After being subdued internationally and within most Western countries in the late 1980s, it has returned in ferocious and fearful new forms. The new terrorism boasts few, if any, hostage takings and practically no hijackings.
Terrorism expands to fill the vacuum left by passivity or weakness.
It shrinks when confronted with resolute and decisive action. Terrorists may test this resolution a number of times before they draw back, so governments have to be prepared to sustain anti-terror policies through shrill criticism, anxious calls to give in to terrorists' demands, and even responses of panic. What this new terrorism portends for Israel, America and the world and what can be done about it has not yet been sufficiently understood. The growth of terrorism has been accompanied by a steady escalation in the means of violence, arms used to assassinate individuals, from small arms used to mow down groups, to car bombs now capable of bringing down entire buildings, to lethal chemicals that can threaten entire cities. The very real possibility that terrorist states and organizations may soon acquire horrific weapons of mass destruction and use them to escalate terrorism beyond our wildest nightmares has not been addressed properly by Western governments.