On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations General Assembly. In the speech, Netanyahu targeted the Iranian regime and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hamas, the Goldstone Report on the Gaza War, and those UN members who did not walk out during Ahmadinejad’s earlier address.
Netanyahu reiterated the the Israeli official discourse of the Bushian era between 2001 and 2009. His arguments were “applicable” within the context of the “war on terror” and within the “holy” war of modernization against terrorists, and he portrayed today’s Israelis suffering the same “punishment” Jewish people had experienced from Hitler’s Germany (read Adolf’s successor as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad).
For Netanyahu, “the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction.” And, since “Teheran is the motherland of terrotist activities and funding”, that must mean Iran is Danger Number One:
Last week the New York Timespublished an article detailing the Pentagon’s plan to shift focus away from international terrorism, known under the previous administration as the Global War on Terror, towards larger strategic threats to the United States such as destabilized governments and mass refugee crises provoked by climate change. Most in the defense establishment welcome this shift in strategy, but the threat from terrorism still remains.
This time, however, there is a difference. The terror threat comes largely not from foreign nationals but from Americans.
In 2009 almost 70 Americans, including police officers and medical personnel, have been killed by domestic terror attacks. This is a breathtakingly sharp rise from 2008, when only two people lost their lives, both of whom died at the hands of anti-Liberal terrorist Jim D. Adkisson in Tennessee. The first attack in 2009 was in Samson, Alabama, when Michael McLendon went on a cross-county shooting rampage that killed 11 people including himself. The most recent was on June 10, when James von Brunn opened fire inside the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, killing one guard and wounding several others.
While each of these attacks is unique, they can be roughly broken down into a handful of categories. In this piece, we will explore these terrorist archetypes, the ecosystem that produced them, as well as common tactics, both harmful and helpful, used to counter them. The intention is to provide students, analysts and researchers, with a sound and coherent image of the domestic terror threat facing the United States.
HOST CHRIS WALLACE: This week, President Obama took ownership of the war in Afghanistan. Here for an exclusive interview on the new strategy as well as other tough challenges around the world is the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
And, Mr. Secretary, welcome back to “FOX News Sunday.”
GATES: Thank you, Chris.
WALLACE: Let’s start with President Obama’s mission statement Friday on the new strategy in Afghanistan. Here it is.
HOST CHRIS WALLACE: This week, President Obama took ownership of the war in Afghanistan. Here for an exclusive interview on the new strategy as well as other tough challenges around the world is the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
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