Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists [Paperback]

Benjamin Netanyahu (Author, Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0374524971 | ISBN-13: 978-0374524975 | Publication Date: 2001 | Edition: 2nd

In this innovative and concise work, Israeli politician Benjamin Netanyahu offers a compelling approach to understanding and fighting the increase in domestic and international terrorism throughout the world. Citing diverse examples from around the globe, Netanyahu demonstrates that domestic terrorist groups are usually no match for an advanced technological society which can successfully roll back terror without any significant curtailment of civil liberties. But Netanyahu sees an even more potent threat from the new international terrorism which is increasingly the product of Islamic militants, who draw their inspiration and directives from Iran and its growing cadre of satellite states. The spread of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, coupled with the possibility that Iran will acquire nuclear weapons, poses a more frightening threat from an adversary less rational and therefore less controllable than was Soviet Communism. How democracies can defend themselves against this new threat concludes this provocative book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent primer on the groups, motives, and methods of the current terrorist threat."—Bill Gertz, The Washington Times

"Netanyhu has produced a small volume updating the story of international terrorism and his advice on how t odefeat it. His message . . . is a correct one."—Peter W. Rodman, The Washington Post Book World

"This short book is well worth reading, and is likely to spark renewed debate about the central dilemma Netanyahu addresses . . . He offers vigorous, proactive, pre-emptive measures."—Victor T. Levine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Netanyahu traces the history of terrorism with scholarship and makes a strong case that the West has not prepared itself properly for increased domestic and international terrorism."—Berl Faulbaum, The Detroit News

"Vigorous . . . Mr. Netanyahu's arguement, which is soberly and clearly made, cannot be taken lightly."—Richard Berstein, The New York Times

"Strong but not belligerent, adamant but measured . . . It's hard to put uo nuch of an argument against Netanyahu's prophetic book."—David Finkle, The Trenton Times

About the Author

From his days as a soldier in an elite anti-terror unit in the Israeli army to his years as Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has fought terrorism on the military, diplomatic and political battlefields. He has also written A Place Among the Nations: Israel and the World.

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2nd edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374524971
• ISBN-13: 978-0374524975
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #678,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

124 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard solutions for a deadly problem, January 15, 2001

By 

L. Clark (Kenosha, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists (Paperback)

As a former Naval Counter-terrorism analyst, I look for books that provide factual material without a sugarcoating of political ideology. Prime Minister Netanyahu has well accomplished this feat within this book. By using both personal experience and historical perspective, PM Netanyahu provides a step by step program for the isolation and eventual defeat of terrorist organizations. He provides heretofore unknown facts that gives an insight into the mindset of the terrorists and those that fight them. This book is a 'must read' for any student of International Politics, Terrorism, those wishing to learn the truth of international terrorism

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Netanyahu dismantles terrorism root cause: its philosophy, March 5, 2002

By 

Johnny Lee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists (Paperback)

This work is an exceptionally honest perspective on the nature of and driving forces behind the use of terrorism as a political weapon. Netanyahu, like few others, refuses to mince words and relinquish the moral ground when chronicling the "deliberate and systematic assault on civilians to inspire political ends."

Voltaire wrote that there are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts. Unlike those who brandish obfuscation and appeasement as political weaponry (q.v., Bill Clinton and Colin Powell), Netanyahu convincingly dismantles the "cause" of terrorism at its most vulnerable place: its philosophy. He brings a clarity of vision-coupled with a compelling and well researched historical record-to bear on what, in the light of day, cannot be called a just cause.

Accordingly, while the bulk of his work appropriately focuses on the Middle East (the birthplace of modern terrorism), he elucidates many of the causes behind terrorism on both a domestic and an international scale-from the Oklahoma and New York Trade Tower bombings (the book was written in 1995) to the rise of the PLO and other European terrorist organizations as puppets for a corrupt Soviet regime. Netanyahu's principled argument and clear writing style are only made more stark by the compelling historical record that leads him to his final conclusion.

The history of terrorism is not light reading, but it is crucial to known thine enemy. Netanyahu details the mentality behind this enemy by showing that "[i]t is not only that the ends of the terrorists do not succeed in justifying the means they choose; their choice of means indicates what their true ends are."

The overall purpose of the book is to demonstrate that a philosophical response (Netanyahu calls it a moral response) is the only means of defeating terrorism. To be more precise, terrorists can be defeated, but only if decent people uproot it properly, once and for all, without moral compunctions of any kind.

The book is replete with historical fact not reported in any of today's ludicrously biased media, and it concludes with specific remedies not dreamed of by liberal appeasers who wish to grant murderers an equal voice at the international bargaining table. (Many of these rememdies finally are being enacted after September 11.) This is a remarkably well written book; I just pray that our leaders digest its message in time.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sobering warning, October 17, 2001

By 

Patrick Ruffini - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists (Paperback)

This brisk volume by Benjamin Netanyahu is a useful guide to combatting terrorism, and although it doesn't mention Osama bin Laden's name, its lessons are relevant to the struggle of today.

Netanyahu compellingly shows why refusing to give in to terrorist demands is not just the least worst option -- it is really the only good option for fighting terrorism. During the 1985 TWA hijacking, our refusal to even consider terrorist demands led to the terrorists' backing down. Netanyahu says we sent a very different signal during the Iran-Contra affair, when our willingness to negotiate with terrorists spawned even more kidnappings.

Netanyahu also urges us not to underestimate the extent to which terrorism is centrally funded and organized. The West's failure to recognize that 1970s terrorism was NOT a series of disconnected plots by local dissidents, but was instead instigated by the Soviet Union set the battle against terrorism back years. We should not forget this today.

Those interested in the PLO-Israeli "peace process" should also read this book: its' account of the extent to which terrorism is condoned at the highest levels in the Palestinean leadership, and why Palestineans will never accept the existence of a Jewish state is quite sobering.