ABSTRACT
The most accurate definition of terrorism is: to kill innocent people as blatantly, as spectacularly as possible, in order to intimidate other people, to undermine democratic states, to provoke a collapse of law and order. It should be emphasized, therefore, that the targets of the terrorists are not to be compared with those of the resistance fighters in France, for instance, under Nazi occupation. They are not military targets. The aim of the terroristic attacks is not to physically weaken an army. It is to create a state of psychological weakness. Terrorism is a variety of psychological warfare. When one considers the lengths to which the terrorists are ready to go (e.g., by kidnapping diplomats and threatening to kill them) only to get long-winded and fanatical statements broadcast or printed, one realizes that what they seek is publicity, what they fear more than anything else is silence.
