There Can be No Peace with Terrorism

The Israeli cabinet's deal with Hizbollah once again reminds us that the price of peace is surrender to terrorism and that negotiation with terrorism is nothing more than a prelude to that surrender. 16 years after Oslo the same pattern is being followed, terrorist attacks give way to negotiations which lead to concessions which in turn produce renewed terrorism.



Negotiations are to terrorist groups what spinach is to Popeye. Terrorist groups are by their very nature vicious, cowardly and weak. Thugs and murderers under the flag of one ideology or another, they can only win by terrorizing a civilized society into recognizing them and dealing with them. No amount of attacks or bombings can ever give terrorists a victory. They can only win when you surrender and when you negotiate with terrorists, you surrender. It doesn't matter what the terms are, it doesn't matter what assurances you have, it doesn't matter what bright plans for the future you've concocted-- when you negotiate with terrorists you always lose.



Islamic terrorist groups when they aren't putting on a show of martyrdom rely on typical eastern bandit tactics, high on the list is abduction and demands for blood money. Except the terrorist groups demand more than mere money, they demand land, they demand power, they demand lives. Terrorist kidnappings, like any other crime, are rooted in profit motive. If terrorists cannot profit from their crime, they will be forced to change their tactics. Negotiations and concessions only reward their tactics and insure many repeats of the same attack.



By paying a ransom, you perpetrate kidnappings. By negotiating with terrorists, you perpetuate terrorism. This is the only truth. It is the truth that diplomats, reporters and politicians fervently deny, just as they deny that being tough on crime reduces crime. Every ransom paid is another hostage taken. Every legitimization of terrorism is another rocket launched against a civilian population. Every reference to legitimate grievances is another bullet fired into the heart of the moral consensus that that is at the heart of civilized societies.

What is the face of terror? It is a signed document. It is a concession to sit down and negotiate with terrorists. And when the bombs fall and shrapnel is being rooted out of the bodies of dying men and women in hospital beds, it is a concession that you will continue negotiating and conceding to the terrorists no matter what. Because once you negotiate with terrorists, you destroy the moral consensus that rejects terrorism and you lose your power of outrage, your spine and your will. You stop being a righteous defender and you become a weakly protesting victim.



Thugs have always understood that the weakness of the civilized world is its civilized nature, its willingness to sit down and talk things out. It is how Hitler rooked Chamberlain and Stalin took the West for a ride while gobbling up the East. It is why Muslim terrorists screech hate out of one side of their mouth while directing propaganda aimed at Western audiences out of their other side of their mouth.



"We love death while you love life," the terrorists jeer out of one side of their mouth. "Let us negotiate," comes the plea from the other side. But they are both one mouth and mean the exact same thing. To a criminal, a willingness to "talk things over" is a sign of weakness and an act of surrender. "Let's talk things over" to a criminal means, let's discuss how much you're going to pay me this month and every month. And so negotiating with terrorists becomes nothing more than an extended session of paying out Danegeld in exchange for not being raided. Except the raids come anyway.





There can be peace. But not peace with terrorism. A country that makes peace with terrorism has surrender to terrorism and will have neither peace nor security.From where does peace come? It comes from the same place that peace against all criminals comes, from a solid lock, a high gate, a loaded gun and a strong arm. Peace from terrorism can only come when terrorists know that they will gain nothing from terrorism except death and destruction to themselves, their own homes and their own lands. Not through any other means will civilized nations live in peace from the threat of terrorism, but through the ruthless use of righteous force. There can be no peace with terrorism, only over the bodies of terrorists.