Jamal Awil

← A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962

Terrorist violence can backfire, turning sympathy against the target nation. [causal]

Outrages of terrorism by the F.L.N. such as Mélouza and the Algiers bombings would indeed produce a momentary revulsion in the United States, but the eventual reaction would, perversely, somehow end up as one of irritation against France as being responsible for the war in which such horrors could take place; a psychological process not dissimilar to that in the 1970s where the spate of Palestinian hijacking and terrorism against innocent targets did nothing to make the world less hostile towards Israel. One of the F.L.N. lobbyists at the United Nations is quoted by Edward Behr as saying: “You must realise that every time a bomb explodes in Algiers we are taken more seriously here.”

XREF: Parallels the 1970s Palestinian hijackings cited here, and connects to modern debates on terrorism's propaganda effects.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 765