Analysis: The Palestinian terror organizations have lost patience
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
It is not clear whether the failed suicide bombing in Be'er Sheva on Sunday morning was a Palestinian retaliation to the IDF's killing of five Palestinians in Tul Karm last Wednesday. The 80 hours separating between the two incidents are borderline when it comes to suicide bombings.
Islamic Jihad on Sunday claimed responsibility for dispatching the bomber, a resident of the Hebron area. However, shortly afterward it transpired that they had given an incorrect name for the atacker, and that the man Jihad had named had been captured by the Shin Bet a few days
ago.
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The suicide bomber's true identity remains a mystery. It is likely to be a Jihad man. It is also possible that he was sent from the Gaza Strip. From the little known so far, it appears that the suicide bomber could have been a "sleeper" a suicide bomber who had been prepared some time ago for a mission to be carried out at a yet-to-be determined date.
It is clear that the Tul Karm killings provided the suicide bomber's operators an excuse to launch him and furnished the Palestinian Authority with a reason not to prevent this. As long as the evacuation of settlers from the Strip and northern Samaria was still uncertain, the armed organizations demonstrated unusual restraint and the PA security branches seemed to act seriously to prevent terror. Now that the last settler has been evacuated, and in light of the Tul Karm killing, the terror organizations have run out of patience.
Even before the terror attack in Be'er Sheba, it was clear that the reasoning behind the IDF's arrest operation gone wrong in Tul Karm was dubious. The IDF commandos killed a wanted man, three activists and a teenage bystander. It was the last thing Israel needed the day after the
evacuation.
Apart from the problematic timing, a preliminary inquiry indicates planning mistakes. Yet the leak to Maariv on Sunday that Chief of Staff Dan Halutz had objected in retrospect to the operation spread an unsavory odor. Is someone trying to protect Halutz's sober image by
shifting responsibility to the field ranks? Highly unlikely. Such a move would not be in keeping with Halutz's norms regarding support of subordinates, especially since operation commander Colonel Roni Numa is about to be appointed Halutz's personal assistant.
Since the Sharm summit meeting in February, every arrest operation requires the approval of the defense minister and chief of staff. An operation is first approved in principle and later, when the right opportunity presents itself, the chief of staff is updated by the GOC
Central Command. Apparently in this case, the update did not cover all the risks involved in an undercover force clashing with armed militants in the heart of a refugee camp.
However, the investigators should also probe whether Halutz's bureau asked all the right questions. Perhaps, due to the relative calm and the preoccupation with the disengagement, his people did not give enough thought to whether the operation was indeed necessary.
Another issue which must be examined is the definition of a "ticking bomb." The Jihad network in Samaria is defined as a "ticking infrastructure," because for several months its people have been recruiting and training suicide bombers.
The IDF General Staff and Central Command on Sunday held a discussion on the rules to approve arrest operations. Military sources said that from now on, a more detailed approval would be required for high risk operations.
As for the suicide bombing in Be'er Sheba, the resourcefulness and courage of the bus driver and two security guards not only saved lives but spared the prime minister misgivings. With such a small number of casualties, he could bite his lip and move on at least until the IDF
withdraws from the Gaza Strip in mid-September.
There was no alert for the suicide bombing. Perhaps the bomber's identity was blurred deliberately, to spare the PA embarrassment. The Jihad and Hamas networks in the Hebron area are compartmentalized and hard to penetrate. Be'er Sheba is especially vulnerable to their attacks because the separation fence south of Hebron is not effective yet, although a year has passed since the last suicide bombing in the city.
Another issue is Israeli citizens' part in transporting suicide bombers into the Green Line.
The seam line is still wide open in several places. On Sunday a Ramat Gan resident, who drove 18 Palestinians with no work permit, was arrested. He is the brother of the Israeli who drove the suicide bomber to Netanya a month ago. Smuggling illegal laborers is a lucrative enterprise. Israeli Arabs, Bedouins and Jews are paid as much as NIS 10,000 a day for it. An
estimated 5,000 illegal laborers enter Israel weekly between Ramallah and Bethlehem alone. |
