Sir, – “British PM urges against ‘knee-Jerk’ response to terror after attacks on UK mosques,” (May 24) appeared as a headline in The Jerusalem Post. I would like to suggest that the prime minister’s statement reflects an even more harmful knee-jerk reaction to the terrorist massacre that took place on the streets of London.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Seth Frantzman’s article “Nigeria: Why Islamism succeeds, in miniature,”( Terra Incognita, Comment and Features, May 22) wherein with admirable boldness and exemplary lucidity he explicitly stresses that “the resort to compromises merely feeds the illusion that terrorism is part of a legitimate ‘conflict with the state.’ It isn’t. The terrorist goal is mass killing of civilians; its conflict is with humanity.”
The prescient accuracy of Frantzman’s words was dramatically demonstrated with the repulsive terrorism carried out in broad daylight in London [where two converts to Islam stabbed and then decapitated a British soldier. Despite their shouts of "Allahu akbar" and their vowing to never stop fighting in His cause which left not even the slightest doubt that this was a deliberate, murderous, and heartless act of "pure" terrorism, it is important to note that the police shot, but did not kill, the two assailants].
It becomes increasingly obvious that neither dialogue or restraint can serve as a proper or effective response to unadulterated barbarism. Terrorism, says Frantzman must be confronted with the most “disproportionate force” possible and “prisoners should only be released in coffins.”
ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petah Tikva
[Image credit: John Pannell]
