Not All Terrorists Wear a Jihad Band, Some Wear Keffiyehs and Tote Bags
The birth of an international terror cult that transcends borders, creeds, and even logic
From Marxists in Tokyo to radicals in D.C., the faces have changed, but the mission hasn’t: murder in the name of “Palestine.” The past didn’t die—it rebranded. And now it’s marching through campuses, trending on TikTok, and loading weapons in the heart of D.C.
53 years ago, on May 30, 1972, three young men stepped off an Air France flight at Lod Airport in Israel. But in their suitcases, they didn’t carry bathing suits or travel pants. Instead, they brought Czech-made Vz. 58 assault rifles and hand grenades inside violin cases, on first viewing, they looked like a group of musicians on their way to tour Israel. However, as they entered the baggage pickup area, they opened up their violin cases and extracted the assault rifles and began spraying bullets in all directions. It was a bloodbath.
They weren’t Palestinian. They weren’t Arab. They weren’t Muslim. They didn’t scream “Allahu Akbar.” They were Japanese Marxists—clean-cut, calm, and armed to the teeth. Members of the Japanese Red Army, they had trained with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Lebanon.
This wasn’t a suicide mission—at least not entirely. One attacker was killed by his own grenade. Another was gunned down by Israeli security. The third, Kozo Okamoto, survived and was captured after being wounded.
The Victims:
17 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico, members of a religious group visiting the Holy Land
One Canadian citizen
Eight Israeli civilians, including airport staff and bystanders
In total, 26 people were murdered. Over 80 were injured—many of them maimed for life.
This wasn’t religion. This wasn’t nationalism.
This was something worse: the birth of an international terror cult that transcended borders, creeds, and even logic. It was the first major international terrorist attack carried out by non-Palestinian terrorists in the name of the “Palestinian cause.” That same cult is still alive—and louder than ever.
In court, Okamoto expressed no remorse. He said he had done it for “the Palestinian people.” Okamoto was sentenced to life in prison, but more than a decade later—on May 21, 1985—he was freed as part of the Jibril Agreement, a prisoner swap that saw 1,150 Palestinian and Lebanese terrorists released from Israeli prisons in exchange for three Israeli soldiers captured during the 1982 Lebanon War. Among the freed prisoners, alongside Okamoto, were PA official Jibril Rajoub, who currently serves as the head of the Palestinian Football Association and the Palestinian Olympic Committee, and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Muslim Brotherhood cleric who later became the founding spiritual leader of Hamas.
After his release, Okamoto traveled from Libya to Syria and eventually settled in Lebanon, where he reunited with other members of the Japanese Red Army. In 1997, he and four comrades were arrested in Lebanon for using fake passports. While the others were deported, Lebanon granted Okamoto political asylum, citing his “resistance against Israel” and the torture he endured in Israeli prison. Okamoto has remained in Lebanon ever since—reportedly in a refugee camp near Beirut. In 2022, he appeared publicly at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the attack, laying a wreath on the graves of his fellow terrorists and posing for photos with PFLP supporters.
The Jibril Agreement was one of the first of its kind—and it set a dangerous precedent: terrorists learned they could kidnap people and use them as bargaining chips to secure their release. This tactic became a cornerstone of Palestinian terrorism, culminating today with the 251 hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7th massacre, 58 of whom remain captive, more than 600 days later.
Fast forward to today.
A radical Marxist from Chicago travels to Washington, D.C., with a weapon and murders two Israeli diplomats in cold blood. Why?
To “stand with Palestine.”
Sound familiar?
This isn’t just history repeating itself.
It’s history flaunting itself in front of a willfully blind West.
Elias Rodriguez is not Muslim. He didn’t train in Gaza. He didn’t shout “Allahu Akbar.”
He shouted “Free, Free Palestine.”
He carried out a terror attack—on American soil—because he believed the same sick fantasy the Japanese Red Army did: that bloodshed in the name of “Palestine” is revolutionary glory.
Just like Okamoto, Elias Rodriguez didn’t care if his victims were Jewish or Christian.
We have trained ourselves to see terrorism as a “Middle Eastern problem” or an “Islamist issue.” But the Lod Airport massacre proved, 53 years ago, that terror for Palestine is an open franchise. And today, business is booming.
Still recruiting. Still dreaming of the same goal: the obliteration of Israel and the spread of revolution through violence. But now, they don’t need Japanese guerrillas or Arab hijackers. They’ve got disillusioned students. TikTok radicals. Academic foot soldiers. Self-righteous Westerners who think social justice means blood.
Some terrorists don’t wear jihad bands.
They wear Ivy League credentials.
Some don’t shout in Arabic.
They quote Fanon and Foucault.
Many don’t carry Qur’ans.
They carry manifestos.
And when the time comes, some of them—like their predecessors—will use violence and bloodshed and justify their radicalized minds.
Make no mistake: there is a growing international movement that sees murdering “Zionists” for Palestine not as a crime, but as a moral act.
It dresses itself in “decolonization,” in “anti-imperialism,” in “resistance.”
It speaks in hashtags and open letters, but behind the language is something ancient, violent, and blood-soaked.
It’s not just Hamas.
It’s not just Islamic Jihad.
It’s not just the PFLP.
It’s the activist in Chicago.
The anarchist in Berlin.
The grad student in New York.
It’s a network of people who would never walk into a mosque, but would have no problem walking into a consulate, a Jewish school, or a synagogue—with a pistol or a bomb.
The terror now walks among us in the language of social justice.
And it is getting bolder.
We ignored the radicals in the ’70s.
Then they blew up airports and embassies.
We’re ignoring them again now.
Don’t be surprised when the rivers of blood starts spilling—again.
Terrorism for Palestine is borderless.
It is post-ideological.
And it is coming from places no one wants to look:
the campuses, the protests, the editorials, the DMs.
This is your wake-up call.
Not all terrorists wear a jihad band. Some Wear Keffiyehs and Tote Bags
The human pathogen of anti-semtic blood-lust is loosed upon the world again. Must admit, after world war two - I didn't see it coming; but here we are again! Another huge struggle, like our grandparents faced, is, whether we like it or not, upon us again.
Why would an Israeli be holding a “Free Palestine” placard?