Posts Tagged ‘Terrorism’
THE SUITCASE
Retrieving the newspaper from my front steps last week—I’m a dinosaur—I saw a white suitcase on the sidewalk. My first reaction? As a native New Yorker and a Jew with family in Israel (I was last there in March/April), I’ll attest that the risk of confronting a bomb is real. But who would target my…
Read MoreTERRORISM 101
Everyone talks about stopping terrorism. But to do that, we must understand what terrorism is. That will help us make rational, as opposed to emotional, decisions about what might work and what won’t. To begin, terrorism is not a lone wolf or a pair of gunmen with a grudge who shoot up a school or…
Read MoreSAN BERNARDINO
In a way, San Bernardino in Southern California’s Inland Empire has become America’s Paris and also its Jerusalem. Why Paris? The City of Light symbolizes Western enlightenment and respect for human rights—values Islamists deplore. Why Jerusalem? The capital of Israel—even if the United States maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv—represents another symbol deplored by Islamists.…
Read MoreEXODUS AND CHARLIE HEBDO
Recently, I saw a Hollywood guild screening of Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings. Last Wednesday, two gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris magazine Charlie Hebdo. (As I write, French security forces have just killed the terrorists.) The film and the murders tell overlapping yet different stories. If you’re thinking, “Wait. I’ve got to…
Read More“TOY STORY REDUX” — A PREVENTABLE FABLE
Less than twenty-four hours after coordinated attacks left more than 750 Holiday shoppers dead and twice as many wounded, the White House conceded the likelihood of a terrorist operation. President Obama also urged shopping malls throughout the nation to reopen tomorrow. “We can not, indeed we must not, allow terrorists to derail our Holiday shopping…
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