A Tertiary Model for Countering Terrorism in Liberal Democracies: The Case of Israel

Like other studies in the field of counter-terrorism the question underlying this article is to what degree can a democracy lead an effective struggle against terrorism and at the same time uphold its liberal, or even democratic, character? This article seeks to elaborate on the theoretical tools used for answering this question by developing the operational aspects of the 'war model' and 'criminal justice model' in the war against terrorism and then by presenting an 'expanded criminal justice model' to mediate between the two already existing models. This continuum of models is then tested on the Israeli response to Jewish terrorism and possible explanations for the state's decision to move from one model to the other are presented. One of the central conclusions of the study is that the most successful anti-terrorist campaigns led by Israel against Jewish terrorists were the ones in which the state's authorities did not cross any democratic boundaries.