‘What Makes Terrorists Tick?’

With the freeing of the 39 remaining TWA hijack hostages, the most perverse new game in town seems to be to make apologies for the terrorists. One, by Eqbal Ahmad, a longtime pro-Palestine Liberation Organization activist, even appeared on the pages of The Times.

To any thoughtful American, stunned by the brutal murder of an innocent young Navy man, these apologies are an insult. The insult is magnified when one discovers that many of the apologists, such as Ahmad, oppose the Camp David Accords, which brought peace to Egypt and Israel, conveniently forget that more than 80% of historical Palestine is occupied by an Arab state (Jordan), and excuse the rejection by the Arabs of the 1948 United Nations partition, which would have created both Israel and a Palestinian Arab state now 37 years old.

The TWA hijacking has made painfully clear several insights. Although Syria has once again proven itself a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East and especially in Lebanon, let us remember that President Hafez Assad did not end the hostage crisis out of a humanitarian concern for the Americans. Assad was concerned about any activity taking place in Lebanon, which jeopardized his control over that country.

An action that threatened to bring in the American or Israeli military and that increased the status of one of Assad’s clients was simply unacceptable to Assad. Even the fanatic members of the Hezbollah are well aware of what Assad did to the 20,000 citizens of the Syrian town of Hama in his destruction of the Muslim Brotherhood located there.

The hijacking has also made clear to the Reagan Administration and much of the media Syria’s close involvement with terrorist activities throughout the region. Syria is not merely aligned with such other terror exporters as Iran and Libya. It controls the parts of Lebanon out of which both Nabih Berri’s Amal and the Hezbollah operate, and supplies weapons and money to terrorists.

The hijacking should also prove to all Americans how difficult it is for Israel to find rational and reasonable people with whom to negotiate. No sooner did the hostages leave Beirut than the Shia Muslims renewed their attack on the Palestinians. Of course, the Druze, Sunni Muslims, and Arab Christians got into the act also.

The main objective of the hijacking was the humiliation and embarrassment of the United States. It was not the release of the 700 Lebanese imprisoned in Israel, because they were due to be released anyway. Terrorists continue to target the United States because they know that this nation is the bastion of democracy and freedom for the world, and if they can force America to knuckle under they can have their way anywhere they want.

The hijacking crisis gave our government another lesson in “Terrorism 101.” By not yielding to terrorists, by learning to identify who the good guys and who the bad guys really are, and by closing ranks with a faithful and democratic ally, we passed the course with flying colors.

ROBERT M. SMITH

Los Angeles

Smith is assistant to the director of the Pacific Southwest Region of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith.