Terrorism has never helped Palestine

The Hill

13-06-2025

When an arsonist set fire to Pennsylvania's governor's mansion in April, he claimed to have done so because of what Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) 'wants to do to the Palestinian people.'
On May 21, two young diplomats assigned to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. were gunned down outside the Jewish Museum. The suspect, a 30-year-old Chicago native, shouted 'free Palestine' as authorities took him into custody. Court documents later quoted him saying he 'did it for Gaza.'
In Boulder, Colo., 10 days later, an Egyptian national who had overstayed his visa used homemade incendiary devices to set demonstrators on fire at an event supporting Israeli hostages. He then began shouting about civilian deaths in Gaza, seemingly unbothered by the absurdity of protesting the killing of civilians by attempting to kill civilians.
These attacks are accompanied by — or perhaps even energized by — a rise in antisemitic rhetoric and activity carried out under the guise of 'pro-Palestinian' demonstrations in the U.S. Last year, protestors at Cornell University and George Washington University chanted, 'there is only one solution, intifada revolution.' The attacks in Boulder and Washington are the physical manifestations of that chant.
These developments follow a long history of political violence in the West inspired by the Arab-Israeli conflict. The perpetrators of such attacks are always duped into believing that their actions will help Palestine — despite a lack of evidence supporting that belief.
During the Cold War, Palestinian fighters armed and encouraged so-called 'urban guerrillas' in West Germany. The June 2nd Movement emerged from Berlin's college scene in the 1960s, and an undergraduate there named Michael 'Bommi' Baumann became its most infamous member.
Encouraged by Palestine's struggle, Baumann and his comrades quickly graduated from looting convenience stores to killing German officials after the Six Day War gave speed to their anti-Zionist fervor in 1967. Other European extremist groups, such as the Baader-Meinhof Gang (also called the Red Army Faction), had numerous ties to Arab terrorist organizations as well.
Between 1969 and 1970, Palestinian guerrillas connected with the Red Army Faction and June 2nd members to provide them with weapons, explosives and propaganda training in Jordan. During the 1970s, Baumann's associates assassinated Gunter von Drenkmann, the president of West Berlin's highest court; kidnapped an industrial tycoon after killing his four bodyguards; and executed one of their own members who had turned informant.
Notorious Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez — better known as Carlos the Jackal — also credited Palestine for his radicalization in the 1960s. One of Carlos's biographers, journalist John Follain, wrote that the Six Day War became the 'revolutionary rallying cry for tens of thousands of left-wing students the world over.'
Inspired by the ideology of Palestinian militant Wadi Haddad, Carlos grew to believe that the destruction of Israel would free Palestine and trigger a global revolution. George Habash was a confidant of Haddad's who founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. An ardent Marxist with connections to student groups in Europe, the Middle East and the U.S., Habash became Carlos's mentor.
French special forces eventually apprehended Carlos during a 1994 raid in Sudan. While serving multiple life sentences in prison, Carlos stated that 'no one has executed more people than me in the Palestinian resistance.' Baumann was also arrested in 1981, several years after his close friend died in a shootout with police and his passion for the cause dwindled.
Extremist factions like Hamas promote terrorism colored with false hopes of liberation in the interest of a charter that renounces peace and mandates perpetual war against the Jewish State. The Arab-Israeli conflict has always been ripe for exploitation and is thus used as a vehicle to recruit for that mission, not to help Palestinians. War is the objective because it globalizes the intifada.
Instead of generating support for Palestine, however, these recent attacks have united Republicans and Democrats in a way few issues can. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) agree that antisemitism 'must be crushed,' and Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), who chairs the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, announced a hearing on the rise of anti-Israel attacks.
Feeding into the decades-old delusion that global terrorism helps Palestine is a fool's errand from which no one benefits — especially not Palestinians. Activists turned terrorists delivered a masterclass in that that lesson during the 20th century. Others need not relearn it in the 21st.
Maj. Michael P. Ferguson, U.S. Army, is a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and coauthor of 'The Military Legacy of Alexander the Great: Lessons for the Information Age.' His views as expressed here do not necessarily reflect official policies or positions of the Army or the Department of Defense.