Whose Terrorism?

A Pew poll has recently been released with the finding that Iran is viewed in a favourable light by 76% of the people of Pakistan.  This would be the very Pakistan that the United States has long considered a stalwart in the fight against terrorism.  Pakistan itself, of course, claims it is integrally involved in battling terrorism.  Of course there's the affecting reality that Wahhabi-funded Pakistani madrasses teach impressionable young Muslims the nobility of jihad.

And then there's the reality that Pakistan's military and its intelligence services (ISI) associate with jihadis, help in the funding and training of terror training camps.  Not much of a secret either that official Pakistan has institutionalized any number of attacks of a terrorist variety against India whom it considers its mortal enemy.  Both countries are nuclear-armed, so this is rather a concern.  India is on the receiving end of terrorist attacks from Pakistan, and doesn't reciprocate, however.

Pakistan, that redoubtable ally in the war on terrorism, also helpfully offers sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban, while at the same time battling its own home-grown Pakistani Taliban.  Pakistan, through its military and intelligence arms, gave friendly haven to al-Qaeda, and more specifically to Osama bin Laden for years, and was hugely outraged when U.S. Navy SEALs had the unforgivable effrontery to invade Pakistan airspace to assassinate bin Laden.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is another unabashed, in fact, an even more egregious supporter and fomenter of international terrorism.  So it is hardly surprising that Pakistanis in general have great admiration and trust in the superior motivations and methodology of Iran, given the preoccupation with terrorism in their own country.  Tunisians too, recently undergoing a transition in government to an Islamist one after their Arab Spring, admire Iran.

Tunisia, it is well to recall, was once regarded as among the most moderate of Arab nations.  And as such 39% of Tunisians have a favourable view of Iran.  That number drops significantly - but not too significantly, considering that Egypt is mostly Sunni - as 19% of Egyptians admire al-Qaeda, the world's premier terror group originating from Sunni Wahhabist Saudi Arabia.

And then there is Israel.  Alone in the Middle East, a Jewish state, a democracy, with a multitude of others, including Muslim Arabs living within Israel as citizens.  Israel does not think highly of terrorist activities and does not admire nor trust any of her Arab neighbours, let alone non-Arab Muslim Iran which has stated continuously its intention to obliterate Israel from the neighbourhood.

If any country knows all about terrorism, Israel does.  It represents the single most terrorist-activity-prone site in the world, having been victimized time and again by those who wish it ill, and 'those' are legion, and mostly, as it happens, Muslim, though not always Arab.  There was an establishment as a U.S. initiative to battle terror, the Global Counterterrorism Forum, created by the Obama administration.

Its purpose was to "provide a unique platform for senior counterterrorism policy-makers and experts from around the world to work together to identify urgent needs, devise solutions and mobilize resources for addressing key counterterrorism challenges".  Truly a worthwhile and audaciously noble enterprise.  Twenty-nine countries were invited to take part in this initiative.

Israel was not one of them.  Israel's secret service, Mossad, is arguably the most intuitive, expert agency reliant on human intelligence resources to help the country search out and apprehend terrorist plots before they occur, and then to deal with them in the interests of safety and security of the country's longevity.  It has been the target of more terror attacks than any other country, and in the process has amassed a great store of knowledge and expertise.

It makes as much sense and intelligence to exclude Israel from this international group of intelligence agencies within a think-tank enterprise tasked to enhance expertise and share knowledge to forestall the increasing number of terrorist attacks on international targets, as it made for the United States to consider Pakistan an ally in the fight against terror.