Question

If terrorism is related to Islam, why doesn't Israel suffer from terrorist attacks?

Answer 1

Terrorism is the use of violence to promote an ideology. A person's perspective is what deems a violent act as being terrorism or a righteous attack.

Explanation:

Before we can talk about who terrorists attack, let's first talk about the word "terrorism" - which is simply the use of violence in pursuit of a political, religious or ideological aim.

The question then becomes - how much violence is needed to be labeled terrorism? Or what kind? Is "righteous violence" ok but "morally reprehensible violence" terrorism? And that becomes a question of perspective. Does a terrorist think of himself or herself as a terrorist, or is that person's actions viewed as a righteous response to terrorism?

Which brings us to the question being posed - If terrorism has any relation to Islam, why doesn't Israel suffer from any terrorist attacks?

Let's break the question down piece by piece:

Is there a relationship between terrorism and Islam? To some people there is, just as other people believe there is a relationship between terrorism and Christianity, and still others believe there is a relationship between other forms of religion and terrorism - it's all perspective.

Do terrorist attacks happen in Israel? Yes, absolutely they do. Between bombings (here's a link about one that happened in March 2016 - so just 3 months ago - http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/08/separate-attacks-reported-in-israel-2-security-officers-injured.html - to missile attacks (a list for 2015 is here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2015) and other attacks, I think it's pretty clear Israel suffers from a lot of violence from groups promoting an ideology and so in some peoples' minds could constitute terrorist attacks.

However, do other groups suffer terrorism from the Israeli government? The forced relocations of Palestinians and the building of illegal settlements in Palestinian land, the brutal treatment of Palestinians by Israeli security forces, etc could all also be considered terrorist attacks.

So I think we can label a lot of the violence in the Middle East, whether done to or done by the Israelis, as terrorism.

So how do we not hear about it? Perhaps the question is, with the internet and searching available, how do we not know about it? It used to be people would turn to newspapers and TV nightly news to hear and see all the news "fit to print" - as the New York Times used to boast. The days of getting good comprehensive news from those media are probably gone. So how else can we hear about it? By asking questions and taking the time to find answers.