27 Luglio 2011

Terrorist Incidents against Jewish Communities and Israeli Citizens Abroad 1968 – 2010

Fonte:

www.thecst.org.uk

Summary

 

During the 43 years since 1968, the

 

year when Palestinian terror groups

 

began to attack Jewish and Israeli

 

targets outside the Middle East, some

 

427 recorded attacks and foiled or

 

aborted plots are known to have

 

taken place.

 

These 427 actual and foiled terrorist

 

attacks have included plots by

 

Palestinian nationalists, neo-Nazis,

 

radical leftists and, most recently,

 

both Shiite and Sunni Islamists.

 

The early 1980s saw the highest

 

number of attacks, which coincided

 

with the largest number of terrorist

 

attacks against all other targets, in

 

Europe and Latin America. This was

 

the era of revolutionary Marxist-

 

Leninist terror groups that evolved out

 

of the post-1968 New Left movement,

 

which received help from Soviet Bloc

 

states and which forged ideological

 

and tactical alliances with Palestinian

 

terror groups.

 

The collapse of the Soviet Bloc and

 

the signing of the Oslo Accords led

 

to a dramatic reduction in terrorism

 

against Jewish and Israeli targets

 

outside Israel in the second half of

 

the 1990s. However, the first decade

 

of the twenty-first century saw the

 

growth of global jihadi and neo-Nazi

 

terrorism, replacing old sources

 

of terrorism with new ones.

 

There were actual and foiled terrorist

 

attacks on Jews and Israelis abroad

 

in a total of 57 countries outside

 

Israel. The countries with the

 

highest number of attacks were

 

France (51 attacks); the United

 

States (34 attacks); Italy (33 attacks),

 

Argentina and Germany (29 attacks

 

in each).

 

Since 2000, the countries with the

 

highest number of attacks, both

 

successful and foiled, have been the

 

United States (eight attacks), Morocco

 

(five attacks), the United Kingdom (five

 

attacks) and Germany (four attacks).

 

Jewish communities were the target of

 

250 attacks or foiled attacks, whereas

 

Israel-linked institutions and individuals

 

were the target in 189 cases. Of the

 

250 attacks on Jewish communities,

 

Jewish community buildings,

 

organisations and events were the most

 

frequently attacked (96 incidents).

 

Synagogues were the targets of 88

 

actual and attempted terrorist attacks,

 

while Jewish schools were targets on

 

16 occasions.

 

The organisations responsible for

 

the largest numbers of attacks, both

 

successful and foiled, during the period

 

covered by the report are the Palestine

 

Liberation Organisation (PLO) and its

 

various affiliates, with 35 attacks;

 

the Popular Front for the Liberation

 

of Palestine (PFLP), with 31 attacks;

 

Abu Nidal’s Fatah Revolutionary Council

 

(FRC, 24 attacks); Al-Qaeda and its

 

affiliates (19 attacks); and Hizbollah

 

(14 attacks).

 

A total of 208 incidents involved

 

bombings and employed improvised

 

explosive devices of all kinds;

 

76 incidents involved shootings;

 

while 27 incidents involved letter or

 

parcel bombs. These are the normal

 

modus operandi of sub-state actors.

 

Twelve attacks involved vehicle-borne

 

bombs and seven plots involved

 

suicide bombers. In 80 cases, attacks

 

were interdicted by the authorities,

 

aborted or otherwise foiled during

 

the planning stages.

 

The early years of the period covered

 

in this report were characterised by

 

shootings and the use of improvised

 

explosive devices delivered to

 

buildings as letter or parcel bombs;

 

the intermediate years by car bombs;

 

and the latter years by suicide

 

bombings. This reflects the change

 

from far-left and far-right terrorism,

 

through secular Palestinian terrorism,

 

to global jihad movement terrorism.

 

A new terrorist method, which emerged

 

with the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was

 

that of multiple-site armed attacks by

 

small groups, known as ‘swarming’.

 

Information subsequently made public

 

suggests that the global jihad

 

movement is increasingly inclined to

 

adopt this strategy, which relies on

 

self-radicalised small groups who may

 

not have undergone extensive training

 

by Al-Qaeda and its affiliates.

 

Far-right, ‘lone wolf’ activists are

 

increasingly resorting to terrorism in

 

Europe and the USA under the influence

 

of the leaderless resistance model.