"Never, ever deal with terrorists. Hunt them down and, more important, mercilessly punish those states and groups that fund, arm, support, or simply allow their territories to be used by the terrorists with impunity"
About this Quote
The second move is where the subtext hardens. He shifts from “terrorists” to the wider ecology that makes terrorism possible, then stretches that circle until it can include almost anyone: states and groups that “fund, arm, support,” and finally those that “simply allow their territories to be used.” That last clause quietly expands culpability from intention to circumstance, from active sponsorship to failure of control. It’s a rhetorical trapdoor: once “allow” counts as complicity, punishment can be justified even when evidence is ambiguous or governance is weak.
Context matters because Kahane, a hardline cleric and political agitator, built a worldview around ethnic security, collective responsibility, and the belief that liberal restraint is self-deception. The quote carries that signature: it replaces legal proportionality with “mercilessly,” a word chosen to make cruelty sound like clarity. The intent isn’t only to deter attackers; it’s to normalize a doctrine where force becomes the primary language of legitimacy, and where collateral political targets are not a bug but the point.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Kahane, Meir. (2026, January 17). Never, ever deal with terrorists. Hunt them down and, more important, mercilessly punish those states and groups that fund, arm, support, or simply allow their territories to be used by the terrorists with impunity. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-ever-deal-with-terrorists-hunt-them-down-74754/
Chicago Style
Kahane, Meir. "Never, ever deal with terrorists. Hunt them down and, more important, mercilessly punish those states and groups that fund, arm, support, or simply allow their territories to be used by the terrorists with impunity." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-ever-deal-with-terrorists-hunt-them-down-74754/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Never, ever deal with terrorists. Hunt them down and, more important, mercilessly punish those states and groups that fund, arm, support, or simply allow their territories to be used by the terrorists with impunity." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/never-ever-deal-with-terrorists-hunt-them-down-74754/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.



