Dealing with Terrorism

This book explores the challenges that this new kind of terrorism poses to policymakers, and investigates their various responses. It argues that there is no way to attain a decisive victory over terrorism, and that instead we must set our sights on long-term coping–by minimizing terrorism’s potential for harm, rather than by futilely trying to eliminate it. Armed and economic actions against terrorist organizations are important, but no longer sufficient against the recently emergent decentralized structures. Even a single terrorist who succeeds in infiltrating an urban center can cause havoc. Alongside counterterrorism operations, democracies must strive to develop effective defenses that will enable them to protect their citizens without jeopardizing civil liberties.

The current study uses Jerusalem, a city that suffered over thirty suicide attacks during the last decade, as a case study, in order: (1) to define the role of the locality in defensive coping with terrorism; (2) to analyze and assess the effectiveness of defensive measures; and (3) to locate the main factors that help or hinder the ability to adequately use defensive measures against terrorism. Using this analysis, which is based on three years of research focused on primary sources, including interviews with policymakers and unpublished policy documents, we propose an effective model for municipal defensive coping with terrorism.

The above analysis is divided into three phases: prevention, crisis management, and reconstruction and reaction. In each, it describes and defines the role of the local authority, analyzes and assesses the effectiveness of the defensive measures employed, and identifies the factors that promote or impede the effective utilization of these measures. Finally, while the book’s main focus is on coping with terrorism in Jerusalem in the last decade, it also provides an extensive description of terrorism in Jerusalem since the establishment of the state of Israel.