Debate on Israeli Sniper Shooting and the Definition of Terrorism

What about Israeli terrorism now? The language of terrorism you have to be very careful with.

Terrorism means deliberately targeting civilians in a kind of warfare.

That's what the terrorism against Israeli schools, coffee shops, malls has been all about.

Israel specifically targets, to the best of its ability, uh, Palestinian terrorist organizations.

All right. When, when, when an Israeli sniper shoots an old lady with a cane trying to get into a hospital for her chemotherapy tre- treatment in front of, uh, a lot of the world's press for one, and frankly we'd be here all day with other examples,

isn't that terrorism? I don't know the case you're speaking about, but I can be convinced of one thing.

Mm-hmm. An Israeli who takes aim, even an Israeli sniper, is taking aim at those engaged in terrorism. Unfortunately, in every kind of warfare, there are cases of civilians who are accidentally killed.

Terrorism means putting the crosshairs of the sniper's rifle on a civilian deliberately.

Well, that's, that's what I just described.

That is what... No, I can tell you that did not happen.

It did happen, and, and I think that's where some people have problem with the argument that terrorism exists on, on one side. Your definition is absolutely correct about civilians, and those suicide bombers are terrorists.

If you mix terrorism and counterterrorism, if you create some kind of moral obfuscation, you will bring about not just a problem for Israel, but you will bring a- bring about a problem for the entire Western alliance because we are all facing this threat.