Sharon is warned of assassination plot by radical Jews
timesonline.co.uk
THE Israeli internal security service, Shin Beth, fears a radical Jewish group is planning to assassinate Ariel
Sharon, the prime minister, who has been warned by
intelligence advisers to keep public appearances to a
minimum.
Shin Beth has identified extremists in settlers’ groups as the
likely plotters, and has activated agents to infiltrate their
underground networks.
The settlers have been infuriated by Sharon’s support for an
independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. After
he reiterated it at last weekend’s conference of his Likud party,
security was tightened around his ranch in the Negev desert.
Shin Beth is still haunted by its failure to protect Yitzhak Rabin,
the prime minister assassinated in 1995 by a fanatical opponent
of his plan to trade land for peace.
A recent plot to bomb an Arab girls’ school was foiled by Shin
Beth but convinced its senior officers that the militants were a
growing menace.
Two weeks ago a police patrol was sent to Jerusalem’s Arab
neighbourhood of A-Tur to look for a suspicious vehicle. Next
to the school two officers found a car with Israeli registration
plates towing a trailer that two men were trying to detach.
The police were suspicious about the presence of Jews in an
Arab neighbourhood during the intifada but were about to
release them when they were told by radio to check the trailer. It
was found to be loaded with explosives, and a timer primed to go
off at 7.35am, just as the girls would have been arriving at
school.
A search of the car yielded illegal arms and the men were taken
for interrogation in Jerusalem. A court ordered a news blackout
and Sharon was informed that a potential bloodbath had been
averted. “Foiling that plan was more important to us than the
exposure of an Arab suicide bomber,” said one security officer.
Two further suspects were arrested later. “These are not
innocent people, these are murderers,” said a source close to the
inquiry.
Spanish radio reported last night that an agreement had
been reached on the final destinations of 13 Palestinian
militants taken out of the besieged Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem last week. Spain and Italy are
each to take three of the militants, Greece and Ireland
two each, and Portugal, Finland and Cyprus one each.
The 13 are currently in Cyprus. |
