbollah. Among the Sunni*****s, Fathi Shiqaqi was the first individual who published a booklet which legitimized, for the first time the justification of suicide in Jihad. He called it sacrifice and not only the suicide was then legitimized, but also the operation, he drew the line between prohibited suicide and martyrdom. In 1987 when the first Infitfada broke out, the PIJ increased its political pressure and joined the battle in the Palestinian streets.

In 1988 Fathi Shaqaqi was captured by Israeli forces and deported out of the Gaza Strip area but he soon returned. In 1993 Shaqaqi, aligned himself and his organization with the new Rejectionist Front. The PIJ increased its attacks on Israeli targets who finally decided it was time to eliminate Fathi. In 1995, while traveling under false name and heading to Libya to met Qaddafi, Fathi was assassinated. Most people involved in the Middle East process believe the Israeli Mossad killed him. Shaqaqi*****s successor was Ramadan Abdullah Sallah who continues to use Shaqaqi*****s philosophies to guide the PIJ. All these organizations are a constant threat to the United States and the spread of democracy around the world. The threat they pose to the U.S. is not a weapon, but the empowerment of radical ideologies they share and infuse with their people. These groups have spread their rhetoric through delusional Islamic teachings into a philosophy of hate and violence. There is no limit or boundaries, which can contain this type of hatred. We witnessed this during 9/11; it did not take a weapon of mass destruction to cause mayhem and destruction within our boarders. Dealing with terrorist? *****We must all work to stamp out the scourge of terrorism that in the Middle East makes war and ever present threat***** (Ronald Regan). We should never compromise our values, our citizens or our boarders based on threats.

3. (Describe the Kurdish conflict and the PKK in detail. Who are the peoples and nations with a stake in the conflict? What are the concerns or objections of all sides of the conflict? Do you believe the Kurds are deserving of their own nation-state? Or is it simply a fact of life that Kurds will remain a minority in every country they occupy, whether, Turkey, or Iraq, or elsewhere?)

The Kurd population, probably numbering close to 16 million, inhabits the wide arc from eastern Turkey and the northwestern part of Syria through Soviet Azarbaijan and Iraq to the northwest of the Zagros Mountains in Iran.

About half of all Kurds worldwide live in Turkey. Most of the rest live in adjacent regions of Iran, Iraq, and Syria. They represent by far the largest non-Arab ethnic minority of Iraq, accounting in 1987 for about 19 percent of the population, or around 3.1 million, and also Turkey's largest non-Turkish ethnic group.

Abjullah Ocalan founded the PKK. As a young man Ocalan joined the Durdis rights called Democratic Cultural Associations of the East but then founded the PKK. Established in 1974 as a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group primarily composed of Turkish Kurds, by the late 1990s the PKK had moved beyond rural-based insurgent activities to include urban terrorism. The PKK sought to set up an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey, where there is a predominantly Kurdish population. Geography, politics and history have conspired to render 30 million Kurds the largest stateless people in the Middle East. The Government of Turkey has long denied the Kurdish population, located largely in the southeast, basic political, cultural, and linguistic rights. Since 1984 the separatist PKK waged a violent terrorist insurgency in southeast Turkey, directed against both security forces and civilians, almost all of them Kurds, whom the PKK accuses of cooperating with the State. The government of Turkey in turn waged an intense campaign to suppress PKK terrorism, targeting active PKK units as well as persons they believe support or sympathize with the PKK. In the process, both government forces and PKK terrorists committed human rights abuses against each other and noncombatants.

According to the Government, from 1984 through November 1997, 26,532 PKK members, 5,185 security force members, and 5,209 civilians lost their lives in the fighting.

Primary PKK targets are Turkish Government security forces in Turkey but also have been active in Western Europe against Turkish targets. Conducted attacks on Turkish diplomatic and commercial facilities in dozens of West European cities in 1993 and again in spring 1995.

In an attempt to damage Turkey's tourist industry, the PKK has bombed tourist sites and hotels and kidnapped foreign tourists. The PKK committed numerous abuses against civilians in northern Iraq throughout 1997. For example, on August 4, five persons were reportedly kidnapped from the village of Gunda Jour by a PKK band. Iraqi Kurds reported that on October 23, a PKK unit killed 14 civilians (10 of them children) and wounded 9 others in attacks on the villages of Korka, Chema, Dizo, and Selki. On December 13, seven Assyrian civilians reportedly were ambushed and killed near the village of Mangeesh. Many villagers in Dohuk and Irbil provinces, particularly those from isolated areas, were reported to have abandoned their homes and temporarily relocated to cities and lager towns to escape PKK attacks. In 1999 after growing pressure from Turkey and the international community Ocalan was asked to leave Syria and abandon his operating bases. During this time he traveled through several countries that had showed the Kurdish cause support were he finally landed in the laps of the Greek government. After a time the Greek government moved him to the Greek embassy in Kenya. After a joint operation involving the American CIA, Turkish National Intelligence Agency and the Israeli Mossad, Ocalan was captured in Kenya and transported back to Turkey to stand trial.

Ocalan was sentenced to death by the Turkish but has remained at Imrali Island in solitary confinement because the death penalty was abolished in Turkey in 2002.

The PKK have changed their name several times but have not regained the strength or

Influence they maintained in the mid-1980s. I can sympathize with the Kurds to a point; they were a suppressed people, who were not recognized as part of any one nation or government. A non-Arab people surrounded by nations of Arabs, they have fought to maintain their own identity and to establish their own government. Even though I understand their convictions, I do not approve of the tactics, which they employed.

To defend ones self is a right, to take another life in cold blood is wrong. Creating a nation-state within the boarders of Turkey, Syria or Iran is not going to happen in the foreseeable future, but if the Kurds continue to monopolize northern Iraq and present themselves as a peaceful nation, then trough the new democracy being established in that country the Kurds have a strong change in legitimize there single piece of real-estate of Iraqi Kurdistan.

4. (Discuss the rise of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. What are bin Laden*****s key issues? What attacks or attempted attacks have been linked to Al-Qaeda (Include the years)? How should America go about combating bin Laden and Al-Qaeda? Or, if you prefer, should we make peace somehow with the organization?)

Osama bin Laden comes from the wealthy Arab family of bin Laden. He is known as the founder of al-Qaeda and is a militant Islamist. Osama bin Ladens main issue is the occupation of Arab states and the support for Israel from the United States and its allied countries. Osama bin Laden name became synonymous with the mujahideen during the fighting in Afghanistan in which the mujahideen guerrillas fought against the Soviet Unions invasion of that country.

With his connections, wealth and power, Osama was able to instill an abondance of influence on the mujahideen. In 1988, bin Laden set out to establish his own version of freedom fighters (terrorists). He wanted Arabs to be their own fighting faction in the war against the Soviet Union, so he established his own training grounds, supplied weapons and lead the new formed group know as Al-Queda. He later offered his services to Saudi Arabia during the first gulf crisis, in lieu of the American Support, he contested that the Americans present was an invasion of Islamic holy land. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dismissed him and he was later quietly sent out of Saudi Arabia for his continued criticisms of the Saudi monarchy.

Bin Laden then moved to Sudan and began his campaign of recruitment and training for members of Al-Qaeda. It is believed that bin Laden was involved with the December 29, 1992, bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden, Yemen, which killed a Yemeni hotel employee and an Austrian national and seriously injured the Austrian's wife. Osama, Zawahiri and al-Qaeda were making there presence felt on a grand scale and they continued to finance and conduct operations against US and western military personnel and civilians. It*****s believed al-Qaeda was behind the financing of the Somali Warlords that attacked UN and US personnel while they tried to provide humanitarian support to the people of Somalia in 1993. Bin Laden felt that the humanitarian effort was another US lead assault on a Muslim nation. In 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, (a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad), co-signed a fatwa (religious edict) in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders, declaring: *****to kill the Americans and their allies civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Makka) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim.

This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, 'and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,' and 'fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah***** On August 7th 1998 al-Qaeda conducted simultaneous bombings in Tanzania and Kenya completely leveling the US Embassies there. Two Hundred and twenty individuals were killed while over four thousand were injured. These two attacks signaled a change in al-Qaeda*****s targeting and ability to conduct complex operations. After the embassy attacks came a series of fatal and world changing acts of terrorism. In 2000, al-Qaeda suicide bombers in Yemen conducted a bomb attack against the USS COLE. Al Qaeda operatives conducted operations in Bali (October 2002), Riyadh (May 2003), Morocco (August 2003), and Madrid (March 2004) but the most devastating was the 2001 terrorist plot that destroyed the World Trade Center and destroyed one of the outer rings of the Pentagon in Washington DC. After the deadly attacks on New York and Washington DC the United States initiated Operation Enduring Freedom which saw the destruction of the Taliban powerbase in Afghanistan which sent them and al-Qaeda into the mountains of western Afghanistan and Eastern Pakistan. Even though bin Laden remains at large, the United States must maintain vigilance in the eradication of him and his organization. There cannot be negotiations or peace until he and his organization has been brought to justice.

5. (As you consider everything you have learned about international terrorism, in your opinion what are the most important facts or elements of the material that can be

instructive for American foreign policy or counterterrorism efforts? Is there anything you have learned of have come to believe (about threats, opportunities ect) through this course which you sense is not taken seriously enough or even considered by government officials? What would characterize your approach to terrorism if you were in a position to advise the President or other high-ranking government officials? )

In my opion the biggest misconception about any type of terrorism weather it is International or domestic is the understanding behind the objective, and what ignites the fuse that tempers the need to kill innocent civilians and threatens our nation*****s infrastructure. We must relearn how to re-defend our boarders and stay true to the American people. In order to bring democracy abroad we must be able to protect those at home first.

We tend to forget what this nation had meant to the early settlers, a place free of loyalist that supported a King that opposed independence, government laws which were unfair and bias, and oppression of ones religious beliefs. Our foreign policies seem to have not given enough latitude to encompass other political beliefs and give leniency to the division of church and state and those countries who have lived within those boundaries for thousands of years. As the strongest nation in the world we must learn to lead by example and earn the trust of those who share the same common goals as us in Human rights and freedoms. We will never negotiate with a terrorist and should not. But at times we must elevate above the rest and use our sense of decency and diplomacy, backed by our strong military might. Those who understand this philosophy will continue to join and support this great nation. As a military member I have seen many sides of American foreign policy, some good, some not so good. But we must be able to recognize what is working for the majority and focus in on those who can benefit from it the most. If I were in the position to advise a Presidential council or the President himself, I would try and focus or efforts on the homeland and the revitalization of our boarders. I would advice against having yes people around me who cannot and will not deliver the whole truth to the matter in hand. For example it makes little sense to have major screening process at an international Airport and yet have thousands of illegal aliens crossing our boarders daily. We need to get back on track as a nation and do the right thing besides the profitable one. And to those nations who are determined to commit atrocities against human rights, and empower world terrorism, We will put them on notice, but we will also act on them, not as a military power but a united political power through strategies, not allowing them to profit, transport, use American assists and deny entrance through our boarders.