For more than a decade a massive conflict has been taking place in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Hundreds of innocent civilians are now dead and many more injured because of this never-ending battle of sides, both standing strong to their grounds, both waging war. Their unrelenting attacks against the opposition may cause this struggle to continue for decades to come, and allow for another war, this war on terrorism, to begin. The Israelis and Palestinians are partaking in acts of terrorism every time they attack each other and kill numbers of bystanders. Regardless of the mode of attack, whether it is by suicide bombing or armed forces, they are still acts of terrorism. These acts are wrong because they violate the principle of the sanctity of human life and they also contribute to the execution of many people, willingly involved or not.
To understand why these acts are of the terrorist nature, it is necessary to first understand what terrorism and a terrorist is. Terrorism is defined as "the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons" (www.dictionary.com/terrorism). A terrorist is "a characteristic of someone who employs terrorism especially as a political weapon" (www.dictionary.com/terrorist). Both sides are engaged in acts of terrorism because of the forceful and intimidating methods they use to get what their government wants. .
According to an article written in The Guardian, by Chris McGeal, another eight people were murdered when a suicide bomber ran into a bus during rush hour in Jerusalem (www.guardian.co.uk Para 1). "The Al-Aqsa martyrs brigade, a faction of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, said it launched the attack in retaliation for the Israeli army's killing of 15 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip two weeks ago" (Para 2).