August 23, 1929, a riot erupts in Hebron, Israel. Arab rioters brutally murder sixty seven Jews, many of which are dismembered at the neck. Many incidents of rape are also reported. Jewish homes are burned to the ground. This is the first known and documented terrorist attack on Israel in this century. Since that day there have been more than 1500 separate attacks against the Israelis. The reason that certain Arabs are acting this way, especially to Israel, is their belief in Jihad also known as the Holy War. According to scholar John Esposito, Jihad requires Muslims to "struggle in the way of God" or "to struggle to improve one's self and/or society (93)." Jihad is directed against Satan’s inducements, aspects of one's own self, or against a visible enemy. So in 1948 when Israel declared its independence and became a democracy, Arabs saw this as a threat to their religion and as a visible enemy, as a result war broke out between Israel defending against many Arab countries and Terrorist groups. Known as the Arab-Israeli war, this war would last less than a year with the Israelis finally fending off the Arabs. Israel has been a major target for terrorist organizations in the Middle East because their virtues are freedom, independent judiciary and woman’s rights.
Freedom is the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints (Webster’s 130). Terrorists do not concur with freedom or anything that it stands for. In the Terrorist state of mind freedom is the enemy. In their culture, people obey their superiors. The reason for this is that the government is a dictatorship; there is no motion towards a democracy. Dictators make outrages sums of money from oil, which is then sent to fund the training of terrorists who in turn die for the very cause, Jihad. But why would Terrorists care what Israel does with its own government? Well, the reason is that by Israel becoming a democracy, an example is set for the citizens...