The IDC

“THE DECENT KIND OF PEOPLE WHO BUILD SOCIETIES”
“When the lives of decent people are cut short by acts of terror, societies are
robbed of precious human capital and of the promise of a life free of fear,”
said Prof. Uriel Reichman, founder and president of IDC Herzliya, as he
opened the Ninth World Summit on Counter Terrorism by honoring the
memory of Ro’i Avisaf, an IDC student who was murdered by terrorists
while vacationing in the Sinai – one individual among millions of terror
victims. In welcoming participants to the World Summit, Reichman
commended the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism for
fighting terror using an innovative approach that has transformed it into
a recognized leader. Only groups such as ICT and the networks they lead
can address the current Islamic fundamentalist threat which chooses terror
as a mode of operation, he said, and whose aim is “the total replacement of
democracy with a uniform Islamic code of behavior. However, Reichman
cautioned, terror will be vanquished only with the determination and
commitment of nations and governments. Invoking Winston Churchill’s
stirring message to the free world during the darkest days of the Second
World War, Reichman cautioned that the world today may lack the
commitment to “victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and
hard the road may be – for without victory there is no survival.” Without
a leader of Churchill’s inspirational stature, the Western world risks
capitulation to the threat of nuclear blackmail.
Shabtai Shavit, chairman of ICT’s Board of Directors and former head
of the Mossad, voiced the same concern. The shift from conventional to
asymmetrical warfare has moved the battlefield to the home front, bringing
a new “global strategic envelope” of pressing issues. Under the present
conditions, with state-sponsored terror treated with silk gloves, global
jihadi terror will prevail, Shavit cautioned. The prospect of a nucleararmed
Iran will spark a regional nuclear arms race, yet we do not yet
see sufficient indication that America, Russia and the EU recognize the
Iran threat as preceding all other matters. “Pushing the reset button,” he
rued, has brought no tangible results, such as joining in imposing tough
sanctions and proceeding with the [since cancelled] anti-ballistic missile
system in Eastern Europe. The way to uproot state-sponsored terrorism
crosses through Tehran.
To Dr. Boaz Ganor, the hundreds of professionals from a cross-section of
disciplines at the Conference reinforce the critical importance of synergy
in mounting an effective response to terror. Ganor, founder and executive
director of ICT and deputy dean of IDC’s Lauder School of Government,
Diplomacy & Strategy, recalled the idea launched 13 years ago, to
bring practical and academic knowledge together in the fight to counter
terrorism. The strength of this year’s showing validates the founders’ vision
to make academic research, professionalism and inter-agency cooperation
a reality.
9th AnnuAl ict cOnference
“TIME TO STOP DANCING”
Congressman Mike Rogers, ranking member of the Subcommittee
on Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism and Human Intelligence, House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, spoke of America’s war on
terrorism. America’s understanding of terrorism, in transition since the
1982 bombing of the marine barracks in Beirut, awakened slowly, he
claimed. Only with the 9/11 attacks did Americans realize the threat of
Islamic extremism to every nation in the world including America, not
just the Middle East. “Fighting terror is a long-term proposition, just
like fighting organized crime,” Rogers reiterated. When it comes to the
real threat of a nuclear Iran, the nations of the western world have been
engaged in a dance, stepping backward when the other steps forward. “The
time is now for serious sanctions…to stand tall and tell the Iranians: you
talk tough and we are going to be at your door, we’ll knock hard, and we’re
not going away.”
Co-keynote speaker Tzipi Livni, MK, chairperson of the Kadima Party and
chairperson of the Opposition, stated that when it comes to the fight against
terror there is no opposition and no coalitions but a fully united front, led
“FIGHTING TERROR IS A LONG-TERM
PROPOSITION, JUST LIKE FIGHTING
ORGANIZED CRIME”
- Congressman Mike Rogers, ranking member of the Subcommittee on
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism and Human Intelligence, House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence
Vice President for External Relations and Head of the Raphael Recanati International School Jonathan Davis announced the inauguration of the “Guardian of ICT
Award” in recognition of the Institute’s stalwart supporters, Evelyn Tamman Douek, Dafna and Gerald Cramer and Bonnie and Steven E. Stern. Speaking on behalf
of the award recipients, Steven Stern noted that “without security there is no civilization,” and praised ICT’s work “at the nexus of the best of the business, making a
difference in countering the cancer of terrorism”
by the United States. Iran’s regional proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, act to
advance an extremist ideology that is in the interest of neither the Lebanese
nor the Palestinian people – consistently exploiting the democratic system
in order to gain power.
FIGHTING TERROR WITHIN A DEMOCRACY:
A BALANCING ACT
This theme, the challenge of waging war on terror within the constraints of
a democratic society, formed a major subject of many of the conference’s
plenary discussions and workshops. The new battle lines of asymmetrical
warfare leave international law and the conventional means of fighting as
relatively ineffectual and irrelevant. Several speakers offered frameworks
with which to consider the issues.
Boaz Ganor noted difficulties and “conceptual challenges” in the ability
of many to grasp the threat of terror, reflected in the different perspectives
with which President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush
view the issue and how to deal with it. Bush seemed to have had a gut
level understanding that the war on terror is a war for hearts and minds,
ideologies and doctrines, according to Ganor. Pres. Obama may have a
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