Note: The translations of articles from the Hebrew press
are prepared by the Government Press Office
as a service to foreign journalists in Israel.
They express the views of the authors.
Two Attacks, with No Connection between Them
(Commentary by Oded Granot, "Ma'ariv", Aug 11, 1999, p. A5)
The two attacks which occurred yesterday the deliberate running over of
soldiers at the Nachshon Junction and the shooting in Samaria raise
several questions: Is this a wave of attacks directed from on high? And if
so who is behind these attacks and what is the position of the
Palestinian Authority?
The impression of security officials is that these were two separate
attacks: The attack at Nahshon Junction is an isolated incident, unrelated
to the recent shootings in Hebron and Jenin. It is not part of a series of
planned attacks and up until now security officials have not found any
link between this attack and any of the terrorist organizations operating
in the territories.
In contrast, yesterday's shooting in Samaria seems part of the activity of
one or more Hamas cells which are apparently responsible for the
previous shootings. In this context, one must point out that Hamas and
Islamic Jihad have the will especially among the leadership outside the
territories to continue carrying out attacks, including large-scale
suicide attacks of the kind we have witnessed in the past. The recent
shootings likely indicate the organizations' difficulties in currently
carrying out larger attacks, not their lack of motivation.
The claim that the Palestinian Authority is encouraging attacks is
unsupported. Currently, the Authority has a supreme interest in stopping
and frustrating all terrorist attacks which are liable to harm the chances
of advancing the peace process, especially during the delicate and and
sensitive stage in which it is found at the moment. Some of the Islamic
activists which the Authority recently released have been rearrested in
recent days. It should be pointed out the Palestinian Authority security
bodies have indeed demonstrated an impressive ability in foiling attacks
by the Islamic terrorist organizations. However up until now, they have
refrained from large-scale actions to strike at and eliminate the
infrastructure of the organizations themselves.
An additional fact: In the past three years, in the wake of the scarcity
of large-scale attacks, the restrictions on the entry of Arabs from the
territories into Israel have, for the most part, been eased. Today, there
are many more illegal workers than there were in the past and many more
cars with green license plates belonging to residents of the territories,
in the large cities. Heightened awareness is now needed even if there was
no connection between the two attacks.