Last Wednesday Israeli forces at a checkpoint in Nablus apprehended a would-be suicide bomber. His name is Hussam Abdo, a sixteen year-old who was recruited to serve as a human bomb in exchange for one hundred Shekels and the promise of seventy-two virgins in Paradise. He is also, unsurprisingly, reported to be mildly mentally retarded. His story tells us a great deal about the nature of modern terrorism and how the strategy we have adopted will allow us to beat the terrorists.

“Sophisticated” people the world over laugh at the futility of trying to fight terrorism with military means. “Terrorism,” they like to remind us, “is caused by poverty and oppression and, until you end those things, you’ll never be able to stop terrorism.” Many of these very same people tell us that Palestinians, suffering under ‘Zionist occupation’, are the most oppressed and impoverished people in the world.

If this is the case, why is there not a suicide bombing in Israel every single day? Why are there not several? Certainly there appears to be no physical limitation on the ability of Hamas to actually make the bombs. The Palestinian territories are not like Japan at the end of the Second World War, where the volunteers for suicide attacks far outstripped the available weapons and, as a result, legions of civilians were armed with all sorts of bizarre contraptions to attempt suicide attacks. Obviously there are no moral scruples restraining the terrorists. So, then, what is it? There is only one thing it can be: a lack of bombers.

A week has passed since the assassination of Sheik Yassin and we have yet to see any of the promised hellish retaliation. Why is this? It could well be that one of these groups is planning a major operation involving dozens of bombers, but I doubt it. In fact, if one were to look closely, I would be willing to bet that there has been no notable upswing of suicide attacks at any point in response to any single Israeli action. Suicide bombers can lose their nerve too easily, too many things can go wrong: these people are being launched off the second that they’re ready.

Within the Palestinian territories the apparatus of terror exists. Indeed through Hamas, Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hezbollah, and the various other groups that exist terror in Israel has become every bit as bureaucratized as the Nazi apparatus of death. They lack not paper pushers, planners, speech-makers, or preachers: they lack for soldiers.

Take a good look at Hussam Abdo. He may be sixteen, but he looks far younger than that. In any case, he’s clearly not terribly bright. He’s the sort of recruit armies accept after they’ve already taken all of the able-bodied and marginally sane men from the jails. He’s a recruit of desperation, a gullible child lured into something by cowardly fanatics. The same goes for the recent decrees allowing the use of female suicide bombers. It’s a common practice to recruit women for military duty when the men have all already been picked through. However, for Moslems to resort to it indicates a real grasping, a real sense of urgency.

Not that this is all good. The obvious next step for Hamas and similar groups of thugs will be to break into homes in the middle of the night, grab the best available male, and simply draft him to be a martyr upon the penalty of the lives of his family. Of course, I imagine that such a tactic would not be sustainable for a very long time. In fact, its adoption would be a very good sign that the last vestige of order in the territories is about to collapse in upon itself.

The terrorist movement in this world consists of a tiny percentage of fanatics, willing to give their lives (and the lives of anyone else they find useful) for their cause. They are backed by another, much larger, contingent of followers. These are the people willing to organize terrorist attacks, but not to conduct them personally. Finally, there is an ever larger group of fair weather fellow travellers. These people are willing to shelter and cheer on the terrorists, so long as they think they can win. They also provide the pool from which new fanatics are drawn after the old ones have done away with themselves one way or another.

Victory comes by putting such military pressure on any terrorist population as to cause this structure to collapse. The fanatics will quickly burn themselves out, and cannot organize well on their own. They will eat away at their own numbers, even if they do cause some damage in the process. This group needs to be exterminated wholesale in order to expedite things. The middle group, the bureaucrats, are powerless without the fanatics to do their bidding. Without fanatics to generate the perception of victory, they will not be able to draw new terrorists from the general population, nor will they be able to create support by offering the possibility of victory. Without leadership to drive things forward, the whole endeavour consumes itself.

By forcing the terrorists into combat and reducing their numbers, Israel is exposing the true impotence of its enemies. Without a proven ability to win, the Palestinian people will not support them. If they will not support them, then they cannot draw the recruits they need to create the perception that they are winning. With the myth of the terrorists shattered, they people of the Islamic world will look to new Gods. Respecting strength as they do, it seems inevitable that they will turn towards the strength which defeated their old leaders.

Keep killing terrorists and the hollowness of their plans will be fully demonstrated to the world. Kill enough and they will become incapable of doing anything productive. Fight them and, ultimately, they will be destroyed.