20060417
The Cost of a Terrorist Government
    A homicide bomber killed himself and as many as nine Israelis after detonating a bomb outside a busy sandwich shop in Tel Aviv, Israel on 17 April 2006. The Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. More distressing than the bombing itself is the fact that the Palestinian government, now run by the terrorist group Hamas, refused to condemn the attack, in fact justifying the murder of civilians by claiming it was an act of self defense against Israeli aggression.
    This reality reveals a new aspect of the ongoing Muslim Jihad against Israel and the West: the Jihadis have learned to come to power through democratic means, and they will use the power gained by such means to add legitimacy to their terrorist activities. Now, in order for Israel to defend itself, it must do so by attacking the sovereignly elected Palestinian government, even though that government is run by terrorists.
    Such a situation means that more and more nations will have a harder and harder time justifying their own self defense as terrorists attack them and then hide behinds the shields of elected governments. The problem will be that few attacked nations will be willing to declare war against a Jihadist governed nation in order to press their claims of self defense.
    As a result, the Jihadis have gained a new weapon in the advent of a new level of state-sponsored terrorism. This development will need to be closely watched in nations like Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan in the coming years.
DLH
