Title: State-Sponsored Terrorism | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: State-Sponsored Terrorism
State-Sponsored Terrorism
State-sponsored Terrorism
International state-sponsored terrorism
Iran
Words to Know
Coup d'etat:
Junta:
Secret police:
Socialism:
Totalitarian:
Iraq
Libya
Syria
Sudan
North Korea
Cuba
The Cold War
The Contras
State terrorism versus government repression
Domestic state terrorism
Operation Condor
The desaparecidos

Content: The first was direct terrorist actions planned and carried out by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (the Iranian intelligence agency) and the Revolutionary Guard Corps (a military force formed after the revolution. The second was providing support for other fundamentalist Islamic organizations. These organizations included Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestine Islamic Jihad (see appendix). The Palestinian people had long wanted to found a country of their own, and Iran helped create the idea that any new Palestinian country should be an Islamist state. Hamas and Hezbollah, from Lebanon, conducted terrorist attacks on Israel, a nation founded in 1948 on Palestinian land as a homeland for Jews, who, as a people, were systematically killed by the German military during World War II (1939–45). Hamas and Hezbollah also help provide a variety of social services, such as education, for Palestinians living in refugee camps who were displaced by wars in the region. These Iranian-supported groups have actively opposed efforts to negotiate a peace agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; one of the leading Palestinian guerrilla organizations) and the state of Israel. They believe this would defeat their central goal of founding an Islamic state in place of Israel. Iran has not limited its support to Palestinians.