In The Wake Of The Munich Attack, Dealing With Terrorism In A Historical Context Is Crucial

As we wake up to the latest terror attack on the vulnerable civilian population in Munich today, what we find there is a repeat of an event that, if we are not determined to fight, is going to repeat again and again.

In Germany, the attack gets a new dimension all together— a much more ominous dimension.

Say “Munich” and the picture of a hooded man, peeping over the balcony, comes to mind. Many observers of the Munich Olympics tragedy have observed that there was negligence on the part of German government which allowed the unfolding of the tragedy. Today, unclassified documents reveal that Germany could indeed have preempted the attack and saved the world of an obscene tragedy— had it listened to the intelligence it received one month before the attack.

August 1972 saw the German embassy in Beirut receive an intelligence report that the “Palestinian side,” were planning a terror “event” during the Olympic Games. It was passed on to the office of the Federal Domestic Intelligence. While the public opinion in post-war Germany has been decidedly against associating in any form with any anti-Semitism, there has always been a small minority in the powerful sections of German society who have persistently supported visceral anti-Israel measures. It was Dr. Eugen Sänger, then the most eminent of Germany’s rocket scientists, who was helping Nasser to create ballistic missiles. Investigations by Jerusalem Post revealed that Commerzbank of Germany had allowed “a BDS (Boycott Disinvestment & Sanctions against Israel) account for a hardcore anti-Israel magazine and website that seeks the abolition of the Jewish state.”

There were also fringe neo-Nazis like Karl Von Kyna of Germany, who fought in the Suez conflict against Israel and was killed, and Arafat’s Fatah-trained German neo-Nazi group under Karl Heinz Hoffman in the 1980s. In 1986, Hoffman brutally murdered German-Jewish publisher Shlomo Levin and his wife. Of all the neo-Nazi-Palestinian attacks in Europe the one carried out by Odfried Hepp, who was trained by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was the most important. This German neo-Nazi bombed a Jewish restaurant in Paris, in 1982, killing six innocent people. The important feature of this attack was the coordinated, diplomatic efforts taken by the PLO to secure his release. Interestingly, the PLO operates with large, left-liberal support in Europe.

Today, anti-Semitic activities have started becoming popular again. Hate symbols like the Nazi hooked crosses (confused with Hindu-Jain swastikas) have started appearing inside university campuses, showing a correlation with the anti-Israel BDS activity by the academic Left. The sectarian violence of Israeli-Arab minorities (so-called Palestinians) and Israel’s attempt to defend her citizens against terrorism have been used to demonize Israel by the ideological inheritors of the very same forces which spread blood libel against the Jews in pre-Holocaust Christendom.

To root out terrorism of the kind we are witnessing in Munich, we need to understand the theology of hatred and racist discourse which makes the left-liberals shake hands with neo-Nazis, facilitated by Islamism. These terrorists seek no freedom, as a perverted section of Leftists claim. They share a hatred for democracy, along with the radical Left. Their need is the creation of an authoritative, totalitarian state governed by definite unalterable rules. Being cautious, proactive and preemptive in countering Islamist propaganda against liberal societies and democratic values is not racism.

Historically, it is racism of the Hitler kind that has joined hands with Islamism. Germany is a classical example of how this phenomenon happens. If we allow any radical Left euphemism for “hatred”, then we will all reap the harvest of terrorism. It is time we fight not only terrorism but also the ideological and theological wellsprings of terrorism— holistically, in a sustained way. We should recognize it in a historical context and deal with it firmly.

Every freedom-loving citizen has to force his or her government to do it. If we cannot do that, then do not ask for whom the assault weapon fires in a distant mall in an alien country. It fires for you, and me, and our families.