Homeland Security Portal

Terrorism
American Non-Government Organizations Are Intertwined with PFLP Terror Group
Two American NGOs – Interfaith Peace-Builders and Dream Defenders – support and promote the mission of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terror organization. The PFLP has used bombings, shootings, and plane hijackings to achieve its political goals. Read More »
Hamas’ Warfare Tactics in the “Great Return March”
The tactics used by the Palestinians during the events surrounding the “Great Return March” pose a direct threat to IDF forces and civilians in the vicinity of the border fence between Israel and Gaza. Hamas’ “Great Return March” is an assault on Israel’s border, and its vow to “return” is nothing less than promising to replace Israel and its citizens. Read More »
From “Lone Wolf” to “Known Wolf”: The Role of “Cultural Fuel” and “Personal Triggers”
“Lone wolf” attacks continue to present both practical strategic and theoretical challenges, with the nature of individual actions creating difficulty in constructing a “profile” that is relevant to all situations. However, a more studied look at these attackers will show that many are attackers-in-waiting and really “known wolves” rather than “lone wolves.” Evidence suggests that many “known wolf” attackers are motivated by personal, psychological, or social factors and that engaging in terror serves as a functional cover for these issues rather than solely as an ideologically based drive. Read More »
Lessons from Israel’s Response to Terrorism
A team of Jerusalem Center experts headed by Fiamma Nirenstein – former Vice President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in Italy’s Chamber of Deputies – takes a very timely look at Israel’s model for dealing with terror.
Contributors to this study include Amb. Dore Gold, Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, Amb. Freddy Eytan, Amb. Alan Baker, Dan Diker, Prof. Asa Kasher, Jennifer Roskies, and Dr. Irwin Mansdorf. Read More »
Democracy Facing Terrorism: Human Rights and Military Ethics
This chapter provides a conceptual framework for presentation, explanation, and justification of practices Israel has used over decades for facing terrorism. These practices are related to fighting terrorists and their supporters, usually but not always outside areas of Israeli effective control, and respecting human and civil rights within the confines of Israel and areas under its effective control. Read More »
Incentivizing Terrorism: Palestinian Authority Allocations to Terrorists and their Families
The Palestinian Authority’s legislation and allocations of monthly salaries and benefits rewarding imprisoned and released terrorists, and the families of “Martyrs,” amount to $300 million annually. This financial reward clearly demonstrates the PA’s institutional commitment to sponsoring terror against Israel. Read More »
Why Is France the Preferred Target for Terrorists?
After the murderous attack in Nice, France is sinking deep into depression; the Republic itself and its values sustained a heavy blow on the holiday of freedom. The French people still have not totally internalized the fact that they are in an existential war, and they are having trouble recovering from the recent wave of terror. France is the symbol of freedom, enlightenment, and democratic values, which stand in complete contrast to the dark, barbaric ideology of global terror organizations. Read More »
International Funding for Salaries and Benefits to Terrorists
Funding from foreign governments (including the U.S., the UK, Denmark and other EU countries) transferred to official Palestinian governing bodies has been used for salaries and other benefits to Palestinians serving prison sentences for acts of terror. The channeling of donor funding to compensate terrorists and thereby to encourage further terror raises serious legal and moral questions. Read More »
How Close Are We to Unconventional Terror Attacks by ISIS? The Dirty Bomb Scenario
How serious is threat the threat of an ISIS nuclear or radiological attack, and in the absence of clear leads and intelligence materials, how can we assess this threat? Read More »
Dying for Allah
The sensitivity to criticism of the Islamic fundamentalist attitude on the “death for Allah” value, which has been fully adopted by the Palestinian cultural code, is a further instance of our difficulty in understanding a different culture, which leads us to project our own values onto the other in a mirror-perfect image. The value of “dying for Allah” has been adopted by Radical Islam’s distorted interpretation of Islam’s tenets. Read More »
Hamas’ Terrorism in Egypt
Egypt has officially accused Hamas of training the terror operatives who assassinated Egyptian Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat last year. Hamas now fears that Egypt will declare the movement a terror organization and torpedo Turkey’s efforts to ease the blockade of Gaza. Read More »
Palestinian Authority Funding to Terrorists and their Families
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is responsible for one more nefarious form of incitement to attack Jews – paying large bounties to the attackers and their families. Rather than being deterred by the harsh consequence of their terrorist attack at Israel’s hand, the perpetrators are actually encouraged and incentivized by the Palestinian leadership. Read More »
The Knife and the Message:
The Roots of the New Palestinian Uprising
A carefully calibrated policy of incitement has brought the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a new level, one that generates terror without fingerprints, but which adroitly serves Fatah’s strategy of an endless war of attrition against Israel. Read More »
Interpreting Palestinian “Sign Language”
The attempted terror attack at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate on February 14, 2016 signifies that the effort to turn the “popular intifada” into armed terror does not only stem from Hamas, which opposed the popular struggle approach from the beginning, but also from the Fatah movement in the West Bank. The graphics of Fatah sites devoted to the intifada (or the “habba” or buzz) provide clues to the direction the winds are blowing. Read More »