Introduction
In simple terms terrorism can be defined as the use of violence on people or property for political reasons. It’s the act of causing terror or fear upon the citizens of a particular nation. It’s a political tactic used by terrorist when they believe that there is no other better way to accomplish their desire. Terrorists are the individuals who practice terrorism; they can also be referred to as the agents of terrorism since they attack nations they are opposed to.
Terrorist targets specific group of people whom they belief have a connection to a certain view of the world that they posses. Terrorism greatly affects democracies of most states for example most countries within the commonwealth, Africa and the United States have been affected by terrorism. Once the media is exploited then the whole nation undergoes a transition stage as concentration is shifted from major developmental issues to issues related to the victims affected, the losses incurred and investigations as to what were the causes of attacks. The economic development becomes stagnated and heavy financial losses are experienced.
Democracies should therefore enact policies that aim at doing away with the terrorism legislation without necessary the offer of guidance on human rights explicitly for example on torture, arbitrary detention and denial of a fair trial. This paper will look at some of the consequences of terrorism in the concerned counties, give an overview of the Palestine Liberation Organization (LPO) and give some of the major attacks of terrorism.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (LPO) is one of the widely known terrorist organizations. It was established in 1964 at the Palestinian congress with the objective of fighting for the Palestinians living in Lebanon. Three years after its establishment, LPO had already decided to destroy Israel state. For ten years, LPO involved itself in terrorist attacks in the state of Israel. Many people were murdered, other became casualties (some Palestine and some Israelites) but the organization was determined to carry on with its mission (The American-Israel Cooperative Enterprise 2010). It concerned itself with the political attacks and was determined to search for a solution to end them.
Its aspirations were opinionated which required Arafat (the leader of LPO) to stay away from terrorism in order to demonstrate to the people that he had the potential to lead a Government without the use of force (Crenshaw, 1995). The LPO’s terrorism acts ended and Islamic fundamentalism which spread in Middle East; this led to the emergence of the al-Qaeda and Hama.
Arafat was appointed as PLO executive chairman in 1969. The Palestine National Council (PNC) is the uppermost decision-making organization of the PLO, and is well thought-out to be the “parliament” of all Palestinians within and out the occupied territories. The PNC is responsible for setting the rules and policies that govern PLO activities. PLO has not being named by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) nor its fatal movement. It was in 1988 that, LPO announced publically that, it was going to cause terror Israel and its surroundings but in 1993, LPO started peace negotiations with the government of Israel.
A significant number of dissimilar organizations have been part of the PLO alliance since its establishment; these organizations have their own well-known originators and their own governmental structures. Some of the leaders of these PLO essential groups have, at several times, been opponents of Arafat in supporting the Palestinians. Several of these groups have been named rejectionist groups for failing to support Arafat in some of his activities, for instance, they opposed the September 13, 1993 Israel-PLO communal recognition and successive Israeli-Palestinian provisional agreements.
The PLO’s Islamist Rivals
Most of the anti-Israel aggression since the 1993 Declaration of Principles and during the present Palestinian revolution has been conducted by Islamist groups more so the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). These groups are referred to as FTO’s and neither of them has ever taken part in the PLO alliance they have for along time being considered as Arafat’s opponents. Hamas and PIJ did not agree with the PLO’s secular philosophy and did not affirm loyalty to the attainment of a peace agreement with Israel. On the other hand, Arafat and the two opposing Islamist groups have sporadically wanted to counterfeit close ties to one another (Linden, 2007).
In June 2002, Arafat supposedly offered to give the two groups seats in the PA parliament, but they both declined, because, according to them they would never be part of a government that was determined in reaching a peace agreement with Israel.
The Hamas system now extends throughout five continents with offices, charities and feebly camouflaged front groups not only throughout the U.S. but in Brazil, South Africa, Malaysia, Germany, among other countries including Australia. Even though Iran persists in providing assistance to Hamas, it is longer considered as its critical center for funds and war arms; Hamas now has expanded its sources of financial support and has to a great extent expanded its international enrollment and propaganda operations. Even more crucial, Hamas has launched close working and joint relationships with almost every member of the basic Islamic fundamentalist system which, in turn, has recognized its existence throughout the world (The American-Israel Cooperative Enterprise, 2010).
The manifold self-governing confessions of a number of Hamas terrorists and dispatch riders under arrest by Israel in the past few years confirm that superior Hamas religious administrators in fact direct terrorist operations. The affirmation, for instance, of Nasser Jallal Hidmi, a Palestinian employed in the U.S. to perform terrorist acts in opposition to the Israelis, confirms that the groups of people who prearranged and educated him were the influential leaders from a U.S based charity organization.
Americans have to challenge the crisis caused by the Hamas and its extremism, not only for the reason that the Palestinian-Israeli peace process is supported, but also because the country is one of the major place of protection for the headship, political operations, fundraising, and tactical scheduling of Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad (Gareua, 2004).
Major PLO Groups and Factions Involved in the Uprising
Throughout the existing Palestinian rebellion that commenced in September 2000, brutality and terrorism against Israelis have been carried out by both Hamas and PIJ as well as some factions associated with the PLO, particularly Fatah. This development has to some extent shifted the focus of the ongoing discussing between PLO and Israel’s peace treaty (LPO negotiations Affairs Department 2010). Formerly, U.S. authorized statements and hearsay on PLO agreement with its loyalties to Israel, which are presented to Congress after every six months in reports.
Commitments fulfillment Act, principally reviewed Arafat’s willingness and aptitude to restrain terrorist activities by his rivals, that is Hamas and PIJ. In disparity, much of the existing U.S. debate of Arafat’s goals and purposes focuses on his readiness and capability to stop anti-Israel brutality and terrorism by PLO factions that have conventionally been considered his associates or subsidiaries. A number of these factions, mostly the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, are more and more using violent tactics that customarily have been attributed to Hamas and PIJ.
It is not easy from the generally obtainable information to decide the precise extent to which Arafat is capable of controlling Palestinian factions that use sadism.
Throughout its invasion into the West Bank in April 2002, Israel asserted to have detained Palestinian documents contending to make obvious Arafat’s backing for terrorism by some of these factions. The Palestinians hold that the documents are either fake or have been distorted by Israel. However, the U.S. government agencies have not made any public evaluation concerning the same. Arafat has criticized suicide terrorism against Israel after terrorist events, and the U.S. government reports mentioned above do not publicly confirm or support Israeli allegations that Arafat himself has authorized acts of terrorism against Israelis (Kraft, 2008).
Major Terrorism attacks
In 1979, a counter revolutionary militia was formed for the purpose of opposing the Nicaragua’s Sandinista government and in 1987 contra operating procedures were asserted where the human rights was bloodily abused. People were raped, murdered, and others were kidnapped and property worth millions was destroyed. The target of the contras was the health care clinics and its workers.
This came to an end after Violetta Chamorro was elected in 1990. Five years later, Oklahoma City was bombed and 168 people died and eight hundred people were left injured. This bombing had been directed to the government of U.S.A. as reported by the prosecutors who were said to have carried out the offence. Some of the latest and most memorable terrorist attack is on the twin towers, September 11, 2001 and 2004; there was Spain train bombings in Madrid and other bombings in United Kingdom and London. Since then, U.S.A. has been experiencing terrorist attacks from Al-Qaeda which have continuously caused fear among the residents (Durmaz, 2007).
The motive that was cited for the attack was the support of United State to Israel, trade sanction to Iraq, and its presence in Saudi Arabia. All these motives had been proclaimed earlier before the attack for example fatwa of August 1996. These motives were reinforced when bin Laden and al-Zawahiri after the attack repeated movies and documentaries stating the earlier warnings that the United States had been given (Chaliand, 2007).
Of the recent past the attack is one of the major attacks that made the biggest destruction. The United States is considered as one of the most powerful country in terms of economic power and military preparedness but despite this the attack was made successful. It was made in a way that the security team could not detect. It occurred on two buildings (World Trade Centre and Pentagon) that were prime attacks from the attacker’s point of view.
After the attack were done by al-Qaeda. It is an attack that used mass casualty and mass destruction to ensure that they destabilize entire societal systems. In the attack it involved 19 men connected with Al-Qaeda, who made three incidents of bombing using hijacked commercial planes. The attack happened almost at the same time at the World Trade Centre in Manhattan, New York, Pentagon at the Arlington County, VA and a rural field near the Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The attack resulted in 2,986 deaths (189 from the Pentagon, 184 innocent victims and 5 hijackers). After the attack the then president of United States, George W. Bush, affirmed a worldwide war on terrorism. Terrorist attacks became the order of the day in almost every part of the world (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, et al 2004).
In 1996, Bin Laden, called on for American troops to get out of gulf of Saudi Arabia, he claimed that Prophet Muhammad was against permanent presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia. On 30 July 2008, a trilateral US-Palestinian-Israeli conference was apprehended at the US Department of State in Washington DC. The conference was chaired by the former Secretary of State in US Condoleezza Rice, an Israeli entrustment, among other signatories for instance Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tal Baker. Participants reached an agreement stating that, there should be peace between Palestine and Israel (Barreli, 2007).
The deaths that are as a result of hunger and malnutrition in these countries take the first priority in their development. One of the major impacts of the crisis is deterioration in the living standard, this is because many jobs were lost as trade among countries was affected negatively, and companies were forced to lay off workers. Families’ living standard deterioration brought psychological suffering. Health is another area that the country has suffered as a result (Goodin, 2006).
This is again because of the focus of government funds and the gasses that were produced in the attack. Although the country has a good medical system, there are some diseases that have remained a threat to her citizen. Some have killed several people, and other made the lives of citizens miserable. Such diseases include; cancer, obesity, diabetes, and chronic diseases. They are diseases that can be effectively controlled, however no much campaigns have been implemented to address them since the focus has shifted to terrorist attack. The local security has been overshadowed by this mind of the international terrorism concern. There are increasing crimes in United States that the police have not been able to avoid effectively.
The world relation that is of great importance for the general development of the world was affected. Generally, the Christian countries and the Muslims countries were seen to take different stand on the issue. The Muslims were of the opinion that the attack was necessary and legitimate whereas Christian countries were against. International wars were affirmed, for instance, the United States pronounced war against Afghanistan (May, et al 2009). The declaration of war led to more destruction as attack was made to fish out terrorists. In their bit to fish out terrorist even innocent people were killed, the economy of Afghanistan was drastically affected.
Conclusion
PLO is a terrorist organization based in Palestine. It was established in 1964 and its major target is the state of Israel. Since its establishment, PLO has been involved in major terrorisms attacks not only in Israel but other parts of the world, for instance, the United States. The organization is chaired by Arafat who was elected in 1969. Most of the anti-Israel aggression since the 1993 Declaration of Principles and during the present Palestinian revolution has been conducted by Islamist groups more so the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
The rise of Hamas is only symbolic of the extensive rise of far-reaching Islamic groups in the Middle East and, more notably, in the center of the West itself. Though the opinionated and religious administrators diligently cultivate a representation of being methodically detached and ignorant of any armed forces activities
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