This Is Not How You Fight Homegrown Terror

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Arie Egozi

Is France closing the stable after the horses escaped? Basically yes, but that stable was so rickety that closing its gate wouldn’t have mattered.

After the Paris attacks, the police arrested one of the wanted persons but let him go. The Belgian And French police forces have long been avoiding entering neighborhoods heavily populated by Muslims – European countries just don’t have the basic tool to fight homegrown terror: They don’t have a joint data base, no metal and explosives detectors at checkpoints, which, should someone be stopped for inspections, can reveal if they were on their way to commit a terror attack.

Yesterday the French air force began massively attacking ISIS in Syria. This is good for letting off steam but would not help much with the problem inside Europe, where Israeli experts claim holds a “large number” of active terror cells which, at least in part, received more manpower with people arriving in the influx of refugees arriving daily to the continent.

Europe needs to realize the severity of the problem and deal with it accordingly. It is unfathomable that police forces avoid entering Muslim neighborhoods. It is unfathomable that intelligence is not sent in real time to every counter-terror force in the continent.

Europe also has to operate cellular phone calls monitoring systems, other surveillance means and systems to detect explosives, some of which are home-made. Israeli experts say that for years now, large numbers of weapons have been entered into the continent in the past years – weapons that now must be located.

Europe needs to establish a joint headquarters for the fight against terror – a center which will receive all intelligence reports which will be dealt with instantaneously.

Not all the millions of Muslims in Europe are suspected of being potential terrorists, but many among them are taking in poison from sermons in the Mosques that popped up in Europe like mushrooms after the rain. Keeping track of what goes on in these Mosques must be continuous. This can be achieved using electronic means of the kind that advanced security services around the world use.

There is, of course, human intelligence, which is in many cases the best source for terror being concocted.

If these methods will not be implemented immediately, say Israeli experts, things in Europe will only get worse as every day, among the refugees arriving, some arrive with the intent of joining already active terror cells.

At this point nothing seems to be moving. Massive strikes in Syria are only a rageful response which will not solve the issue of homegrown terror existing in many European countries, thriving due to years of helplessness.