How Terrorists Defeat Themselves

Over the past two weeks, the worldwide community has had to witness horrifying atrocities. In Paris, ISIS terrorists murdered 130 civilians, and in Israel, Palestinian terrorists have murdered dozens of innocent people, including Ezra Schwartz, a Modern Orthodox student spending the year in Israel. Although both crimes were committed by members of different factions, and were much different in terms of execution and scale, they are noticeably similar in terms of ideological causation. Both of these terrorist attacks, as well as any other wanton violence perpetrated by terrorists, may seem political in nature, but upon further examination, have little to do with politics. Furthermore, while these attacks may provide their perpetrators with exposure, they don’t really provide their perpetrators with any real gain.

The attacks in Paris were totally shocking and seem to have changed the atmosphere in Europe just as the 9/11 attacks changed America. As per its probable intention, ISIS has become a major talking point in media and politics, and many citizens are afraid of a similar attack happening in their country. On a technical level, however, what ISIS gains from butchering innocent civilians seems unclear. ISIS doesn’t gain any land, power, or resources from the killings in Paris. The little quantifiable gain ISIS receives from their crimes in the form of exposure doesn’t really help them in a tactical sense. In fact, now that ISIS has kindled the wrath of France, a powerful Western country, it might soon have to face off against a host of French ground forces. This will further compound any difficulties ISIS may have already had in the region. In addition, every Western country, including the US and Britain, now knows that ISIS is willing and unafraid to attack them. This knowledge makes these countries much more likely to engage with ISIS directly to prevent an attack. So, by deciding to commit atrocities in Paris, ISIS has surely made itself a target for France, and probably other Western countries as well. One has to wonder why ISIS would bother to even commit these crimes, because in the long term, it could not be less in their best interest. The answer is simple: ISIS is made up of some of the most vile, horrible people in the world, who would rather kill innocents for the sake of killing them than actually achieve their long-term aims. ISIS is not a political organization, because political organizations have ideologies, agendas, and goals. ISIS has none of these, because it sabotages itself with its homicidal tendencies. ISIS members may have no regard for human morality, but they also have zero regard for their own future. If ISIS had avoided any ground confrontation with Western countries, it might have had some chance at domineering the parts of Iraq it’s succeeded in conquering. Now that ISIS has France to deal with, its plans are infinitely more difficult to enact. Frankly speaking, ISIS is literally too hateful for its own good.

The Palestinian terrorists who took it upon themselves to murder American 18-year-old Ezra Schwartz, as well as many other civilians, may not be affiliated with ISIS, but in a motivational sense, they are similar to those who carried out the attacks in Paris. These terrorists, like most other Palestinian terrorists, chose to murder random Israeli civilians. The latest victims of Palestinian terror were not soldiers, politicians, or even affiliated with any of Israel’s policies. If the Palestinian terrorists who committed these recent murders have a grievance with Israel’s policy, their grievance was not addressed by murdering innocent civilians, and whatever they were upset about will surely continue. Ezra Schwartz wasn’t even an Israeli! In other words, the terrorists who killed him weren’t actually killing him because they dislike the Israeli government, because if they did, they would’ve made sure their killings actually had something to do with it. These killings had absolutely nothing to do with Israel’s government, the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the treatment of Palestinians, or any other topic that American media attempts to use to slander Israel. These killings simply happened because some Palestinians hate Israelis on a psychological level, and wanted to kill anyone even remotely associated with Israel. These killings could not have less to do with Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, because if these terrorists actually wanted to improve their own situation, they would’ve tried doing something constructive, instead of literally killing at random. Murder is all that these terrorists want, despite their claims otherwise.

Both ISIS and Palestinian terrorists represent one of the defining struggles of Western society in the 21st century, because we are forced to combat individuals whose only real objectives are murder, destruction, and other acts of evil. Like other evil people throughout history, their only real goal is committing atrocities for the sake of committing them. But terrorists are their own worst enemy. ISIS terrorists will never achieve the domination they want, because they would rather kill at random then actually bring themselves closer to that goal. Even though they have a stated goal of destroying the West, their murderous tendencies keep them from achieving that end. Their desire to commit terrible crimes is their biggest saboteur; they knew that attacking France would make France their permanent enemy, and they did so anyway. Palestinian terror will never unseat the State of Israel, because the State of Israel isn’t afraid of murderers who would rather kill American teenagers and other civilians than actually achieve anything real in a political sense. Instead of even attempting to better their situation, Palestinian terrorists just kill any Israeli or Jew they see, even though doing so accomplishes nothing for their cause. Terrorists like these will never be victorious, because their own actions are the biggest thing keeping their cause from being successful. On an ideological level, terrorists value violence more than actually achieving their aims, and that is why they will always fail.