Droning On

Israel has been engaged for all of its life as a Jewish state, in an existential effort to remain in the Middle East, where Judaism and the Jewish people had originated, to reconsolidate its legitimacy in the region, to establish itself firmly as a country dedicated to the preservation of Jewish lives and culture. A country whose people have sought and not found safety anywhere else in the world, and which even yet, having been established 60 years ago as a modern nation, must continue fighting for its existence.

Israel's security establishment has had to formulate itself as an exemplar in gathering vital data meant to facilitate its longevity. It has had to perfect techniques of survival that no other country has been faced with, against limitless odds. There is no other country in the world whose people were targeted for full obliteration, which took in the remnants, assuring them that they would find full protection within a land of their own, which has had to defend itself throughout the length of its existence.

Its very survival rests on the flexibility, cunning and enterprise of gifted, determined and courageous people capable of surmounting critical difficulties in infiltrating behind enemy lines, in persuading others to rally to their cause as faithful agents, and to use the intelligence gained to further its survival potential. Targeted killings, assassinations, was one of those tools used by Israel.

The country was both admired for its boldness and success in removing many of its direst enemies, and reviled for its insistence that desperate times called for desperate actions that would justify whatever steps it was felt necessary to take to advance the potential of defeating enemies whose sole mission was to destroy the Jewish state.

And one must only suppose that Israel's success in dispatching its signal enemies to keep sending its message of intent to survive, entered the consciousness of other countries, finding themselves now faced with somewhat similar threats to their existence. Which has seen the perfection of killing drones used now by the United States, and soon to be utilized also by Great Britain.

When it is abundantly clear that even those born American citizens who have been persuaded by their vision of Islam and the radical messages emanating from hardened Islamists championing outright violent jihad and mass slaughter, have no hesitation in themselves attacking their country of birth, the solution of stealth attack and killing seems to work as a responding expedient.

From Anwar Al-Awlaki, the radical U.S.-born cleric whose Islamist rantings motivated the Fort Hood shootings, to the al-Qaeda-dedicated editor of online Inspire, Samir Khan, and Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, those who aspire to create mass murder and mayhem in America can anticipate, American citizenship or not, to be summarily dismissed from life.

Where Israel used attack helicopters and sharpshooters, and undercover agents tracking the movements of their targets to extinguish them from the lexicon of Anti-Semitic Murder Incorporated, the United States uses drones and on the rare occasion, Navy SEALS in impeccably timed and orchestrated raids to rid the world of the likes of Osama bin Laden.

This, then, is the wave of the future. Whether or how successful it may be in restraining those whose agenda it is to wreak further horror and atrocities on those they call infidels is yet to be seen. On the evidence, thus far, it seems as though the ranks of dedicated jihadists are not becoming noticeably thinner, but time will most certainly tell.