Pentagon islam expert Coughlin ontslagen

De strijd om ideeën wordt niet alleen gevoerd tussen het Westen (spreek: de VS) en de Arabische wereld, maar ook binnen het Pentagon. Als Stephen Coughlin inderdaad vanwege zijn felle kritiek op de Moslim Broederschap is ontslagen, en niet omdat hij zijn werk niet goed doet of omdat hij foutieve informatie verspreidde, is dat een zeer slecht teken.

 

 

Ratna

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Inside the Ring - Coughlin sacked

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080104/NATION04/410150204/1008

January 4, 2008

By Bill Gertz

 

 

Stephen Coughlin, the Pentagon specialist on Islamic law and Islamist extremism, has been fired from his position on the military's Joint Staff. The action followed a report in this space last week revealing opposition to his work for the military by pro-Muslim officials within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.

Mr. Coughlin was notified this week that his contract with the Joint Staff will end in March, effectively halting the career of one of the U.S. government's most important figures in analyzing the nature of extremism and ultimately preparing to wage ideological war against it.

He had run afoul of a key aide to Mr. England, Hasham Islam, who confronted Mr. Coughlin during a meeting several weeks ago when Mr. Islam sought to have Mr. Coughlin soften his views on Islamist extremism.

Mr. Coughlin was accused directly by Mr. Islam of being a Christian zealot or extremist "with a pen," according to defense officials. Mr. Coughlin appears to have become one of the first casualties in the war of ideas with Islamism.

The officials said Mr. Coughlin was let go because he had become "too hot" or controversial within the Pentagon.

Misguided Pentagon officials, including Mr. Islam and Mr. England, have initiated an aggressive "outreach" program to U.S. Muslim groups that critics say is lending credibility to what has been identified as a budding support network for Islamist extremists, including front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

Mr. Coughlin wrote a memorandum several months ago based on documents made public in a federal trial in Dallas that revealed a covert plan by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian-origin Islamist extremist group, to subvert the United States using front groups. Members of one of the identified front groups, the Islamic Society of North America, has been hosted by Mr. England at the Pentagon.

After word of the confrontation between Mr. Coughlin and Mr. Islam was made public, support for Mr. Coughlin skyrocketed among those in and out of government who feared the worst, namely that pro-Muslim officials in the Pentagon were after Mr. Coughlin's scalp, and that his departure would be a major setback for the Pentagon's struggling efforts to develop a war of ideas against extremism. Blogs lit up with hundreds of postings, some suggesting that Mr. England's office is "penetrated" by the enemy in the war on terrorism.

Kevin Wensing, a spokesman for Mr. England, said "no one in the deputy's office had any input into this decision" by the Joint Staff to end Mr. Coughlin's contract. A Joint Staff spokesman had no immediate comment.

• Bill Gertz covers national security affairs. He can be reached at 202/636-3274, or at InsideTheRing@washingtontimes.com.

Arabisch antisemitisme beschreven in "Seeds of Hate" door Matthias Küntzel

In de Arabische wereld werden Joden vroeger gezien als een minderwaardig, te minachten volk, terwijl zij tegenwoordig, in navolging van het Westerse antisemitisme, worden afgeschilderd als machtig en uit zijnde op overheersing en rijkdom ten koste van anderen.   

 

The question is not only why, of course, but how: how did these ideas, especially those that portray Jews as all-powerful, work their way into modern-day Islamist discourse? The notion of the Jew as malevolently omnipotent is not a traditional Muslim notion. Jews do not come off well in the Koran — they connive and scheme and reject the message of the Prophet Muhammad — but they are shown to be, above all else, defeated. Muhammad, we read, conquered the Jews in battle and set them wandering. In subsequent centuries Jews lived among Muslims, and it is true that their experience was generally healthier than that of their brethren in Christendom, but only so long as they knew their place; they were ruled and taxed as second-class citizens and were often debased by statute. In the Jim Crow Middle East, no one believed the Jews were in control.

 

Matthias Küntzel probeert daar een antwoord op te geven in zijn boek "Jihad and Jew-Hatred; Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11". Hieronder een boekbespreking door Jeffrey Goldberg uit de New York Times.

Het is verbluffend hoe weinig aandacht dit onderwerp krijgt, en vooral ook hoe weinig verontwaardiging het oproept, buiten de kring van "islam bashers" die het vaak gebruiken als een van de vele stokken om de islam mee te slaan.

 

Still, Küntzel is right to state that we are witnessing a terrible explosion of anti-Jewish hatred in the Middle East, and he is right to be shocked. His invaluable contribution, in fact, is his capacity to be shocked, by the rhetoric of hate and by its consequences. The former Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi once told me that "the question is not what the Germans did to the Jews, but what the Jews did to the Germans." The Jews, he said, deserved their punishment. Küntzel argues that we should see men like Rantisi for what they are: heirs to the mufti, and heirs to the Nazis.

 

 

Ratna
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Seeds of Hate
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/review/Goldberg-t.html?em&ex=1199595600&en=148789959493e69b&ei=5087%0A

By JEFFREY GOLDBERG
Published: January 6, 2008

 

One day in Damascus not long ago, I visited the understocked gift shop of the Sheraton Hotel, looking for something to read. There wasn't much: pre-owned Grishams, a hagiography of Hafez al-Assad, an early Bill O'Reilly (go figure) and a paperback copy of "The International Jew," published in 2000 in Beirut. "The International Jew" is a collection of columns exposing the putative role of Jews in such fields as international finance, world governance and bootlegging. "Wherever the seat of power may be, thither they swarm obsequiously," the book states. These columns, which are based on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" — they are a plagiary of a forgery, in other words — were first published in Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent more than 80 years ago.

 

Next to "The International Jew" was a copy of "The Bible Came From Arabia," a piece of twaddle that suggests the Jews are not Jews and Israel isn't Israel. And then there was a pamphlet called "Secrets of the Talmud." Not knowing these secrets (I was raised Reform), I started reading. The Talmud apparently teaches Jews how best to demolish the world economy and gives Jews the right to take non-Jewish women as slaves and rape them.

 

The anti-Semitic worldview, generally speaking, is fantastically stupid. If its propagandists actually understood the chosen people, they would know, for instance, that no one, not the chief of Mossad, not even the president of Hadassah, could persuade 4,000 Jews to stay home from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. ("And why should I listen to you?" would have been the near-universal rebuttal to the call.) Anti-Semitic conspiracy literature not only posits crude and senseless ideas, but also tends to be riddled with typos, repetitions and gross errors of grammar, and for this and other reasons I occasionally have trouble taking it seriously.

 

The German scholar Matthias Küntzel tells us this is a mistake. He takes anti-Semitism, and in particular its most potent current strain, Muslim anti-Semitism, very seriously indeed. His bracing, even startling, book, "Jihad and Jew-Hatred" (translated by Colin Meade), reminds us that it is perilous to ignore idiotic ideas if these idiotic ideas are broadly, and fervently, believed. And across the Muslim world, the very worst ideas about Jews — intricate, outlandish conspiracy theories about their malevolent and absolute power over world affairs — have become scandalously ubiquitous. Hezbollah and Hamas, to name two prominent examples, understand the world largely through the prism of Jewish power. Hezbollah officials employ language that shamelessly echoes Nazi propaganda, describing Jews as parasites and tumors and prescribing the murder of Jews as a kind of chemotherapy.

 

The question is not only why, of course, but how: how did these ideas, especially those that portray Jews as all-powerful, work their way into modern-day Islamist discourse? The notion of the Jew as malevolently omnipotent is not a traditional Muslim notion. Jews do not come off well in the Koran — they connive and scheme and reject the message of the Prophet Muhammad — but they are shown to be, above all else, defeated. Muhammad, we read, conquered the Jews in battle and set them wandering. In subsequent centuries Jews lived among Muslims, and it is true that their experience was generally healthier than that of their brethren in Christendom, but only so long as they knew their place; they were ruled and taxed as second-class citizens and were often debased by statute. In the Jim Crow Middle East, no one believed the Jews were in control.

 

Obviously, then, these modern-day ideas about Jewish power were imported from Europe, and Küntzel makes a bold and consequential argument: the dissemination of European models of anti-Semitism among Muslims was not haphazard, but an actual project of the Nazi Party, meant to turn Muslims against Jews and Zionism. He says that in the years before World War II, two Muslim leaders in particular willingly and knowingly carried Nazi ideology directly to the Muslim masses. They were Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, and the Egyptian proto-Islamist Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. The story of the mufti is a familiar one: he was the leader of the Arabs in Palestine, and Palestine's leading anti-Jewish agitator. He eventually embraced the Nazis and spent most of the war in Berlin, recruiting Bosnian Muslims for the SS and agitating for the harshest possible measures against Jews. Küntzel writes that the mufti became upset with Himmler in 1943, when he sought to trade 5,000 Jewish children for 20,000 German prisoners. Himmler came around to the mufti's thinking, and the children were gassed.

 

Hassan al-Banna did not embrace Nazism in the same uncomplicated manner, but through the 1930s, his movement, aided by the Germans, led the drive against not only political Zionism but Jews in general. "This burgeoning Islamist movement was subsidized with German funds," Küntzel writes. "These contributions enabled the Muslim Brotherhood to set up a printing plant with 24 employees and use the most up-to-date propaganda methods." The Muslim Brotherhood, Küntzel goes on, was a crucial distributor of Arabic translations of "Mein Kampf" and the "Protocols." Across the Arab world, he states, Nazi methods and ideology whipped up anti-Zionist fervor, and the effects of this concerted campaign are still being felt today.

 

Küntzel marshals impressive evidence to back his case, but he sometimes oversimplifies. One doesn't have to be soft on Germany to believe it was organic Muslim ideas as well as Nazi ideas that led to the spread of anti-Semitism in the Middle East. In his effort to blame Germany for Muslim anti-Semitism, he overreaches. "While Khomeini was certainly not an acolyte of Hitler, it is not unreasonable to suppose that his anti-Jewish outlook ... had been shaped during the 1930s," Küntzel says, citing, in a footnote, an article he himself wrote. He also oversimplifies the Israeli-Arab conflict. Jews today have actual power in the Middle East, and Israel is not innocent of excess and cruelty.

 

Still, Küntzel is right to state that we are witnessing a terrible explosion of anti-Jewish hatred in the Middle East, and he is right to be shocked. His invaluable contribution, in fact, is his capacity to be shocked, by the rhetoric of hate and by its consequences. The former Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi once told me that "the question is not what the Germans did to the Jews, but what the Jews did to the Germans." The Jews, he said, deserved their punishment. Küntzel argues that we should see men like Rantisi for what they are: heirs to the mufti, and heirs to the Nazis.

 

Jeffrey Goldberg is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and the author of "Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide."


JIHAD AND JEW-HATRED
Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11.
By Matthias Küntzel.
Translated by Colin Meade.
180 pp. Telos Press Publishing. $29.95.
First Chapter: 'Jihad and Jew-Hatred' (January 5, 2008)

Israël en PA eens over agenda voor onderhandelingen

Men lijkt vooral afspraken te hebben gemaakt over hoe afspraken te gaan maken, oftewel welke mensen in welke commisies welke onderwerpen gaan bespreken. En daar werden ze het zowaar over eens. Een hele doorbraak.

_______________________________________

Israel, PA to form panel to negotiate core issues
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

 

Last update - 08:10 06/01/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941836.html

Israel and the Palestinians will negotiate the core issues of their conflict in a special committee to be headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia.

Negotiations over the core issues - refugees, Jerusalem and borders - will begin after U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to the region this week, while the remaining issues will be discussed in other committees.

The agreement being finalized between Livni and Qureia changes the format of negotiations over the core issues which, until talks stopped in 2001, were discussed in three different committees.

A senior political source said Saturday that the special committee will allow the two sides to engage in a real dialogue. "This way it will be possible to carry out negotiations without pressure - neither political nor through leaks - and we will be able to make more progress," the source added.

Bush is due to arrive in the region on Wednesday at the start of an eight-day visit which aims, according to the White House, to bolster American allies in the Middle East.

The U.S. president will visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority and will then leave for Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

In addition to the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Bush will hold talks with the heads of the countries he will visit on Iraq, regional security and economic relations.

Since the Annapolis conference in late November, in which Israel and the PA pledged to strive for a final-status agreement within a year, talks between the two sides have been low-key with no progress evident. The sense of an impasse intensified following contentious meetings regarding continued Israeli construction in settlements and in East Jerusalem.

However, Haaretz has learned that Livni and Qureia have achieved significant progress during a number of meetings that did not receive media attention. For example, during a meeting last Wednesday the two agreed in principle that the negotiations would be held on three levels.

At the top level, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would continue to meet every two weeks and focus on monitoring the progress in the negotiations, while they serve to break deadlocks in the negotiating committees. Livni briefed Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on this agreement.

The second level would include the main committee, in which Livni and Qureia will coordinate negotiations on the core issues. The two sides have not yet agreed on which of the issues will be discussed first. The meetings will be between Livni and Qureia, and possibly some aides will be included.

The third tier will include subcommittees, which will be created to negotiate every other issue.

In parallel the two sides will discuss matters that will affect a final-status agreement, through various committees. Central to the discussion will be issues such as security, its implementation, road map obligations, disarmament, the deployment of a multinational force and dividing airspace.

The committee on security issues is likely to be headed by the chief of the Political-Security Department at the Defense Ministry, Major General (res.) Amos Gilad, and Palestinian Interior Minister Abd al-Razek al-Yihiye.

Hamasleider Meshaal bereid met Abbas te praten, niet met Israël

Weer een aanbod van Hamas om met Abbas te gaan praten, maar het is duidelijk dat er geen sprake is van enige matiging van Hamas' zijde: de Zionistische vijand moet worden verslagen, Abbas verkwanselt Palestijnse belangen en zijn regering moet vertrekken.

 

"No Arab country has asked Hamas to give up on the current situation in Gaza," Meshaal said, adding the government of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad should "go."

 

Integendeel, Egypte en Saoedi-Arabië legitimeren de Hamas regering door er deals mee te sluiten, op te roepen tot een einde aan de boycot van Hamas en tot Palestijnse eenheid. Een krachtig signaal van de Arabische staten voor Abbas en tegen Hamas zou waarschijnlijk meer impact hebben dan het standpunt van de VS en andere Westerse landen.

 

 

Ratna
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Hamas ready for unconditional talks with Abbas: Meshaal
http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=080104215642.dewwsbve.php

 

The exiled political chief of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement reiterated in a Friday speech he was ready to talk unconditionally with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

"We are ready for an unconditional dialogue in which all issues will be discussed, including that of bringing forward elections. I say to the leaders of Fatah that our differences are political," Khaled Meshaal said, in a speech in Damascus on the 20th anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

On Monday, Abbas said he wanted to "open a new page" with Hamas if it gave up control of the Gaza Strip, which it took forcibly in mid-June last year from forces loyal to the secular Palestinian president.

The following day, senior Hamas official Mahmud Zahar said the movement welcomed dialogue, but he adamantly rejected the conditions Abbas set for talks aimed at halting the factional struggle.

"No Arab country has asked Hamas to give up on the current situation in Gaza," Meshaal said, adding the government of Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad should "go."

"Our people must stop this government from selling off Palestinian interests," he added of the administration that in effect governs in the West Bank only, and accused it of hounding Hamas members.

"Hamas will resist until the last Israeli soldier leaves Palestinian soil," Meshaal said. "This is a strategic choice. Resistance will continue -- no one can stop it."
He denied there had been contacts between the Islamist movement and "the Zionists who are our enemies," and said Hamas had turned down a European proposal for such a meeting to discuss ways of calming the situation.

"Gaza is starving and surrounded but it is still resisting," Meshaal said. He called upon "Arab leaders to take a courageous decision in order to lift the embargo" on the impoverished territory.

The Islamist leader also said an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militant groups in a cross-border raid on June 15, 2006, would not be freed unilaterally.
"We will not free Gilad Shalit unless our prisoners are released" by Israel, he said.

Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) and representatives of other Damascus-based Palestinian militant movements also attended Friday's meeting marking the Hamas anniversary.

Israël wil Rafah grensovergang weer onder controle krijgen

Sinds Egypte keer op keer overeenkomsten met Israël schendt en halfhartig optreedt tegen de wapensmokkel vanuit de Sinai, is dit een alleszins redelijk verzoek. Uiteraard zullen Egypte en Hamas heftig protesteren tegen een dergelijke "vernederende" maatregel, de laatste waarschijnlijk niet alleen met woorden.

 

 

Ratna

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Report: Israel seeks to regain control of Rafah crossing
London-based al-Quds al-Arabi reports Israel sent letters to Washington, EU requesting permission to establish military base on Gaza-Egypt border, place control over Rafah crossing in hands of international monitors

Roee Nahmias YNET Published: 01.05.08, 16:26 / Israel News
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3490564,00.html

Israel has asked the United States' approval to recapture the Rafah crossing on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, European sources told London-based Arabic newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi.

The paper reported Saturday that Israel has sent letters to Washington and to the EU's headquarters in Brussels protesting Egypt's decision to allow hundreds of Palestinian pilgrims to return to the Gaza Strip last Wednesday, without being subjected to security checks by the Israeli army.

In the letter, Israel demanded that the current status quo on the Gaza-Egypt border be changed, and that Israel would be allowed to set up a military base in the area. Israel also demanded that control over the Rafah crossing would be placed in the hands of international monitors.

Egypt enabled hundreds of Palestinians to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing this week, despite an earlier understanding with Israel that the pilgrims would enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and undergo security checks by the IDF.

Israel's insistence stemmed from concerns that some of the Palestinians returning from Saudi Arabia might be senior terror operatives, or Hamas officials attempting to smuggle large sums of money into the Strip.

Shin Bet rapport over terrorisme in 2007

Shin Beth telde 2.946 terroristische aanvallen tegen Israël in 2007. Dat is inclusief alle aanvallen met raketten en mortiergranaten, maar exclusief de vele verijdelde aanslagen en door Israël voor gebruik vernietigde explosieven, raketten en ander wapentuig.

(Zie ook eerdere berichten in Ynet en Haaretz)

__________________________________________

Security & Defense: Future Tense

Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST

Jan. 3, 2008
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517288697&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

It wasn't that terrorists didn't try last year; they simply didn't succeed. Take a look at the statistics: In 2007, Palestinians carried out 2,946 terror attacks against Israel, nine fewer than in 2006, and 127 fewer than in 2005. Kassam rocket attacks stayed around the same number, with one significant difference - the amount of mortar fire, which jumped from 55 shells last year to a whopping 1,511 in 2007.

In spite of these attacks, a relatively low number of Israelis - 13, to be exact - were killed in them. This is due in part to the significant drop in suicide bombings; only one was successfully carried out in 2007, in comparison to six in 2006 and 60 four years earlier.

These statistics and others were released on New Year's Eve by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) as part of a report titled "Palestinian Terrorism - Statistics and Trends in 2007."

Though the report does not provide assessments or conclusions about the survivability of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, for example, it does strongly hint at the likelihood that terrorism will increase in 2008, particularly in the absence of a diplomatic breakthrough. Defense officials have predicted that despite the ongoing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the chances of reaching a deal by the end of the year, as the US is pushing for, are slim to nil.

According to the report, the main source of Palestinian terrorism is in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is basically unimpeded in its military buildup. This is demonstrated in three ways.

First is the continued smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Gaza. According to the Shin Bet, more than 130 tons of explosives have been smuggled into Gaza since Israel's 2005 unilateral withdrawal - more than 80 tons of which have entered since Hamas's violent takeover of the Strip in June. Because of this, the Air Force fears that Hamas has gotten its hands on anti-aircraft shoulder-to-air missiles. As a result - as was reported in The Jerusalem Post this week - only helicopters equipped with missile defense systems are being allowed to fly over Gaza.

The second aspect of the Hamas military buildup is the tunnel and bunker system extending throughout Gaza.

The third element has to do with the makeup of the Hamas military. No longer a medium-sized terrorist group responsible for suicide bombings and shooting attacks, Hamas has turned into a full-fledged army, with brigades, battalions and special forces.

THE ASSESSMENT for the coming year is that not much will change in Gaza, particularly if it remains under Hamas control, and not that of Abbas.
Meanwhile, the defense establishment is divided on the question of what needs to be done there.

OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant and commander of the Gaza Division Brig.-Gen. Moshe "Chico" Tamir are the proponents of a large-scale operation aimed at destroying or weakening Hamas. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has also repeatedly said that it is only a "matter of time" before such an operation is launched.

On the other side is IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.- Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, who - contrary to popular belief - is not in favor of a massive invasion into Gaza.

There are a number of reasons for hesitation, foremost among them the timing: It is a little over a month since the Annapolis peace summit, two weeks after the beginning of negotiations with the Palestinians and only days before US President George W. Bush makes his historic visit to Jerusalem. A large-scale operation in Gaza, officials say, would be unwise at this juncture.

Another reason for caution is the risk involved in a large-scale operation.
First of all, there is the question of the "day after."

If Israel invades Gaza to cleanse it of Hamas while Abbas is still not capable of taking control, Israel would have to reoccupy Gaza, which is the last thing it wants.

Secondly, though an operation in Gaza would be limited in scope and time, it would not be "in and out."

To really hurt Hamas and impair its ability to launch attacks, IDF troops would have to enter deep into the densely populated and heavily built-up Palestinian territory to hunt down terrorist suspects, Kassam manufacturing plants and weapons caches. Troops would also most likely have to take up positions along the Philadelphi Corridor in southern Gaza, where dozens of tunnels are used for the smuggling of weapons and explosives.

All of this would mean heavy casualties on the Israeli side. Some defense officials even predict that the number could surpass the 119 soldiers killed in the Second Lebanon War. As a result, Ashkenazi today prefers a different approach - a complete disengagement from the territory, including the closure of all the crossings, as well as a full stopping of the delivery of fuel and electricity.

THE SITUATION in Judea and Samaria is slightly different. Though, according to defense establishment assessments, Hamas is just as strong in the West Bank as it is in Gaza - particularly when it comes to the social services it provides - the IDF's freedom of movement and operations there is serving as the sole obstacle to the terror group's ability to overthrow Abbas.

And though Israelis have indeed been killed over the past year there - such as off-duty soldiers David Rubin and Ahikam Amihai, who were gunned down during a hike near Hebron last Friday - the IDF and the Shin Bet have basically prevented all attempts by terror groups to infiltrate Israeli cities and perpetrate suicide bombings. This is in comparison to five years ago, when 62 attacks in Israel originating in the West Bank claimed the lives of 234 Israelis.

IDF units operate daily in West Bank cities. In Nablus alone during the past year, dozens of terror laboratories were uncovered, hundreds of suspects were arrested and the city's Islamic Jihad infrastructure was severely weakened through the killing of nine of its senior operatives and the arrest of an additional 11.

Wiesenthal Center roept VN op zich over zelfmoordaanslagen te buigen

Een goed initiatief, maar waarom alleen zelfmoordterrorisme? Zijn aanslagen waarbij de moordenaars in leven blijven minder erg? Of vooral minder spectaculair? De Palestijnen pleegden in 1993 hun eerste zelfmoordaanslag, reden voor Dries van Agt om te beweren dat er daarvoor géén Palestijns terrorisme was.

 

Vliegtuigkapingen, gijzelingen, maar ook 'ordinaire' aanslagen met een autobom of bermbom zoals in Irak veelvuldig voorkomen, zijn niet minder erg dan zelfmoordaanslagen. Dus laten we proberen al dit terrorisme veroordeeld te krijgen door de VN, al zullen de plegers ervan zich hier weinig van aantrekken.

 

Ratna

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Fri., January 04, 2008 Haaretz

Wiesenthal Center calls on UN to formally address suicide attacks
By Reuters
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941726.html

A week after Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack, a Jewish human rights group has taken out a full page ad in the New York Times on Friday demanding that the United Nations formally address suicide bombings.

The ad by the Los Angeles based Simon Wiesenthal Center features a picture of Bhutto beneath the words "SUICIDE TERROR: What more will it take for the world to act?" and calls on the United Nations for a special session devoted to the issue.

"Unless we put suicide bombing on the top of the international community's agenda, this virulent cancer could engulf us all," it reads. "The looming threat of WMDs in the hands of suicide bombers will dwarf the casualties already suffered in 30 countries."

In the ad, which will also run in the International Herald Tribune, the Simon Wiesenthal Center also calls on the United Nations to declare suicide bombings "crimes against humanity."

Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center's founder and dean, said Bhutto's assassination showed it was time for the United Nations to devote a full special session to ending suicide bombings.

"If we don't put it on the top of the international agenda, the causalities we are seeing now will be nothing compared to what's in store for us in the future," he said by phone. "Thirty or 40 years from now the reports will be: '100,000 people died today in suicide biological attack.'"

Hier noted that the UN has called special sessions to deal with such issues as global warming and AIDS and should do the same for suicide bombings in 2008.

Bhutto's assassination last week, as she left an election rally in Rawalpindi, threw Pakistan into turmoil and left questions about who was behind the gun and suicide bomb attack.

Israël krijgt zetel in 2 VN organisaties: HABITAT en UNEP

Met het lidmaatschap van Israël in 2000 van het "Westerse en Andere Staten" blok (WEOG) in de VN was aan de decennialange discriminatie van Israël binnen de Verenigde Naties nog geen einde gekomen, omdat het nog steeds niet kon deelnemen aan beraadslagingen van belangrijke VN organisaties. Hiervoor zijn aparte stemmingen binnen het WEOG nodig, die bij consensus moeten worden genomen.

 

Onlangs is -blijkens onderstaand bericht- weer een kleine horde genomen op weg naar een gelijkwaardige positie van Israël in de VN: Israël is gekozen om voor WEOG deel te nemen aan de reguliere besprekingen van twee VN organisaties: HABITAT (huisvesting) en UNEP (milieu).

 

Eerder in december had Israël ook al een diplomatiek succesje in de VN met een aangenomen resolutie over het delen van landbouwtechnologieën met derde wereld landen.

 

Er is echter nog een lange weg te gaan voordat Israël in de VN eerlijk wordt behandeld, gezien onder meer de talloze eenzijdige veroordelingen door de Mensenrechtenraad en de Algemene Vergadering, en het arsenaal aan VN-instanties voor de Palestijnen en de vele anti-Israël conferenties zoals Durban en vorig jaar in Brussel.

Ratna & Wouter

-----------------------------

Jerusalem Post / Updated Jan 4, 2008 15:24

Israel gets seats on United Nations agency panels
By HERB KEINON
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517288600&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

While Israel won a four-decade battle in 2000 to get accepted into one of the UN's regional groupings critical for full incorporation into the world body, only now is full integration into the UN system taking place as Israel is finally participating in regular deliberations of UN agencies dealing with the environment and human settlement.

In May 2000, after a long struggle, Israel was accepted into one of the five regional groupings that make up the UN: WEOG, or the Western European and Others Group. Until this time, Israel was the only country at the UN that was outside a regional grouping, and as a result was barred from membership on such UN organizations as the Security Council, UNICEF, UNESCO and numerous other UN bodies and agencies.

The reason was simple: membership in those bodies was allocated according to regional groupings, and Israel was not a member of any such group. Asia, Israel's geographic home, would not accept it.

But finally gaining entrance into WEOG was not the end of the battle, because this meant that Israel could be voted onto the governing bodies of organizations, but it did not give it the right to take part in their consultations. Another selection process inside WEOG was necessary to send Israel to those meetings.

In this selection process, certain WEOG countries objected to Israel taking part because they did not think Israel should be involved in discussions in which issues related to Israel and the Palestinians were raised. Since being chosen for those bodies needed a consensus of all WEOG state, it was always enough for one country to object to block Israel's acceptance.

Since 2000, Israel - according to Roni Leshno Yaar, the director-general of the Foreign Ministry's UN and International Organizations Division - has been trying to get into these consultations. Last month Israel was voted by WEOG to represent the grouping in consultations for two UN agencies: HABITAT, the UN Human Settlement Program, and UNEP, the UN Environment Program. Both these agencies are based in Nairobi.

Calling the move a "significant breakthrough," Leshno Yaar said, "This is an important step for Israeli diplomacy in the direction of normalizing Israel's status in the UN, and recognizing Israel's ability to contribute professionally to the regional UN bodies.

Bommenwerkplaats in Nablus gevonden door PA of door IDF?

Terwijl Haaretz wederom met een verhaal komt waaruit blijkt hoe goed de Palestijnse politie de orde handhaaft in Nablus, vertelt Yediot Ahronot (Ynet) een ander verhaal:

 

IDF forces operating in Nablus Thursday night found two pipes resembling Qassam-like rockets in later stages of assembly in a laboratory in the West Bank city's Casbah.

.....

Military officials from Central Command told Ynet that this incident "proves that as long as the IDF has full freedom of operation in Judea and Samaria, we will succeed in achieving results against terror organizations and if it weren't for this freedom of operation, things wouldn't look the same."
[Het hele artikel staat onderaan.]

 

 

Het is vreemd dat Haaretz deze vondst in het geheel niet vermeldt, en ze laadt daarmee de verdenking op zich het mooie sprookje van gisteren niet te willen verstoren. Men had wel een verhaal van Palestijnse woede en frustratie over de legeroperatie in Nablus, waarbij 25 Palestijnen gewond raakten en verschillenden werden gearresteerd.

 

De voor de hand liggende vraag, waarom Israël vlak voor Bush' komst naar Israël een dergelijke operatie uitvoert als daar geen aanleiding voor is omdat de Palestijnen de boel geheel onder controle hebben, komt blijkbaar niet bij de journalisten van Haaretz op.

 

Een en ander maakt de gebrekkige coördinatie tussen Israël en de Palestijnen op veiligheidsgebied pijnlijk duidelijk. Misschien is dat een goed onderwerp voor de besprekingen met Bush volgende week, in plaats van fraaie maar vooral ook onrealistische vergezichten.

 

 

Ratna

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PA forces uncover Hamas explosives lab in Nablus
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent

 

Last update - 06:37 04/01/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941702.html

Palestinian security forces uncovered a Hamas bomb-making laboratory in Nablus a week ago, where 33 kilograms of mercury and other materials used to make bombs were found, Palestinian sources said Thursday.

The bombs were to be used against Israel but also against Palestinian Authority targets, the sources said.

The hazardous materials were found in a building Palestinian intelligence believed was serving as a Hamas arms cache. Mercury is often used to complete the electrical circuit in bombs - basically an "on" switch for detonation.

In recent weeks the Palestinian security forces carried out a broad security operation in Nablus against Hamas networks. Several dozen Hamas activists were arrested, and most were released after they agreed to turn in their weapons and avoid any activities against Israel or the PA.

The governor of Nablus, Jamal Muhaisen, said the PA has confiscated 120 weapons held by Hamas, mostly M-16s but also sniper rifles, Uzi submachine guns and others.

The head of General Intelligence in the city, Abdullah Kamil, told Haaretz that during the operation his soldiers uncovered "extremely dangerous material." But he declined to give details.

Kamil maintains that the PA security forces destroyed the Hamas network in Nablus, saying that they uncovered sleeper groups affiliated with that radical Islamic organization Kamil believes is preparing to overthrow the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

He also said the PA security services in recent months have foiled dozens of planned attacks against Israeli targets that were initiated in the Hamas network in Nablus.

Muhaisen said the PA has managed to strike a blow at Hamas' financial network and has taken over the group's welfare organizations, a common conduit for transferring funds.

______________________________________________________

IDF uncovers pipes used in manufacturing of Qassams in West Bank
Pipes found along with launch pads in laboratory in Nablus Casbah; 25 Palestinians injured in IDF operations in the city

Efrat Weiss

Published: 01.04.08, 00:29
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3490251,00.html

IDF forces operating in Nablus Thursday night found two pipes resembling Qassam-like rockets in later stages of assembly in a laboratory in the West Bank city's Casbah.

Aided by intelligence pinpointing its location, the IDF forces found the laboratory with two pipes as well as the launching ramps for the projectiles.

The IDF said the rockets were in the advanced stages of assembly.

Locating the laboratory was one of the primary goals of the IDF's operations in the area.

Military officials from Central Command told Ynet that this incident "proves that as long as the IDF has full freedom of operation in Judea and Samaria, we will succeed in achieving results against terror organizations and if it weren't for this freedom of operation, things wouldn't look the same."

At least 25 injured in Nablus

Palestinian sources reported Thursday that at least 25 people were wounded during the IDF's operation in Nablus. According to reports, the casualties include an infant and one man, who was critically injured.

The IDF confirmed the attack, saying military forces were operating in an effort to locate weapons and wanted gunmen, and were using means of riot dispersal.

Large IDF forces made their way into Nablus Thursday morning, surrounding several areas, especially near Nablus' old city, and imposing a curfew. The IDF has detained one wanted gunmen for questioning.

According to Palestinian sources, an altercation flared between the soldiers and several local youths.

The Palestinians expressed their discontent with the IDF's operation in Nablus, particularly since Palestinian police were already deployed in the city.

Ali Waked contributed to this story

IDF: militanten verantwoordelijk voor dood vrouwen in zuiden Gazastrook

Bij verschillende legeroperaties in de Gazastrook zijn gisteren 9 Palestijnen omgekomen. In één van deze operaties kwamen ook ongewapende burgers om.

 

Aldus het NOS journaal: "Volgens ooggetuigen schoot het leger op het huis van een militant waarbij hijzelf, zijn moeder, twee dochters en zoon omkwamen." Men vond het niet nodig naast deze informatie van ooggetuigen ook de versie van het Israëlische leger te geven, dus dat doe ik hieronder.

 

Volgens het leger gaat het over twee, niet vier, burgers die naast twee, niet één, strijder omkwamen en bestookten de strijders de Israëlische troepen vanuit het huis onder andere met anti-tankgranaten. Zij kozen er daarmee bewust voor de daar aanwezige familieleden in gevaar te brengen.

 

 

Ratna

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January 3rd, 2008

IDF SPOKESPERSONS UPDATE
Regarding the incident earlier today in which civilians got hurt, the IDF Spokesperson wishes to clarify:

Armed gunmen entrenched themselves in a house near IDF forces that were operating against terror threats in the southern Gaza Strip. The gunmen fired heavily at the forces, from within the house, using several anti-tank missiles and small-arms. The forces responded with tank fire towards the sources of fire, killing two armed gunmen and apparently two Palestinian women who were with the gunmen in the house at the time. The IDF wishes to clarify that the responsibility for the death of the Palestinian women lies with the gunmen, who operated intentionally from a civilian environment.


--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il

Israëls leiders zwijgen terwijl Egypte pelgrims Hamas Gaza binnenlaat

Laatst vroeg ik mij af waarom Israël zich niet wat assertiever opstelt naar Egypte, dat er zelf geen enkel probleem mee heeft Israël over van alles de maat te nemen. Het gemak waarmee Egypte gemaakte overeenkomsten met Israël schendt, zonder verdere verklaring, is symptomatisch voor een ongelijke verhouding.

 

Ik ben niet de enige die zich hierover opwindt....

 

 

Ratna

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The Egyptians made a move that could have only one meaning: Completely ignoring all the understandings reached with Israel. It is one thing to ignore past understandings, reached on the eve of the disengagement, regarding their responsibility for the border with Gaza. This time around they disregarded a fresh agreement from last week, reached when President Mubarak met Defense Minister Barak.

Scared of the old man?
Israel's leaders silent as Egypt ignores agreement, lets Hamas pilgrims into Gaza

Roni Sofer YNET

Published: 01.04.08, 00:12
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3490232,00.html

Minutes before Egyptian police officers opened the gates and let Hamas pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia back into the Gaza Strip, Amos Gilad's phone rang. On the other end was an acquaintance from Cairo. Major General (Res.) Gilad from the Defense Ministry has some good connections in the Egyptian capital. We are opening the gates, the Egyptian caller informed the stunned Gilad.

Only three weeks ago, Gilad traveled to Cairo to warn our Egyptian allies that the pilgrims heading to Saudi Arabia include some Hamas men, including some terrorists who headed for training in Iran. He also warned that they will be bringing back plenty of money, aimed at greasing the wheels of the terror machine. Yet what the Egyptians heard in one ear immediately came out of the other ear.

Olmert, Livni, and Barak were stunned. The Egyptians made a move that could have only one meaning: Completely ignoring all the understandings reached with Israel. It is one thing to ignore past understandings, reached on the eve of the disengagement, regarding their responsibility for the border with Gaza. This time around they disregarded a fresh agreement from last week, reached when President Mubarak met Defense Minister Barak.

One of the people who was there when the news arrived later said he felt like Cairo was showing contempt to Israel; that it was disregarding basic rules of conduct between states, not to mention states that have a peace agreement and understandings on cooperation in the war against Islamic terrorism.

Nobody said a word

However, the feelings of Israeli leaders are one thing, and their actions are an entirely different thing. The "Mubarak effect", that is, the inexplicable paralysis vis-a-vis the Middle East's elder statesman, worked its magic again. Haunted by fears of the man who recently dispatched his foreign minister to blast our own foreign minister, our leaders chose to say nothing.

After they saw what the old man did to the woman who dared claim that Cairo is not doing its share to stop the smuggling on the Philadelphi Route, Israel's leadership went silent. Nobody said a word. Even Lieberman and Dichter, who are among the most prominent critics of Egypt when it comes to its conduct on the Gaza border, remained silent.

A day late, Jerusalem issued a weak official statement about viewing the latest developments with concern and severity, as they "undermine the war on terror and the efforts to bring about calm and advance the peace process." And who was the undersigned? Neither Olmert, nor any of his deputies, and certainly not Livni or any other cabinet member.

Nobody wanted to handle this hot potato, which Egypt hurled into Israeli territory. The Mubarak effect, no doubt, worked its magic.

Israël zoekt steun van Bush voor ruimte IDF op Westoever

Israël zoekt de steun van de Amerikanen voor veiligheidsarrangementen die de soevereiniteit van een toekomstige Palestijnse staat zullen beperken.

 

The Barak government reached agreement with the Clinton administration on a number of security issues with regard to a future accord with the Palestinians. However, monitoring border crossings and a long-term IDF presence in the Jordan Valley was not among them. The Palestinians vehemently opposed the security steps Israel wanted, such as the emergency IDF deployment in the West Bank, which they saw as damaging to their independence and sovereignty.

 

Israel now seeks to reopen the discussion in the hope that Bush will support its demands.

 

 

Voor zover ik weet hebben de Palestijnen ook nooit met een volledige demilitarisering ingestemd, en met het recht van Israël om over Palestijns luchtruim te vliegen. Overigens is de situatie nu anders dan in 2000, en heeft de tweede intifada niet alleen zijn tol geëist in mensenlevens aan beide kanten, maar ook in het vertrouwen in elkaar en de bereidheid concessies te doen.

According to government and security sources, "in most of the issues involving the agreement with the Palestinians, Israel is the one being asked to give tangible things. The only area in which we have real demands from the Palestinians is that of security arrangements. Therefore it is important that the talks have the proper outline so that Israel can insist on its security demands and the Palestinians will not dilute them."

 

 

Het klopt dat van Israël vooral verlangd wordt om zaken op te geven, want Israël heeft ook het meeste te vergeven. Dat men dat alleen in ruil voor harde veiligheidsgaranties wil doen is niet meer dan terecht. Toch denk ik dat beide partijen meer moeten doen dan land voor veiligheidsgaranties ruilen. De mooiste afspraken zijn weinig waard als een van beide zich er niet aan houdt, als zij door een meerderheid als onrechtvaardig worden beschouwd, als er absoluut geen vertrouwen is dat de andere partij zich aan zijn afspraken zal houden. Je kunt niet overal escapes voor verzinnen, en overal arbitrage of bemiddelingscommissies voor instellen.

 

Wat ik mis in de onderhandelingen is vooral de eis aan de Palestijnen om te erkennen dat de Joden historische rechten in het land hebben, dat Israël niet alleen een voldongen feit is maar ook recht van bestaan heeft, dat antisemitisme evenals andere vormen van racisme verwerpelijk is en moet worden bestreden. 

 

Wellicht beschouwt men dit als iets voor een later stadium, in de zekerheid dat de Palestijnen daar nu niet toe bereid of in staat zijn, maar mij klinken afspraken over specifieke arrangementen voor het leger in de Jordaanvallei, of hoe en door wie de grenzen gecontroleerd zullen worden, ook behoorlijk voorbarig in de oren. 

 

Bovendien is een einde aan de anti-Israël en antisemitische ophitsing een concreet punt dat bijdraagt aan een beter klimaat voor vrede, net als vredeseducatie aan beide kanten en allerlei projecten die beide partijen meer bewust moeten maken van de grieven en gevoeligheden aan de andere kant. Er kan morgen mee begonnen worden, en organisaties die hier al mee bezig zijn kunnen steun en versterking krijgen. Waarom wordt daar niet meer over gepraat en aan gewerkt?

 

 

Ratna

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Jerusalem seeks Bush okay for IDF free hand in West Bank 
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent

Last update - 09:01 03/01/2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941180.html

 
Israel is seeking to reach an understanding with the U.S. administration that would safeguard Israel's security interests in a future final-status agreement with the Palestinians and during current negotiations, government sources have said.

The sources also said Israel is seeking President George W. Bush's support for its security demands so that such understandings can serve as a basis for the work of the American special security envoy General James Jones, who has been tasked with formulating the security arrangements for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to discuss these security issues with Bush during the president's visit here next week.
At the heart of Israel's demands is that it remain free to act against terror in the West Bank for as long as negotiations last, and that demilitarization arrangements place limitations on the future Palestinian state.

Discussions with administration officials on this issue began even before the Annapolis summit, during the visit of the Israeli delegation to Washington.

Wednesday Olmert called a meeting ahead of the Bush visit with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. Barak presented the security demands in detail and Livni discussed the importance of demilitarizing the areas that Israel would evacuate in the future.

Israel wants to maintain effective military superiority in the territories during the talks, and ensure that it has the freedom to act against terror organizations in Gaza. "It is inconceivable that we would be prevented from continuing the extraordinary achievement against terror in the West Bank," a source said.

"In the previous year no Israeli was killed within the Green Line from an attack that came from the West Bank. In the West Bank, four people were killed. In the South, it is true that quiet has not yet returned to Sderot, but we are carrying out an effective and focused offensive there. Hundreds of terrorists were killed last year."

Israel would like the U.S. to agree to a number of limitations on the future Palestinian state's sovereignty. Israel wants Palestine to be completely demilitarized, and for Israel to be able to fly over Palestinian air space. Border crossings would be monitored by Israel in such a way that the symbols of Palestinian sovereignty would not be compromised, but Israel would know who was coming and going.

Israel is to propose the deployment of an international force in the West Bank and along the Philadelphi Route in Rafah, and would ask that a permanent Israel Defense Forces presence remain for an extended period in the Jordan Valley.

Jordan Valley 'tripwire force'

According to Israel's plan, a small Israeli force would be stationed in the Jordan Valley as a "tripwire force" that would act as a deterrent. Israel would also demand Palestinian agreement that in the case of an emergency Israel could deploy in essential areas of the West Bank to thwart a threat of invasion from the East.

Such a deployment would only take place under extreme circumstances, but including it in the agreement would ensure that the Palestinians would not object if the time came when it was needed.

Under ordinary circumstances the West Bank would be completely demilitarized, with only internal Palestinian security forces on duty.

The Barak government reached agreement with the Clinton administration on a number of security issues with regard to a future accord with the Palestinians. However, monitoring border crossings and a long-term IDF presence in the Jordan Valley was not among them. The Palestinians vehemently opposed the security steps Israel wanted, such as the emergency IDF deployment in the West Bank, which they saw as damaging to their independence and sovereignty.

Israel now seeks to reopen the discussion in the hope that Bush will support its demands.

According to government and security sources, "in most of the issues involving the agreement with the Palestinians, Israel is the one being asked to give tangible things. The only area in which we have real demands from the Palestinians is that of security arrangements. Therefore it is important that the talks have the proper outline so that Israel can insist on its security demands and the Palestinians will not dilute them."

Een Hudna met Hamas is geen oplossing

Het was onder Amerikaanse druk dat Israël niet alleen de nederzettingen in de Gazastrook ontruimde, maar ook het leger terugtrok, en de controle van de Philadelphi Road (de grens met Egypte) overdroeg aan de PA, Egypte en waarnemers van de EU (die na de machtsovername van de Gazastrook door Hamas weer ijlings zijn vertrokken).

 

Ook de deelname van Hamas aan de verkiezingen gebeurde onder Amerikaanse druk. Israël was daartegen, omdat het de Oslo Akkoorden schendt, waarin staat dat alleen partijen die het geweld hebben afgezworen aan de verkiezingen mochten meedoen. Immers, de Palestijnse Autoriteit was gecreëerd als tijdelijke instantie om met Israël te onderhandelen namens de Palestijnen en door Israël overgedragen gebied te controleren. De Oslo akkoorden stellen duidelijk dat voor gewapende groepen buiten de eigen veiligheidsdienst en politie, die onder andere tot taak hebben aanslagen en ander geweld tegen Israëli's te verhinderen, geen plaats is.

 

Het is jammer, nee triest, dat veel Europese politici en journalisten, destijds zulke grote voorstanders van Oslo, dit lijken te zijn vergeten.

Een kernachtige samenvatting van waarom Israël niet moet ingaan op het voorstel tot een 'Hudna' (tijdelijke wapenstilstand) met Hamas:

Israel's acceptance of the hudna proposal would constitute a strategic victory for Hamas and its allies: The organization would be regarded by the Palestinian population as the leading element in the national struggle. It would quickly receive international legitimacy, establish its economic and political control through the generous assistance of the international community, and be able to develop a deterrent military capability vis-a-vis Israel through massive arms smuggling across the Egyptian border.

Dit is niet alleen slecht voor Israël, maar ook voor Fatah en andere meer gematigde Palestijnen.

 

Ratna
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Hudna is no solution

By Ely Karmon

 

Haaretz, Last update - 03:31 02/01/2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/940738.html

In light of the success of the pinpoint military operations against Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, and signs of weakening in the Hamas leadership, many are calling for accepting Ismail Haniyeh's purported offer of a hudna (a cease-fire), or alternately a tahadiyeh (a lull in the fighting), in exchange for an end to IDF operations in Gaza and a lifting of the siege. It appears that the decision makers in Israel have learned nothing.

Following the Six-Day War and up until December 1987, the security authorities allowed a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood to set up a religious, social and economic network, which in turn led to the creation of Hamas after the outbreak of the first intifada. This was done in an effort to weaken the secular PLO elements who utilized terrorism to advance their goal of a Palestinian state. That short-sighted policy failed to appreciate the Muslim Brotherhood's long-term strategy, which found a clear manifestation in the homeland of the movement, Egypt, where since the early 1970s Islamist terrorist movements have operated.

The expulsion of 415 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to southern Lebanon in December 1992, and their return to the territories following the Oslo Accords, without the "Hezbollization" they had undergone in training camps in Lebanon being taken into consideration, resulted in the adoption of suicide bombings as a strategic tool for undermining the peace process. Thus, with the start of the second intifada, Hamas became the backbone of the Palestinian resistance to the existence of Israel. Nonetheless, during the bloody years of the intifada, Israel's governments opted to demolish the structure of the Palestinian Authority instead of targeting the Hamas leadership, a move it took only in the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his deputy, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, in the spring of 2004.

Following the death of Yasser Arafat, in November 2004, instead of keeping up the pressure on Hamas, the Sharon government opted to carry out a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip without an agreement, even though it was clear that Hamas would take over Gaza and from there carry on the fight to the West Bank. Later, Israel allowed Hamas to participate in elections and to politically take over the Palestinian Authority, establishing an independent military force modeled after Hezbollah. At the end of the process, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, also without any serious response.

Israel's acceptance of the hudna proposal would constitute a strategic victory for Hamas and its allies: The organization would be regarded by the Palestinian population as the leading element in the national struggle. It would quickly receive international legitimacy, establish its economic and political control through the generous assistance of the international community, and be able to develop a deterrent military capability vis-a-vis Israel through massive arms smuggling across the Egyptian border.

In a year or two, an extremist state, allied with Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, will emerge on our southern border, with a good chance of taking over the West Bank and affecting the stability of Jordan, Egypt and possibly also the Islamic Movement in Israel. Even if Hamas meets its promise not to violate the cease-fire for several months, Iran and its ally, Islamic Jihad, will do everything in their power to sabotage the negotiations with the Palestinians.

Is the temporary, tactical and relative calm of a few months, maybe even a year or two, sufficient justification for Israel's next strategic failure? Will we not then face a situation similar to what emerged in southern Lebanon following Israel's unilateral withdrawal of May 2000, which led to the forlorn results of July-August 2006? Are those who are now threatening that we will respond in force if Hamas or any other Palestinian group violates the hudna, not find more excuses to avoid taking action against them?

In light of the continued targeting of Israeli communities with rocket fire, and the ongoing smuggling, Israel must employ a tough policy and keep up its effort against a strengthening of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This should include targeting the organization's leadership, and if necessary, carrying out a ground offensive to take control of the Philadelphi route and segments of the northern Gaza Strip before weapons of strategic significance find their way there.

We should remember that there are still radical elements in Fatah who do not accept a compromise with Israel, among them Fatah Secretary General Farouk Kaddoumi, whose permanent base is Damascus. Only by bolstering the moderates in the Palestinian leadership and population in the West Bank, while politically and socially weakening Hamas in Gaza, will it be possible, perhaps, for fissures to occur in the Islamic movement and for a joint struggle with the Fatah moderates and the pragmatic leaders among Hamas against the radicals in control in Gaza and elsewhere.

Dr. Ely Karmon is a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Inter-Disciplinary Center, Herzliya.

PA veiligheidsdiensten boeken succes in Nablus

In een pr-achtig artikel leggen Palestijnse leiders in Nablus uit hoe succesvol ze zijn in het bestrijden van chaos, wetteloosheid en de Hamas. Om eerlijk te zijn klinkt het te mooi om waar te zijn. Het is bepaald onwaarschijnlijk dat de vele gewapende groepen, niet alleen Hamas maar ook allerlei lokale bendes, opeens geheel verslagen zouden zijn en/of al hun wapens vrijwillig hebben afgegeven. Mij zijn geen heftige gevechten bekend in Nablus de afgelopen tijd. Een slecht teken aan de wand is bovendien de oneerlijke manier waarop over de moord op twee Israëli's door leden van Fatah wordt bericht:

 

On Tuesday, two high-ranking activists wanted by the Shin Bet security services, Sufyan Kandil and Ala Abuda, gave themselves up to the Palestinian Authority and are now in a Palestinian jail.

 

 

Ze gaven zichzelf aan om te voorkomen door Israël te worden opgepakt. De Palestijnse Autoriteit laat plegers van aanslagen tegen Israëli's of andere aanvallen doorgaans snel weer vrij. De Palestijnse veiligheidsdienst die ze heeft ondervraagd, hield bovendien informatie achter voor Israël.

 

Het is natuurlijk niet bepaald fraai dat twee mensen die in dienst zijn bij de Palestijnse Autoriteit (bij een rechtbank en als lid van de nationale veiligheidsdienst) een aanval voorbereiden en uitvoeren op liftende Israëli's, maar in dit artikel wordt het als een prestatie van de PA gepresenteerd.

Het was interessant (en ook conform journalistieke regels) geweest als op zijn minst het volgende was gecheckt bij Israël:

 

Throughout the conversation Kamil charged that Israel was trying to hurt the Palestinian security forces. "How do you explain that right on the day we operated in the Balata refugee camp, the Israeli army went in? What is the logic, if not to weaken our ability to operate?"

 

 

Misschien was de logica wel om een aanslag te voorkomen waarover Israël informatie had die de PA miste, om explosieven in beslag te nemen of terroristen te arresteren die worden gezocht vanwege eerdere aanslagen tegen Israël? We weten het niet, want men heeft dit niet uitgezocht. Sinds de PA in Nablus orde op zaken stelt is Israël ook gewoon nog actief, en dat is conform de afspraken die zijn gemaakt. Aangezien bijna wekelijks aanslagen worden verijdeld is het niet zo gek dat Israël toch net ietsje meer op de eigen veiligheidsdiensten en het leger vertrouwt dan op de Palestijnse veiligheidsdiensten en politie. Kwestie van ervaring. De manier waarop inlichtendienst chef Abdullah Kamil afgeeft op Israël is een tweede slecht voorteken.

 

 

Ratna

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PA security forces restore public order in turbulent W. Bank city
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent

 

Last update - 04:30 03/01/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941352.html

NABLUS - Four young women from the Nablus neighborhood of Rafidiyeh went into a shop Wednesday near the clock square in the center of Nablus. Dressed in the trendiest jeans and blouses, they were looking for fashionable leather bags. Two minutes later they came out empty-handed, disappointed at not finding what they wanted.

Just a few months ago, they said, they did not feel safe enough to walk alone in the street. "We felt like there could be problems any moment," Laila, 20, said. "Today it's different." Her friend, Nahala, 18, says "people have stopped being afraid they're going to get hit by gunmen's bullets." And in fact, nowhere in the city, not even at the entrance to the Kasbah, could armed men be found who were not members of the Palestinian security forces.

Nablus, which until recently was decribed as the "terror capital" and the "capital of chaos," now seems like the most stable and quiet city in the West Bank.

Jamal, owner of a center-city clothing store, says the shake-downs, threats and armed robbery so typical of Nablus have stopped. "In the past, a gunman would ask a business owner for money for 'the intifada.' If he refused, the next day he could find his shop burned. Today, I'm pleased. During Id al-Adha, there was a lot of work and there are no more criminal problems," Jamal said.

The actions of the Palestinian security forces and the new urban reality in Nablus have pulled the rug out from under the claims in Israel about the weakness of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

The Palestinian security forces, which have been accused in Israel mainly of carrying out attacks like the one on Friday near Hebron that took the lives of two hikers, have managed to accomplish what until recently was considered mission impossible: bringing law and order to Nablus.

The market stalls that clogged the streets have been removed by the Palestinian police. The security forces have managed to root out a phenomenon that was common in Nablus - stolen vehicles; Police are seen on almost every street spot-checking vehicle licenses.

Most of the Fatah gunmen have surrendered their weapons to the security forces. Some have even joined them. On Tuesday, two high-ranking activists wanted by the Shin Bet security services, Sufyan Kandil and Ala Abuda, gave themselves up to the Palestinian Authority and are now in a Palestinian jail. Most important of all for the Israelis is that the PA leaders say they have destroyed the Hamas infrastructure in the city.

It is difficult to pinpoint a single reason for the success of the Palestinian security forces in Nablus. Nablus Governor Jamal Mohsein says "every decision we made has been carried out. We united the security forces and ended competition among them. There is no more shooting off guns at weddings and funerals or at any other event. We confiscated 120 firearms from Hamas activists, along with explosives intended for attacks against Israel and the PA. Hamas has no more weapons in Nablus. We appointed new governing committees for all the charitable organizations that had operated under Hamas in the past, and they own numerous properties throughout the city, including hospitals and buildings. But the bottom line is that for this trend to continue, the peace process has to move forward," Mohsein says.

The PA's decision, particularly that of its prime minister, to focus on security in Nablus, stemmed from the understanding that it is the West Bank's key city. If the security forces can bring order to chaos here, it will send a message to the other cities in the West Bank, to the terror organizations and criminal elements. For this purpose, 350 policemen were brought to the city two months ago in coordination with Israel. Only a few days ago, they left to operate in other West Bank cities.

Nablus intelligence chief Abdullah Kamil says a strategic change is taking place in the region. "We thwarted Hamas' plans, of which we have proof, to take over the PA institutions in the city and make another revolution. We found dozens of weapons in their possession and some of the most dangerous explosives intended to thwart the peace process. Our goal was to strike at Hamas militarily and then deal with criminal problems and we have done so. We have disarmed Hamas, we have hit them hard, and today they cannot rehabilitate their infrastructure. Even in Israel, they are surprised at our success."

Kamil pulls out five guns. "All of these were captured in the homes of Hamas men. Most are from Israel, but there is one rifle here that isn't in use even in Israel, an M-23 sniper's rifle. We also stopped attacks by other organizations, with help from abroad," Kamil said.

Throughout the conversation Kamil charged that Israel was trying to hurt the Palestinian security forces. "How do you explain that right on the day we operated in the Balata refugee camp, the Israeli army went in? What is the logic, if not to weaken our ability to operate?"

Egypte laat pelgrims toch via Rafah overgang naar Gazastrook terugkeren

Zoals verwacht laat Egypte de teruggekeerde Palestijnen uit Mekka via Rafah teruggaan naar de Gazastrook, in schending van de afspraken met Israël om ze via Kerem Shalom te laten terugkeren, zodat ze door de Israëlische controles moesten.

 

Israël vreest dat enkele Hamas activisten onder de pelgrims grote sommen geld voor deze organisatie de grens over zullen smokelen, een niet ongegronde vrees gezien eerdere ervaringen. Egypte hecht blijkbaar meer belang aan haar relatie met Hamas dan die met Israël, ondanks het feit dat beide landen lang geleden officieel vrede sloten. De vraag is waarom en hoe Israël Egypte beter duidelijk kan maken dat een goede verstandhouding met Israël ook in Egyptes belang is.

 

Verder commentaar op IMO Blog: Israel, Egypte en de lieve vrede

 

 

Ratna

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Egypt allows pilgrims to return to Gaza
By Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid 3 January 2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941142.html

Hundreds of Palestinians who were stranded in El Arish in Sinai and on a boat anchored in the Red Sea began returning to the Gaza Strip yesterday, via the Rafah crossing as demanded by Hamas and in contradiction of the understanding between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

About 2,000 Palestinians were detained after returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia last week, after Israel demanded that they be subjected to security checks and entered Gaza via the Israeli border only. Israeli officials feared that among the pilgrims were important Hamas activists who left Gaza with the pilgrims and brought back large sums of money for Hamas.

About half of the returning pilgrims stayed on the ferry from Saudi Arabia, while half waited in tents in the El Arish area. Some pilgrims staged protests in El Arish against the Egyptian authorities.

Jerusalem officials noted yesterday that "the crossing of pilgrims and Hamas activists between the Gaza Strip and Sinai is a violation of all the agreements between Israel and Egypt."

Egypt briefed Israel on its intention to allow the pilgrims to cross. "We didn't like it that they left and we didn't like the way they returned," a military source said. "We had an expectation that it would it happen and unfortunately it did."

Hamas Gaza leader and deposed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh blessed the pilgrims who returned from Sinai without "being injured or extorted by the Israeli occupation" and without crossing the border under Israeli supervision. Haniyeh thanked Egypt, Mubarak and Saudi Arabian King Abdullah and his government for their aid and efforts to solve the crisis.

Haniyeh also called for a "new page" in intra-Palestinian relations and urged Palestinians "to stand together in the West Bank, Gaza and outside of Palestine in the face of the threats to Palestinian interests."

He addressed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah movement and all Palestinian factions, saying that he supports dialogue "to solve the disagreements and end the separation [between the West Bank and Gaza]."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday criticized Egypt for its inability to halt weapons smuggling from Sinai to the Gaza Strip through the tunnels on the Philadelphi Route. Meeting with a U.S. Congressional delegation who had earlier visited Egypt, he told them that Israel expects Egypt to do more to stop the smuggling.

IDF doodt 7 terroristen in Gazastrook - volgens PA een 'bloedbad' op 'burgers'

Israël doodt 7 Hamas- en andere terroristen, tegenstanders van het vredesproces, van democratie en van Abbas zelf. Toch veroordeelt zijn woordvoerder dit in harde bewoordingen:


www.wafa.ps/english/body.asp?id=10881

RAMALLAH, January 2, 2008 (WAFA - PLO news agency)- Presidency Spokesperson condemned on Wednesday the massacre perpetrated by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the Gaza Strip which resulted in the killing of seven citizens.

The Spokesperson considered the massacre as an aggressive act aims at escalating situation before the US President George. W. Bush expected visit to the region.

"Israel tries to escape the political merits, the priority of which is implementing the Road Map plan and halting settlements activities in all Palestinian territories, including Jerusalem," according to the Spokesperson.

The Spokesperson called on the Quartet, specially the US to intervene and put an end to bloodshed and Israeli crimes which destroy the peace process.

"Israël pleegt een massaslachting door onschuldige burgers van Hamas en Islamitische Jihad te doden." Dit is een misdaad die om onmiddelijke interventie vraagt, aldus Fatah logica. Dat wat er in de Gazastrook gebeurt en de dagelijkse Qassam raketten op Israël niet bepaald aan de eisen van de Routekaart voldoen, vergeet de gematigde leiding van Fatah blijkbaar even.

 

Waarom het vredelievende Fatah - waaraan de VS wapens geeft met goedkeurung van Israël - Hamas strijders 'burgers' noemt, en overduidelijk suggereert dat het hier om ongewapende onschuldige burgers gaat, ontgaat me. Liegen is ook niet bevorderlijk voor het vredesproces.

 

Bovendien betreft het hier Abbas' eigen vijanden, mensen die Fatah leden van daken hebben gegooid en gewonden uit ziekenhuizen gesleurd. Met geld van de EU en de VS moet Abbas op de Westelijke Jordaanoever orde op zaken stellen en de verschillende milities aanpakken. Zo staat het in de Routekaart en zo heeft hij het beloofd aan Israël en de internationale gemeenschap.

Hieronder het ware verhaal van de IDF operaties.

Ratna
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IAF strike moderately wounds senior PRC militant in Gaza Strip
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters 

Haaretz, Last update - 23:02 02/01/2008
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/940637.html

A senior militant of the Palestinian Resistance Committees was moderately wounded late Wednesday in an Israel Air Force attack on the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun.

The strike, which targeted a vehicle carrying top PRC members, was jointly orchestrated by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service.

Palestinian witnesses said two other people were lightly to moderately wounded in the attack.

Meanwhile, the IDF killed seven Hamas, Popular Resistance Committees and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade militants early Wednesday morning in a joint operation that included both land and air forces.

Palestinians reported that five of the militants were killed by an IAF missile strike while a sixth militant from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade was killed in a gunfight with IDF soldiers on the ground.

The fatalities from the IAF strike were named as Aahad Shimli, Yussef Shimli, Masab Jundia, Abed al-Karim al-Hilu and Hamad Abu Amira. The first four were Hamas militants and the last a member of the Popular Resistance Committee. The sixth militant was killed in a gunfight with troops on the ground.

Hamas's armed wing, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, vowed after the strike to continue fighting Israel "until victory or martyrdom."

An IDF spokeswoman said the army had targeted the Palestinian gunmen after they fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli troops operating in the area.

The IDF confirmed that troops had operated for a few hours in the area near Gaza City and that they had fired, together with IAF aircraft, at gunmen who shot anti-tank missiles toward the soldiers. The soldiers withdrew shortly after sun-up.

IDF kills Hamas militant

At least one Hamas militant was killed and three others wounded Tuesday by Israel Defense Forces fire near the security fence along the central Gaza Strip.

The army said troops opened fire on a militant cell that was approaching the fence.

Hamas, which controls the Strip, said the man was a member of its security force.

 

Beperking van godsdienstvrijheid op de Tempelberg

Dit zijn het soort berichten dat me blijft verbazen, en me doet beseffen hoe weinig ik soms nog van het Midden-Oosten begrijp. Joden mogen niet op een zichtbare wijze bidden op de Tempelberg (een heilige plaats voor Joden omdat hier vroeger de Joodse Tempels hebben gestaan), want dit kan aanstootgevend zijn voor moslims. Dit is geen antisemitische richtlijn van de Ottomanen of de Britse autoriteiten tijdens hun mandaat over Palestina, maar een besluit van de Israëlische regering.  

 

A Jew is not allowed to pray in any overt manner whatsoever on the Temple Mount, even if he is just moving his lips in prayer, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter recently wrote MKs Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad (National Union-NRP).
.......

This interpretation, Dichter continued, "is in line with the rationale that bans Jews from praying at the site, in light of serious concerns that this will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed."

 

 

Om problemen en spanningen te voorkomen, zet men zelf een stap terug en staat niet op zijn rechten.

 

Het is een beeld van Israël dat we niet kennen uit de media, maar dat misschien minder zou mogen verbazen dan het doet: na de verovering c.q. bevrijding van de Oude Stad van Jeruzalem tijdens de Zesdaagse Oorlog, is direct besloten om de status quo te zoveel mogelijk te handhaven en iedere geloofsgemeenschap maximale zeggenschap over de eigen heiligdommen te laten behouden.

 

Onder het mom van herstelwerkzaamheden heeft de islamitische Waqf eind jaren '90 en het afgelopen jaar opnieuw uitgebreide graafwerkzaamheden verricht waarbij talloze Joodse artefacten zijn vernield en op de vuilnisbelt van Jeruzalem belandden. Ondanks toenemende protesten uit de samenleving, niet in de laatste plaats van archeologen, heeft de regering niets tegen dergelijke werkzaamheden ondernomen, want men wilde geen lont in een kruitvat aansteken. En met dezelfde motivatie heeft men zelf werkzaamheden buiten de Tempelberg, om een kapotte loopbrug te vervangen, gestaakt na luid protest van Arabische en Palestijnse organisaties, alsmede Egypte. In tegenstelling tot de jarenlange en werkelijk schadelijke werkzaamheden van de Waqf gingen de Verenigde Naties zich ermee bemoeien en stelde een onderzoek in, dat tot de conclusie kwam dat Israël inderdaad niets onoorbaars had gedaan, maar desalniettemin Israël toch opriep de werkzaamheden te staken.  

 

 

Ratna

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No moving Jewish lips in prayer on Temple Mount, says Dichter
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 08:29 02/01/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/940710.html

A Jew is not allowed to pray in any overt manner whatsoever on the Temple Mount, even if he is just moving his lips in prayer, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter recently wrote MKs Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad (National Union-NRP).

In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that it accepted the government's position that it was not opposed to individual Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, providing that it was not of a demonstrative nature that could lead to public disorder. High Court rulings in recent years have also been seen to support individual, as opposed to group prayer on the Mount.

Ariel and Eldad recently decided to test the State's position on this issue. They informed the police that "they intended to manifest this right" [to non-demonstrative prayer] by first coordinating the best time and place to enter and exit the Temple Mount complex.


The two MKs explained that all they intended to do was to pray, without informing the media of their plans, or wearing a talit or tefilin, or bringing a Torah scroll with them.

"It is not possible to arrest a person for 'conversing with his maker," Dichter replied, using the same terminology of the MKs' letter.

"However it is possible to carry out an arrest for expressions of outward and demonstrative signs [of prayer]."

This interpretation, Dichter continued, "is in line with the rationale that bans Jews from praying at the site, in light of serious concerns that this will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed."

It was further explained to the two MKs that from the police's point of view, there is no substantive difference between the prayer of an individual and group prayer, since the threat to public safety is the same. Such act would be considered "altering the status quo at the site."

Dichter stressed that the state's decision to ban Jewish prayer from the Temple Mount does not distinguish between an individual praying and that of a group, and that this has been the basis of the status quo since 1967.

Gematigde Fatah leden achter aanval op Israëli's

Een aanval op twee Israëli's op de Westoever afgelopen vrijdag is opgeëist door leden van Abbas' gematigde Fatah beweging. Eén van hen was klerk bij een rechtbank en ook betrokken bij de Palestijnse inlichtingendienst, de ander werkte voor de Palestijnse nationale veiligheidsdienst. Zij gaven zichzelf aan bij de Palestijnse Autoriteit, om zo arrestatie door Israël te vermijden.

 

Israël heeft intussen de PA opgeroepen ze niet vrij te laten en gedreigd dan het heft in eigen hand te nemen. De kans dat ze van de PA een lange straf zullen krijgen voor deze moorden is echter klein. De PA heeft plegers van aanslagen tegen Israëli's altijd snel weer vrij gelaten.

 

Zowel de Palestijnse veiligheidsdiensten als de politie en inlichtingendiensten worden overigens voor een groot deel betaald met geld van de internationale gemeenschap, waaronder de Europese Unie, en hun wapens door de EU verschaft met Israëlische toestemming, met als doel dergelijke aanvallen en aanslagen te voorkomen. Het is dan ook aan ons erop toe te zien dat leden die dergelijke misdaden begaan hard worden gestraft.

 

 

Ratna

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Terrorists who carried out deadly W. Bank shooting were Fatah men
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent

 

Last update - 21:30 01/01/2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/940692.html

The terrorists who carried out Friday's shooting attack near the West Bank city of Hebron, killing two Israelis, were both members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, according to information made public Tuesday.

The terrorists turned themselves into Palestinian Authority general intelligence custody immediately following the attack, due to fears they would be captured by Israeli security forces that were in pursuit.

Ahikam Amihai and David Rubin, who were killed in the attack, were both Israel Defense Forces soldiers on leave from their unit. They were hiking near Hebron when they came under fire from Palestinian terrorists in a Jeep.

Amihai and Rubin were both armed, and managed to return fire, killing one of the terrorists. Their female companion, a Kiryat Arba resident who had joined them for the hike, was uninjured.

The PA general intelligence did not immediately inform Israel that the terrorists were in its custody, and only did so once the Shin Bet security service approached Palestinian officials.

Following the Shin Bet request, Palestinian intelligence confirmed that the terrorists had turned themselves in, and even handed over to Israel the victims' weapons, which the assailants had taken following the attack, as well as the weapons used in the shooting.

The terrorist who was killed was identified as 23-year-old Hebron resident Bassel Natsha. The two who turned themselves in are 24-year-old Hebron resident Ali Dandanes, a court clerk and Fatah member who has ties to the Palestinian general intelligence, and 26-year-old Hebron resident Amar Taha, a Fatah member and a member of the Palestinian national security forces.

According the Palestinian inquiry, the attack was premeditated, and the terrorists had waited for an opportune time to carry it out. One of the terrorists spotted the Israeli hikers, and called the other two to the scene in order to carry out the attack.