IDF troops overnight Friday eliminated three Al Aksa Brigade terrorists who on Thursday murdered Shavei Shomron resident Rabbi Meir Chai as he was driving from his home to the town of Einav. The three terrorists were identified as Anan Subeh, 33, Raed a-Sarkaji, 38, and Raghsan Abu Sharah, 39 whose brother is considered a top terrorists in the group. All three have been involved in a string of previous terror attacks.
According to reports, IDF troops entered the center of Shechem early Saturday morning and surrounded the houses where the terrorists were holed up. Two of the three were killed when they refused the soldiers' call to surrender, while the third was killed in a gunbattle.
As noted above, all three of the killers were long-time members of the Al-Aksa Martyr's Brigade and thus on the Fatah payroll.
One of them, Raed a-Sarkaji was released in January 2009 from an Israeli prison after serving seven years in an Israeli prison on terrorism charges, one of those concessions made to 'bolster' PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Another was Anan Subuh, an Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades operative who had received a pardon from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) as part of the 2007 deal, under which 400 Fatah terrorists handed in their weapons, promised to cease their terror activity and in return were assured of an amnesty.
This is only the latest in a series of terrorist attacks involving convicted terrorists freed by Israel, and the timing has served to give the Israeli government second thoughts about freeing 1,000 plus terrorists convicted in Israeli civilian courts as ransom for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Thus, Rabbi Chai's(HY"D)murder could thus save the lives of hundreds of his fellow Israelis.
These cockroaches' funerals became a huge public event with an interesting twist - this time most of the slogans and threats were directed against the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas:
During the funerals of the three men, all veteran members and leaders of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, thousands of Palestinians chanted slogans accusing the PA of collusion with Israel and calling for an end to security coordination with Israel and the dismantling of the PA.
For several hours during the funerals, which took place in Nablus, it seemed as if the PA and not the IDF had killed the three men. It was, in the words of a local journalist, "one of the biggest anti-Palestinian Authority demonstrations" in many years.
The relationship between the PA and local Fatah activists has always been tense. Nablus and its surrounding refugee camps, especially Balata refugee camp, has long been a stronghold for disgruntled Fatah militiamen who occasionally vent their frustration against the PA leadership and security forces.
For years during the second intifada, Nablus, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, was controlled by dozens of Fatah gunmen and thugs who imposed a reign of terror on wealthy clans.
Many local families did not hide their satisfaction when IDF troops raided the city during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and killed or arrested scores of Fatah gunmen, including the infamous Ahmed Tabouk, one of the leaders of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
In the context of its efforts to restore law and order to the city, the PA offered four years ago to recruit many of the gunmen to various branches of its security forces if they agreed to lay down their weapons.
The PA also managed to persuade Israel to stop pursuing those gunmen who agreed to hand over their weapons and abandon violence.
In return, the PA took on itself the mission of holding the "pardoned" gunmen in one of its security installations for a limited time and as a first step toward granting them total freedom of movement.
Most of the Fatah gunmen who complied were added to the PA's payroll, but not all were happy with the arrangement. Some complained that the PA had broken its promise to appoint them to senior positions in its security forces, while others said that their salaries were too low. Others complained that despite their agreement to surrender their weapons and open a new page in their lives, Israeli security forces were continuing to target them.
Friends and relatives of the Fatah operatives who were killed in the recent IDF operation accused the PA of failing to fulfill its "commitments" to give them more money and good jobs. Some did not rule out the possibility that the Fatah cell that murdered Rabbi Meir Chai last week had received money from an "outside" party, such as Hizbullah or even Hamas.
In the past, there were a number of cases where Fatah militiamen in the West Bank openly admitted to receiving funds from Hizbullah. The gunmen justified their action by arguing that the PA had failed to "compensate" them for the "sacrifices" they made in the fight against Israel.
The killing of the three men is now being exploited by leading figures in Fatah to incite against the PA leadership in Ramallah. One of the main instigators is Husam Khader, a charismatic and extremely popular Fatah operative from Balata who has long been attacking the PA and its security forces, accusing them of financial and moral corruption and collaboration with Israel.
Khader and another senior Fatah operative, Kadoura Fares of Ramallah, are convinced that continued cooperation with Israel on security matters would eventually turn Palestinians against the PA leadership. The two, along with many of their followers in Fatah, believe that a third intifada is on its way, but that this time it would be directed against the PA and not Israel.
This is very indicative of exactly why the so-called peace process between Israel and the Palestinians is dead in the water.
Three terrorists on Fatah's payroll who had supposedly forsworn further terrorist activities murder an unarmed Rabbi on the roads after an IDF checkpoint is removed, and yet public anger is not directed against the killers for breaching and endangering the peace agreements but at the Palestinian Authority for participating in any sort of cooperation with Israel!
Considering how corrupt, weak and illegitimate a government Abbas and the Palestinian Authority actually are, the Israelis ought to be very wary about making deals with them..especially when it comes to giving up land and removing security checkpoints.If the IDF ever actually pulled out of Judea and Samaria completely, Abbas and his gang would last perhaps a month before being over thrown by the local jihadis and Hamas.
I'm glad the Rabbi's death has been avenged, however, there will be more Islamic terrorists to take their place. What needs to happen is the supply of weapons flowing to the terrorists needs to be eliminated. Then a stop needs to be put to the incitement against Israel. In order to do this, I think Israel needs to annex Gaza and the West Bank.
ReplyDeleteOf cours the world community will not like this. America is no problem. Should it come to it, Israel should be able to easily defeat the Americans in a military confrontation. While Israel and the EU are major trading partners, I don't think Israel gets any thing from the EU they should not be able to produce themselves. As such, I don't see this as being a major problem either.
Israel gets about 80% of its oil from Russia, Russia is staunchly pro Arab, and it has the world's strongest military right now. This presents a huge problem. Also, China is staunchly pro Arab and has the world's second strongest military, at least in terms of conventional forces. While this does not present the problem Russia poses, it is a big problem nonetheless.
With God's help and Israeli inguneity all of these problems can be overcome.
The only real solution to this is for Israel to shut off the supply of weapons flowing to the Palestinians and to shut down the incitement against Israel coming from the Palestinian media. As I see it, the only way to do this is to annex Gaza and the West Bank. Any thing else is only temporary, at best, and, at worst, incomplete.
Finally, if Mexican groups were using Mexican territory to launch attacks on the United States and the Mexican government was doing nothing to prevent it, we would expect the United States military to attempt to gain control of the areas being used to launch the attacks. When Chechens launched attacks against Russia, the Russian military went in and took control of the territory in order to stop the attacks. Israel should do the same.
Apparently American officials have been asking Israeli officials for an explanation of this action by Iarael. First of all it seems highly unusual to ask a soverign country for an explanation when the soverign country is simply defending themselves and their citizens. Secondly, if American officals intervened in this manner in the affairs of any other country in the world, the American and world media would condemn the act of "meddling" on the part of American officials.
ReplyDeleteIsrael should do a ballistics test to see where these weapons came from. If it turns out they were American supplied weapons, Israel should explain to the Americans the consequences of such actions and act accordingly even if it means treating the United States of America as an enemy. The net benefit to Israel of ending the special relationship with America outweighs the costs associated with it, at least this is true for Israel. This could be an excellent opportunity for the Israelis to make a break from the Americans.
As an American this is distressing. To lose the relationship with Israel would have massive negative ramifications to the United States. While this is my concern, I would not expect it to be Israel's concern. I would expect them to act in their best interests.