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...Secretary of State George Shultz has portrayed Israel as a model of effective counterterrorist action. But terrorists are adept at surrounding themselves with innocent civilians, some of whom could be killed in a retaliatory raid. Moreover, the deterrent effect is questionable. Terrorists, including members of Islamic Jihad, the Shi'ite Muslim group thought to be responsible for the hijacking, are often fanatics who place as little value on their own lives as on those of their victims...
Unseen, unknown, apparently unstoppable, Islamic Jihad may not even exist. It could be merely a cover name for a loose confederation of Muslim Shi'ite fanatics. Or it may be the code name for a carefully coordinated campaign by Iran's Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Iranian government has expressed sympathy for the extremists' goals but denies supplying or controlling them. U.S. National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane insists otherwise. Said he last March: "There is sufficient evidence that radical Shi'ite terrorists are responsive to Iranian guidance for us to hold Iran responsible for attacks against U.S. citizens...
Jihad means holy war, and in the Shi'ite credo, to die in a holy war is to achieve martyrdom and guarantee a place in heaven. A seemingly endless supply of young Shi'ite militants seem all too eager to earn their divine reward...
Radical Shi'ite factions settled into a virtual viper's nest in Baalbek, an ancient city in the Bekaa Valley 40 miles east of Beirut. There a contingent of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, inspired by the Khomeini revolution, sent young Lebanese fanatics out on bottle-smashing sprees in the bars of Beirut, taught them how to rig cars with powerful bombs and prepared them to die for their cause. "Like Khomeini," says Gary Sick, a former National Security Council staffer and an expert on Islamic fundamentalism, "these Shi'ite fundamentalists are rejecting the entire Western system...
...ite extremists, political violence has become a dangerous vogue. "Committing terrorism is like achieving manhood for a Shi'ite," says William Quandt, a Middle East specialist at Washington's Brookings Institution. "Everybody is scrambling to be the most militant...