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Munich Massacre Research Paper

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“Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized… Our worst fears have been realized tonight.” On September 5th, 1972 the Olympic games that had originally been known as “The Games of Peace and Joy” quickly became the polar opposite. The Munich Massacre was an event that greatly shaped the way that terrorism was both approached and viewed throughout the world. The increase in tension between the Palestinian state and Israel, the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes, and the aftermath of those events, lead to the prominent change in terrorism internationally.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was an umbrella organization- a group of organizations dedicated to bringing the Palestinian state to independence. The PLO was comprised of numerous organizations which were a part of the resistance movement, political parties, popular organizations, and independent personalities and figures from all sectors of life. The PLO dealt with various tasks in regard to the life of the Palestinian people in their main communities and throughout the world through the establishment of several institutions in such realms as health, education and social services. As such, the PLO is more than a national …show more content…

For many Israelis seeing the massacre of Jewish men on German grounds so soon after the Holocaust was harrowing. The Israelis struck back sending warplanes over Palestinian war bases, killing militants, but also innocent children and civilians. Starting two days after the massacre, Israel began Operation Wrath of God, a covert operation directed at those who were suspected to be behind the Munich killings. The operation targeted both Black September and Palestine Liberation Organization and spanned from 1972-1988. Throughout the operation, the Israelis managed to kill two of the three remaining terrorists involved in the 1972 massacre, however they were not able to assassinate the final

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