TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND LATIN AMERICA

TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND LATIN AMERICA
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Israel has been utilizing the targeted assassination technique for a considerable time and claims it to be an effective method of counter-terrorism. In fact, Daniel Byman, Israeli counter-terror expert is noted to have said that this method worked following alleged successful targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists after 2000 reducing Israeli deaths from 172 to below 40 between 2002 and 2005 respectively.It is, however, essential realizing that these claims were misleading as evidenced from facts from experiences of other nations that have employed similar tactics whose results reveal ineffectiveness such as the United States fights in Iraq, Pakistan, and Somali.
The United States after deciding to chop prominent terrorist leaders’ or snakes’ heads soon realized that resistance was like hydra and not a snake making it virtually impossible to eliminate the group successfully. Eliminating one leader resulted in another, more vibrant and younger and determined to assume the vacant role and Byman agreed similar problem faced Israel. Similar experiences happened in Somali against the al Shabaab where after the assassination of Aden Hashi Farah Ayro, the successor was worse with connection with al Qaeda terrorist group and the scenario became increasingly worse with every subsequent leader. Other concerns of effectiveness surround the number of casualties with every assassination strike in which the U.

S. despite claims of minimizing collateral and improving efficiency still recorded high numbers of casualties. In fact, between 474 and 881 civillians died between 2004 and 2014 in targeted assassination attacks which, although lower than the number of terrorists eliminated within the same period, is considerably high and concerning.
In conclusion, Israeli’s target assassination method of counterterrorism is ineffective whereby desired results are difficult if not impossible to attain. More specifically, the actions result in the rise of more determined, dangerous, energetic, and younger successors making the war more difficult to attain desired goals. Furthermore, more scenarios result in collateral which is more damaging over time than identifying and utilizing other more efficient techniques to combat terrorists.
Bibliography
Bachmann, Sascha. “Targeted Killings: Contemporary Challenges, Risks and
Opportunities.” Journal of Conflict and Security Law 18(2),(2013): 259–288. Accessed October 23, 2018, from  https://doi.org/10.1093/jcsl/krt007Waal, Alex. “Assassinating Terrorists Does not Work.” Boston Review. (2015).
Accessed October 23, 2018, from http://bostonreview.net/blog/alex-de-waal-assassinating-terrorists-does-not-work