Israëlische operaties op de Westoever houden Palestijnse aanslagen tegen

De mythe dat het onmogelijk is om een oorlog tegen terroristen of guerilla's te winnen wordt nu zelfs door de linkse Haaretz onderuit gehaald, evenals de mythe dat er zo weinig aanslagen meer zijn in Israël vanwege een of ander bestand waar Hamas zich aan zou houden of een algehele matiging van die beweging.

 

Ratna

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The West Bank operation / A reminder of a forgotten war
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff Haaretz 20 September 2007
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/904978.html

The death of a soldier from an elite unit yesterday in Nablus was a reminder of a forgotten war. The endless wait for the Winograd Committee report - and the political capital the prime minister has received in opinion polls published in recent days - have drawn the attention of most Israelis away from the daily warfare that is taking place less than an hour from the center of the country. In recent months, the West Bank and Gaza Strip security forces have arrested hundreds of militants and foiled dozens of terrorist attacks. Only the fact that yesterday the IDF suffered its first fatality this year in the West Bank has returned the focus on what is taking place on that front.

It's common to claim it is impossible to defeat terrorism. But over the years of combating Palestinian terrorism during the second intifada (this month marks the seventh anniversary), the IDF and the Shin Bet have reached the closest possible point to achieving a victory. Since the beginning of the year, two soldiers (one each in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) and six Israeli citizens (three in a suicide bombing in Eilat, two from Qassam rockets in Sderot, and one who was stabbed to death in the Etzion bloc in the West Bank) were killed as a result of terrorism. These are very minor figures, considering the number of attempts at carrying out attacks, and also when compared to the high point of the intifada, when 450 Israelis were killed in 2002. The last suicide bombing in central Israel occurred 18 months ago, in April 2006, in the old central bus station in Tel Aviv.

The winning formula is a combination of aggressive intelligence gathering by the Shin Bet, the obstacle created by the separation fence and the complete freedom of operations granted to the IDF in the Palestinian cities.

The army considers the continued arrests of militants and the main roadblocks as essential tools for successfully combating terrorism. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday that if he had to choose between easing restrictions on Palestinians and security considerations, he would opt for the latter.

Earlier this week, Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin warned that Hamas is trying to carry out a large-scale suicide bombing in an effort do undermine the regional summit scheduled to take place in Washington in November.

Meanwhile, there is a serious debate within Hamas. Like Fatah during the first year of the intifada, Hamas is also speaking in two tongues - at the minimum. While the Hamas leadership under Ismail Haniyeh is promoting a relatively pragmatic line and sending clear signals about its willingness to resume the cease-fire agreement with Israel in the Gaza Strip, members of the armed wing of the group, headed by Ahmed al-Ja'abari and backed by Mahmoud al-Zahar from the political wing, reject any such option.

The more extremist camp, along with the Hamas leadership in Damascus, is behind the latest orders to dispatch suicide bombers from the West Bank. In Nablus, where members of Hamas have recently been joined by militants from the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front and Fatah have come under pressure from the Palestinian Authority security forces. But the increasing power of al-Zahar and his followers in the Gaza Strip has been sufficient to cause concern among the group's leadership in Damascus.