Islamic terrorism against the United States and the West is not a new phenomenon.
In 1968 Palestinian terrorist Sirhan Sirhan, claiming he was upset at and wanting revenge for the Senator’s support of Israel , assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. In 1973 United States Ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel was murdered in Khartoum by Yasser Arafat’s Black September organization. In 1976 United States Ambassador to Lebanon Francis E. Meloy, Jr was murdered on the authority of the Arab Socialist Action Party. In 1983 in Beirut Al-Jihad Al-Islami, a Hizbollah front group, killed 241 U.S. Marines with a truck bomb driven into the Marine’s compound. In 1988 Pan Am flight 103 was destroyed over Lockerbie , Scotland . While the United States blamed Libya evidence existed that the PFLP-GC (Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command) and Syria itself were involved. In 1993 The World Trade Center was bombed for the first time. In 2000 the U.S.S. Cole was attacked in the Port of Aden, Yemen. On September 11th, 2001 The World Trade Center towers were brought down murdering three thousand Americans.
I do not claim the aforementioned list to be fully exhaustive; there are many more incidents of Islamic terror, merely a descriptive timeline.
It would be remiss of me to not mention the history of Islamic terrorism against the State of Israel. Israel since the very day of it’s birth in 1948 has been subject to unrelenting attacks and attempts to destroy it. I will touch on the notion of a “ Palestinian State ” a bit later.
Given the long history of Islamic terror against the West, the Crusades were primarily defensive wars. They were an effort to defend against and repel Muslim attacks against Christian lands. At the time of Mohammed’s death the Levant was the most heavily Christian area in the world. Spurred to action by the traditional Islamic belief that Christian and Jewish states must be destroyed and their lands conquered Muslim armies quickly overran them. By the eight century all of Christian North Africa and Spain succumbed. The Seljuk Turks conquered Asia Minor, Christian since the time of St. Paul , in the eleventh century. Christianity as a faith and culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense. The Battle of Vienna in 1683 marked the end of the centuries long struggle between Christian Europe and Muslim invaders.
The present day has the United States of America in the role of defender of Western Judeo-Christian civilization and culture. The stated goal of Islam is world domination.
It can be argued that the Cold War was merely a brief respite in the two thousand year battle against Islam. We will prevail.
With regard to a “ Palestinian State .” Let us keep in mind that the term ‘ Palestine ’, which is derived from the Hebrew word ‘Pelesheth’, is mentioned only once in the Bible. It was not used again until later Roman designations. In fact Romans used the term Judea and called the northern regions Galilee . Israel-Judah-Judea has always existed from the beginning of history until this day as a united, independent sovereign nation state in “ Palestine ” west of the Jordan River . There has never been a “ Palestinian State ” of any kind. It can be cogently argued that the “Palestinians already have their state: Jordan. Nearly three million “Palestinians” live in Jordan out of population of only 5.7 million “Jordanians”.
Additional Resources:
Facts and Logic About the Middle East
The History and Meaning Of "Palestine" and "Palestinians"
Zionist Organization of America
W. N. Kilarjian is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of the United Kingdom . He regularly writes for MichNews.com, WEBCommentary.com, The Berlin Reporter ( Berlin , NH), PardonMyEnglish.com, OpinionEditorials.com , Israel Pundit, and The Templar Intelligencer.
