The writing was on the wall
Because of the recent unrest in Jerusalem, a few people in Spain have asked me whether it's safe to visit Israel. I answered, among other things, that there was no safer place in the world. Want proof? After covering dozens of terrorist attacks in Israel and the region, I returned home for a vacation -- to walk down Las Ramblas in my hometown of Barcelona, and to rest on the beach at Cambrils. Both tranquil places turned into scenes of bloodshed.
"No tenim por" ("We aren't scared" in Catalan) has been the cry in Barcelona after the deadly Islamist terrorist attack this past weekend. There is no fear, but there is shock, and not because the attack came as a surprise. The surprise is that the terrorists didn't come sooner. When the media reports from time to time that suspected Islamic State operatives have been arrested, people understand that something is happening -- that underneath the quiet and the color of the 30 million tourists who visit each year there is a mind game being played out against lone wolves. The danger increases when we're talking about a 12-member terrorist cell, like the one that perpetrated the attack last week, or the group of Pakistanis that tried to blow up the Metro in 2008.
On June 26, 2015, Spain raised its terrorism alert level to 4. Level 5 is declared when a specific imminent terrorist attack is feared. But the real confrontation with jihadist terrorism didn't start with the wave of Islamic State attacks across Europe. It started on the morning of March 11, 2004, when a series of 10 blasts ripped through four trains in Madrid, killing 191 people.
The well-trained anti-terror forces, which until then had focused on the ETA -- the Basque underground -- started investing resources into combating the threat of the 21st century. There have been more arrests, some 700 since 2004; action has been taken against extremist imams; and a recent revision to the penal code includes three new chapters addressing jihadist terrorism.
Why Catalonia? In terms of mindset, the desire to retake "Al-Andalus" always appears in global jihad forums. In addition, Barcelona is a convenient, safe passage between Africa and Europe. Salafi terrorists found an opportunity thanks to the values of complete tolerance and freedom. According to a report compiled by Spanish intelligence services a few years ago, six of the 10 extremist imams in Spain were active in Catalonia. Attacking Las Ramblas isn't just an attack on the heart of Barcelona, it's a strike at the hearts of the 35 countries whose citizens were killed or wounded.
Now more security measures will be installed in Barcelona, but the country's approach to matters like security, open gates, immigrants, and human rights won't change significantly. I don't know if that's good or bad. I do know that every time I return to the city I love so much, I'll always be surprised to see that there aren't security guards outside shopping centers or the train stations.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו