Counter-Terrorism That Works
by James Dunnigan
June 6, 2004

From September, 2000, to early June, 2004, the "Intifada" (as the Palestinians call the war with Israel) has killed at least  4,098 (3,107 Palestinians and 920 Israelis). Two thirds of the Israeli dead are civilians, most killed by suicide bombs. The rest of the Israeli dead are soldiers and police. On the Palestinian side, two thirds of the dead were combatants.

Israeli counter-terrorism efforts continue to succeed. Palestinian terrorists still attempt suicide bombings, but the Israelis are still detecting most of the efforts and stopping them early in the planning stages. The ones the Israelis don't detect are getting stopped by the tight border security. Israeli military operations in Gaza, to cut off the smuggling of weapons and bomb making materials from Egypt. The Palestinians are trying to cope with the successful Israeli intelligence system. But this is hurting the efforts to plan and carry out suicide attacks. Israel is still able to identify and kill, via missile attacks from helicopters, terrorist leaders. 

But the Israelis know that their efforts will spur the Palestinians to come up with countermeasures. It's all a question of who can adapt more quickly and effectively. If the Palestinians cannot keep up in this race, they will lose enough public support to render them irrelevant.

Israel has been negotiating peace deals with Palestinians they believe will not back terrorist attacks. While most Palestinians still back the fighting and the eventual destruction of Israel, most are also willing to work out a truce so that some of the economic damage done to the Palestinians can be repaired.

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