Analysis of the Jewish Defense League and al-Qaeda

Domestic terrorist group: Jewish Defense League

Jewish Defense League, JDL, is a militant group that holds far-right political and religious ideologies. It is based in the United States and made up of Jews. The main agenda of JDL is protecting the Jews living in the United States of America from anti-Semitism by all ways possible. JDL was listed as a far-right hand extremist group by the FBI despite the fact that it claims not to be associated with any terrorism activities as well as other felonious acts. Moreover, JDL was regarded as a very radical group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The FBI has clearly been associating JDL with the planning and execution of terrorist attacks within the United States of America. However, this extremist organization always disputes such assertions in an attempt to portray itself as a clean and legitimate group. 

JDL group origin

The JDL group was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the year 1968 (Dolgin, 2015). The place of operation on its foundation was New York City. Its self-claimed purpose of formation was to protect the Jews people living in America from the local manifestations of anti-Semitism (Dolgin, 2015). Kahane created this group while serving as an associate editor for the Jewish Press. The reason for his decision to start this JDL group was the then increased cases of violence meted on the Jews in the United States of America (Dolgin, 2015). When he served as the associate editor in a Jewish Press, the office where he worked always got numerous letters and calls regarding the incidences of crimes committed against the Jews and the Jewish institutions. At its start, there was huge violence in the city of New York with the Jews comprising the largest percentage of victims. Some of the atrocities committed against the Jews included the elderly adults being harassed and mugged. The Jewish store-owners were held up as captives as their property was taken away forcefully (Dolgin, 2015). The Jewish teachers also got the same harsh mistreatment with most of them being assaulted and killed. The Jewish cemeteries were desecrated while their synagogues were defaced.

Kahane sought support for this group and started it with the sole purpose of protecting the Jews. He even made a manifesto to guide the activities of this group. JDL was formerly known as the Jewish Defense Corps. It was later renamed because Kahane felt such a name would make it appear a radical and militant organization. Its slogan was Never Again! JDL won huge support after its start because of its criticism about the Soviet Union (Dolgin, 2015). The group got huge support with a membership size of 15,000 at one poin (Dolgin, 2015)t. It plotted and executed bombs on the Arab and Soviet properties within the United States of America. This group also rose in fame fort conducting assassinations of people who were perceived as enemies of the Jews. These targeted enemies included the Arab-American political activists (Dolgin, 2015). Since its start, this group has undergone development and now still exists as an advanced domestic terrorist organization with operations within the United States of America.

The ideologies of JDL

JDL is an extremist group that does holds far-right political as well as religious ideologies. The specific ideology advanced by JDL is called right-wing conservatism. JDL believes in right-wing conservatism, an ideology that is based on a philosophy opposed to any changes in the existing economic, religious, social and political values and beliefs. The ideology of right-conservatism aims at protecting the traditional values as well as beliefs, which are mainly political and religious in nature, from threats of others in the community. The right-wing conservatives usually assume that their values and cultures are superior to those of others. They usually struggle to ensure they are glorified by others. The JDL members profess these beliefs and support a rigid belief in ethno-nationalism and religious supremacy. 

Since it holds the right-wing conservative ideology, JDL views violence as a justified means of protecting the unity and purity of the Jewish race. JDL is on record for having killed many people since its inception. It has used violence as a means of ensuring those who are against the Jews are persecuted in revenge. It believes in right-wing conservative extremism. There are many JDL members who have been associated with violent and deadly acts of terrorism. This is an extremist group, which believes that terrorism is the only way of solving issues affecting the Jews living in America. It has to be noted that although the JDL website always denies any association with acts of terrorism, the reality on the ground shows this is an organization of terror-inclined people. Judaism is also another important ideology that is held by JDL. They believe that Judaism is the supreme ideology over all the others that are in existence. 

Motivation

There are about 5 basic principles that are upheld by JDL and form its motivation to protect the Jews. The first principle is love of the Jewry. This principle encourages love for the Jews. It motivates empathy among the JDL members with other Jews. It is a principle that encourages and motivates unity among the Jewish people. The JDL group has feels pain for all the Jews when they are mistreated and attacked by other people. It is this great love that also motivates the urge to fight back and even kill in order to revenge for the atrocities that are committed against the Jewish people.

The other important principle that motivates the actions of the JDL group is dignity and pride. The JDL has pride in the traditions and culture of the Jews. It views the Jewish culture as one full of dignity. All JDL members are supposed to take pride in the history, strength, weakness, pain, happiness and doctrines of the Jews. This pride creates the motivation to fight hard and violently in order to safeguard the dignity of the Jewish people.

There is also the principle of safeguarding the reputation of all Jews through sacrifice. This principle normally motivates the JDL group to apply all means possible, no matter how ruthless they are, to ensure the image of the Jews is restored and respected. Some of the means used include violence, force and might. 

High sense of discipline and responsibility is yet another key principle that motivates JDL to stand on guard on behalf of all the other Jews living in the United States of America. Members of JDL are expected to use the available willpower to do whatever possible so as to safeguard the plight of the Jewish people.

Finally, there is the belief in the greatness and indestructibility of the Jewish people, religion and the land of Israel. JDL members are always motivated by the need to have interdependence only among the Jewish people. JDL proclaims that in the end, a Jew person can only look up to another Jewish individual for any true solution of their problems in life.

Goals of JDL 

As mentioned earlier, the main goal of JDL is simply the protection of the plight of all the Jews. This extremist group carries out activities aimed at ensuring all the Jews living in the United States of America are protected from anti-Semitism. The other major goal of this group is the protection of the land of Israel. JDL looks forward to a day where all the Jews across the world will return to Israel, their motherland. The target of this group is to ensure all people respect the Jewish race in America. Its other goal is to ensure all people who mistreat the Jews living in the United States of America get bitter and harsh revenge. 

Tactics 

It is vital to note that the Jewish Defense League usually targets the Arabs, particularly the Palestinians. Its main tactic, which it uses to achieve objectives, is violence and terrorist attacks. For instance, the JDL bombed the Arab properties in the United States as a way of revenging for the killing of the Jews by the Palestinians (Friedman & Kahane, 2015). Although this group keeps on denying any association with terrorism, major U.S. law enforcement agencies have been able to strongly link it to many terrorist attacks. JDL also applies the strategy of holding rallies at churches. This strategy was adopted by JDL as a way of disguising its bad plans of attacking the Arabs.

Assassination is yet another terrorist tactic that is used by the members of JDL. Many people have been kidnapped and assassinated by the members of JDL from the time it was founded (Friedman & Kahane, 2015). The people targeted in these assassinations are influential and popular political and religious leaders who are Arabians. 

Another tactic that is employed by this terrorist group is suicide bombers. These suicide bombers are individuals who are contracted to commit a terrorist attack in which they also die. Therefore, the people who are paid the money for this service are the family members of the suicide bombers (Friedman & Kahane, 2015). The use of suicide bombers has now become very common among the terrorist groups. It is very difficult to correctly identify a suicide bomber hence this fact always gives them an upper hand in executing their duties. JDL has been able to make many attacks in different places within the United States of America using the services of the suicide bombers (Friedman & Kahane, 2015). These are some of the tactics that are used by JDL to execute its responsibility of protecting the Jews against anti-Semitism. 

The al-Qaeda group

The al-Qaeda is a terrorist group that was founded in the year 1988 (Gray, 2015). It is vital to mention that the al-Qaeda is a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national terror organization. The al-Qaeda runs a terrorist network that is comprised of Islamic extremists and Salafist jihadists. It is the United Nations Security Council that listed it as one of the top terror groups in the world. The al-Qaeda has executed numerous terrorist attacks in different countries across the world. It is an international terrorist group because of its rich global network of terrorism. Some of the countries where al-Qaeda has attacked major cities include Kenya, the United States of America and Ivory Coast (Gray, 2015). These attacks normally target civilians as well as military camps. Its leader, Osama-bin-Laden was killed by the Obama administration. 

The group’s origin 

As mentioned earlier, the al-Qaeda was founded in the year 1988 by Osama-bin-Laden. The origin of the al-Qaeda as a terrorist group orchestrating terrorism across the world is attributed to the Soviet war in Afghanistan during the 1980s. The case of Soviet expansionism and aggression is said to have instigated the emergence of the al-Qaeda. It was from the Soviet military mission that some mujahideen expressed interest in expanding the war to other areas in order to assist the Islamist fighters who were struggling like in Palestine (Gray, 2015). Therefore, a number of branch organizations were then formed to address this issue. One of these branch organizations was al-Qaeda, which would help in ensuring that the aspirations of helping other Islamist fighters in different areas of the world to triumph. Several leaders met in 1988 under the leadership of the wealthy Osama-bin-Laden and formed al-Qaeda (Gray, 2015). Therefore, this group continued with its activities in other areas, even after the Soviet had withdrawn from Afghanistan. Later on, there was a build-up of enmity between this group and many other nations of the world because of its terrorist actions. It gradually developed and grew in terms of members into a very large terrorist group with operations all over the world. 

Group ideologies 

The al-Qaeda operates based on a number of ideologies and principles. The al-Qaeda believes in the conviction that there is a Christian-Jewish alliance, whose main plan is to destroy the Islam religion. For instance, the Salafist jihadists usually believe in the ideology that the killing of non-combatants is an action, which religious-motivated (Tobin & Sassler, 2013). Moreover, the Salafist jihadists usually overlook any concept of religious scripture that appears to forbid the killing of non-combatants as well as internecine fighting. The al-Qaeda also opposes the man-made laws used in countries, instead choosing to follow the stern Sharia law. According to the al-Qaeda group, people who are not followers of the Islam religion and adherents of the Sharia law are regarded as Kefir (Tobin & Sassler, 2013). This group believes that such people have to be attacked and murdered. Accordingly, the al-Qaeda has been able to carry out many attacks on the people it considers as kefir . Most of the terrorist attack targets by the al-Qaeda are Christians. 

Moreover, the al-Qaeda believes in the ideology of sectarian violence among the Muslims. It is vital to mention the fact that the al-Qaeda leaders usually view liberal Muslims, Shias and the Sufis as heretics (Tobin & Sassler, 2013). The terrorist group has the past been attacking the mosques and gatherings of these Muslim religions. One such sectarian attack is the Yazidi community bombings by the al-Qaeda militants (Tobin & Sassler, 2013). 

It must be noted that al-Qaeda is a radical Islamist movement in overall. It started to develop in the course of the Islamic revival as well as the rise of the Islamist movement of the 20th century. At its start, the al-Qaeda had few extremist ideologies (Tobin & Sassler, 2013). However, the group started adopting highly extremist ideologies such as killing as a legitimate practice needed for true Islam followers. 

Goals of the group

The main goal of the al-Qaeda is simply to protect the Islam religion from the perceived threat of destruction by an alliance between the Jews and Christians. This group also aims at expanding the territory occupied and controlled by followers of the Islam religion. It also aims at ensuring the Sharia law is implemented by all nations where Islam followers live (Zelin, 2014). It believes that through the use of violence and acts of terrorism, it can attain its goals. Overall, the basic goal of al-Qaeda is to have all Muslim countries break from the international influences and association with non-Muslim nations to create a new caliphate regime of the Muslim world. Therefore, this terrorist group envisions a Muslim world that is independent and isolated from the rest of the countries. 

Motivation

The motivation of the al-Qaeda group is doing that which is in accordance with the teachings of the Islam religion. The achievement of participating in jihad successfully is the main motivation of the members of this terrorist group. There is also much motivation in the number of Christians and Jews that are killed by members of this terrorist group, which serve as a symbol of acceptance before god. Moreover, the unity of the all Muslims against Christians and the practice of the Islam ideologies are the source of great motivation to this terrorist group. 

Tactics employed by this group 

The al-Qaeda simply bases its solutions on war with the enemy. This terrorist group believes violence and deadly attacks are the only means of achieving the goals it pursues. This terrorist group has also been pursuing a number of strategies such as devolving its operations from the actions controlled in a top-down manner, to those carried out by the franchise groups as well as lone-wolf operators (Zelin, 2014). 

Other tactics used by the al-Qaeda to execute terrorist actions include the suicide attacks. Moreover, this group employs the strategy of bombing different places and targets simultaneously. In the strategies of this terrorist group published from its secretariat, the tactic of provoking the enemy is employed in its operations. The al-Qaeda normally provokes the West and the United States of America into attacking a Muslim nation through staging massive attacks on their soils to kill many civilians (Zelin, 2014). The other strategy that is used is incitement of the local resistance to occupy forces. The al-Qaeda then expands the resultant conflict into the neighboring nations with the aim of engaging the West in a long war of attrition. The main aim of this group through its strategies is to ensure that the economy of the United States as well as all the Western countries collapse by the year 2020 (Zelin, 2014).

The al-Qaeda is a well-resourced terrorist group with rich international networks. Its founder, Osama-bin-Laden, was a very wealthy man who financed this organization strongly. Therefore, using its financial muscle, this terrorist organization also employs highly advanced technology of war to execute its attacks (Zelin, 2014). Very effective and advanced arsenals and war-planes are used by this organization to execute multiple attacks in different targets across the world simultaneously.

Role of homeland security specialists and the effectiveness of federal and state laws

Homeland security specialists have a very significant role in the fight against terrorist attacks. These specialists usually work within the large Department of Homeland Security. The homeland security specialists have been working closely with other federal and state law agencies to ensure that terrorism is countered and eliminated from the country completely. These homeland security specialists are the ones who collect intelligence about the affairs of the terrorist groups (Chermak & Gruenewald, 2015). The homeland security terrorists are the ones who are charged with the responsibility of establishing the existing plans for terrorist attacks in a given area and informing the federal and state law enforcement agencies for speedy action. 

This evaluation establishes that the homeland security specialists have been quite effective in terms of unraveling any imminent terrorist attack. These specialists have always forwarded the intelligence information to the federal and state law enforcement agencies (Chermak & Gruenewald, 2015). The Homeland security specialists always perform their role in the fight against the terrorist groups.

However, the problem is in the activities of the federal and state law enforcement agencies. Most cases are distorted while in the hands of the federal and state law enforcement agencies. In many occasions, the federal and state law enforcement agencies always ignore the intelligence information given to them by the homeland security specialists. These are homeland security specialists also conduct the forensic investigations in order identify the perpetrators of specific terrorist attacks (Chermak & Gruenewald, 2015). Therefore, while the homeland security specialists perform their roles effectively, it is the body of the federal and state law enforcement agencies that move in a reluctant manner allowing terrorists to strike hard before them. For proper fight against acts of domestic and international terrorism, it is important for a cordial and effective relationship to be developed between the homeland security specialists and the federal as well as state law enforcement agencies.

References

Chermak, S., & Gruenewald, J. A. (2015). Laying a foundation for the criminological examination of right-wing, left-wing, and Al Qaeda-inspired extremism in the United States.  Terrorism and Political Violence ,  27 (1), 133-159.

Dolgin, J. L. (2015).  Jewish Identity and the JDL . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Friedman, R. I., & Kahane, R. M. (2015). The Five Principles of the Jewish Defense League.  Religion and Violence: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict from Antiquity to the Present , 393.

Gray, J. (2015).  Al Qaeda and what it means to be modern  (Vol. 2). London: Faber & Faber.

Tobin, G. A., & Sassler, S. L. (2013).  Jewish perceptions of antisemitism . New York, NY: Springer.

Zelin, A. Y. (2014). The war between Isis and Al-Qaeda for supremacy of the global jihadist movement.  The Washington Institute for Near East Policy , 20 (1), 1-11.