The April 11 attack on a synagogue on Djerba Island that killed 17, including 11 German tourists, was acknowledged to have been a terrorist attack by an al Qaeda splinter group. Rather than confront the West, the intent may have been to liberate an Arab “homeland.” Rhetoric calling for the overthrow of “impure” regimes supported by Western governments has been an al Qaeda hallmark, and suggests that similar attacks could occur in other Middle East or Persian Gulf countries. The attack could also have been an attempt to damage Tunisia’s important tourism industry in much the same way that the 1997 attack on tourists at Luxor in Egypt was aimed at destabilizing the country.
