Political terrorism has a long history.
Only since the Second World War, however, have terrorist attacks against civilians become widespread. When the machinery of state terror in many countries not only demonstrated a cynical contempt for the lives of ordinary people, but also deliberately made them targets for mass terror, independent terrorist organizations also learned from this experience. If the social causes of terrorism are not eradicated, or at least lessened, the most powerful acts of retaliatory state terror cannot achieve their aim, even if they are carried out more harshly and on a greater scale than the crimes of the terrorists. Israel has not allowed one single terrorist act to be perpetrated without wreaking terrible retribution, yet it has not been able to prevent terrorism. Reliance on force alone in dealing with terrorism, and the growing conviction that anything is permissible in the fight against terrorism, have a corrupting influence on those who consider themselves to be on the side of the law.