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Scene after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem (file)
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| By David Bedein January 30, 2007 |
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, addressed a preplanned meeting of his Kadima faction of the Israeli Knesset parliament only two hours after the terror attack in Israel's port city of Eilat. His described the timing of the attack as "taking place during a period of relative calm" with Israeli's Palestinian adversaries, despite the fact that Israel's southern region had suffered at least ninety missile attacks since Israel's self imposed cease fire and declaration of a policy of restraint that the Jewish state declared on November 26th, 2006.
The names of all three victims of the Palestinian terror attack in an Eilat bakery were released for publication on Monday night.
The two owners of the bakery, Amil Elimelech, 32, and Michael Ben Sa'adon, 27 were killed in the attack as well as one of their employees, Israel Samolia, 26.
Elimelech was married with two children while Ben Sa'adon was married with one child.
Samolia was an immigrant from Peru. His family, currently residing in Miami, was notified of his death by the Israeli consul in Miami, Dr. Yitzhak Ben Gad.
This time, the United States government did not single out a particular Palestinian terror group for responsibility in the attack. For the first time in recent memory, the US held the entire Palestinian Authority government responsible, primarily because the Palestinians loyal to Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority and the head of the Fateh organization, took credit for the murders in Eilat. Indeed, the official Monday evening television newscast of the PBC, the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation, owned and operated by the Palestinian Authority, announced that the Fateh shared credit for the attack -- even though the official Israeli government TV Channel One newscast announced that these were "graduates" of the Fateh -hinting that Abbas could not have been responsible for the attack.
Generally, the Israeli media only reported the Palestinian condemnation of the attack that was conveyed in Hebrew to the Israeli media, not the praise of the attack which emanated from the official Arabic language sources of the Palestinian Authority.
Both Egypt and Jordan issued conditional condemnation of the Eilat attack, with both nations stressing that they hoped that Israel would not see this attack as a reason for a military response.
On the other hand, the following statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:
"The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest possible terms today's suicide bombing at a bakery in Eilat, Israel, which killed three people and wounded another. Such acts of terrorism are a violation of international humanitarian law and can never be justified"
Four hours following the attack in Eilat, Abbas made a public address in Ethiopia, acting as if the attack had not taken place.
Addressing the Eighth Conference of the African Union in Addis Ababa, WAFA, the PLO news agency, reported that " President Abbas called for the quick implementation of the Road Map, asserting that decades of conflict proved to be infertile. 'The real alternative to conflicts is Israel's recognition of the Palestinian rights'... He [Abbas ] pointed out that the Palestinian people are the last people on the earth suffering from occupation, saying Palestine is threatened by the Israeli settlement expansion. President Abbas stressed that continuation of the Israeli occupation of Palestine endangers the stability and security of the region."
Indeed, Palestinian maps continue to define Israel's southern port city of Elat as an "illegal Israeli settlement" despite the fact that Elat is not located in Judea, Samaria or Gaza. However, since Eilat was not on the area allotted to Israel by the UN partition plan by UN resolution #181 in 1947 and since Eliat was taken by the Israeli army during the 1948 war, it is defined by the Palestinians as "occupied territory". Since most Israelis have never seen the new maps produced by the Palestinian Authority, hardly any Israeli would know that the Palestinian Authority lays claim to Eilat.
The Killer
Mohammed Faisal al-Siksik, the 21-year-old member of Islamic Jihad who carried out the terror attack yesterday in Eilat, left his home in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday morning, disappearing without a trace. His father said yesterday that in their last conversation his son asked that he "pray for him,"and his mother said that she knew that her son intended to carry out a suicide mission, "but didn't know when."
Both Islamic Jihad and a faction of Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fateh, chaired by Palestinian Authority chairman Machmud Abbas, took credit for the attacks.
Hamas officials who run the Palestinian Authority welcomed the terror attack in Eilat.
Ismail Radwan, a aspokesman for Hamas in Gaza, said that suicide bombing operations were legitimate in the framework of the Palestinian people's self-defense efforts against the crimes of the "Zionist occupation."
Relatives of Mohammed Siksik said yesterday that they were proud of him and his action. His brother said that he knew that he was a member of Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad's military wing, and that he had taken part in battles against IDF troops that had infiltrated the northern Gaza Strip and Beit Lahiya. His widow said that Mohammed had left home on Friday in a good and normal mood. "I wasn't in the least bit afraid that he was going and wouldn't be returning. My husband died a shahid, and his death is not a sacrifice that was made in vain."
The Driver: "I determined who would die and who would live"
On Monday morning, at about 9:40 AM. when the Israeli radio began to report about a major explosion in Eilat, Lt. Col. (res.) Yossi Waltinsky knew exactly what had happened: the suspicious hitch-hiker he had taken that morning was a suicide bomber on his way to an attack.
Waltinsky, 49, often picks up hitchhikers. It is a habit he picked up back in his army days. Yesterday morning, when he left his home in Eilat for work, he saw a young man hitchhiking not far from the center of town. "I stopped beside him and he got in and sat down in the backseat.
"He didn't speak. I asked him where he needed to get to, and he only said, 'Haifa, Haifa.' By his accent I could tell that he was an Arab.
"Looking in the rearview mirror I could see that he was very tense, with one of his hands in a pocket that he never took out. He wore a large red coat and a red hat and he was carrying a small knapsack on his back..
"I said to myself that if I take him downtown this suicide bomber is going to blow himself up along with me. I tried to reach my phone and to call the police, but he noticed that and leaned forward to see what I was doing. In a split second I decided to get onto the Eilat bypass road in order to keep him away from the center of town. It was crazy. I was driving with a terrorist who had a bomb on his back, and only God knows when he's going to detonate it."
Yossi stopped the car at the side of the Eilat bypass road and told the terrorist to get out.
"I released my seat belt, grabbed the door handle and prepared to make a run for it. He got out and ran in the direction of the residential area. I called the police immediately and gave them a precise description."
Even though he tried to follow the suspicious man in the red coat, Yossi Waltinsky lost track of him. "When I realized that the police were on their way, I drove to work. I entered the office and one of the workers told me that there had been a terror attack. I knew that it was the man that I had driven and I went to the police to give them an account."
240 Kilometers of Open Border
More than wondering how a suicide bomber from the Gaza Strip managed to get to Eilat yesterday, the question is how is it that the long open area along the border between Egypt and Israel was not used in the past to carry out terror attacks. Among the various responses to this question, one should also include luck.
The truth is that the long open border actually invites terror attacks. This area is 240 kilometers long, from the Kerem Shalom area to Eilat, which up until about two years ago was entirely open. Most of this border area has no fence to try to stop infiltrators, except for a low wire fence, which poses no difficulty to anyone who wants to climb over it. With this the situation, for years an entire industry of smuggling reveled: drugs, escort girls and foreign workers made their way with almost with no problem from the Gaza Strip to the territory of the State of Israel.
Over the past two years, the picture has changed a bit. The awareness of the need to monitor the border more effectively than in the past came up because of information that international terror organizations had increased their activities in Sinai, as evidenced in a series of terror attacks in Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh and other tourist sites.
Another reason, even more significant, was the fact that Israel evacuated its troops in the Philadelphi Road area, which separates the Palestinian Authority and Egypt in Gaza.
Although it was agreed that international monitors would station cameras to supervise the border area from a distance, during disengagement it was already clear that after the withdrawal, anyone who wanted to steal over the border could do so easily.
Serious concern arose that terrorists would therefore infiltrate into Israel using the path called by the IDF and the police the "Het route," named for the shape of the Hebrew letter of het, which is shaped like an h. In this manner, terrorists who find it hard to get directly into Israel because of the fence around the Gaza Strip, leave for Sinai, and from there can infiltrate without any difficulty into Israel by means of the border that has no fence.
Because of these serious concerns, the troops patrolling the Israel-Egypt border were already beefed up significantly after disengagement by the Israeli army Southern Command. In addition, a fence was built along short parts of the border, but it was clear in advance that this was not enough. The government rejected a plan by the IDF and the Internal Security Ministry to invest at least $400 million dollars to build a fence along the border, which would constitute a real barrier. Preference was given to the fence around Judea and Samaria, also because of the concept that the Negev has a "depth" of unpopulated territory, so that even if there is an infiltration, there would be sufficient time to capture the terrorists before they reached a community, while in Judea and Samaria, terrorists can get to populated areas in the heart of the country within minutes.
Put simply, the decision not to build a fence was to gamble with the lives of citizens. Last year, the beefed up patrol effort led to the capture of about 100 people connected to terror in some manner, who tried to infiltrate from Egypt into Israel, in addition to terror attacks which were intercepted. It was clear that the border continues, in effect, to be open. Therefore, a successful terror attack was only a matter of time.
The bleak prognoses were realized yesterday in a very painful manner.
The terrorist who left from Gaza infiltrated Israel via the Het route, stole over the border with Sinai -- apparently about a week ago -- and there joined Palestinian terrorist elements who waited for him and gave him a large bomb.
Together with the bomb he crossed the border into Israel about 20 kilometers north of Eilat, from where he continued on foot to the city. The bomb was unlike the bombs used in terror attacks that originated in Judea and Samaria. The explosive material in it was based on an old Soviet shell. Apparently, elements connected to international terror organizations were not involved in this terror attack, even though masses of them are located in Sinai. In any case, from the Palestinian perspective, this success will only encourage similar attempts at terror attacks.
If additional terror attacks are actually carried out, it is possible that in the end a decision will be made to build a fence along the Israeli-Egyptian border, just like the fence around Judea and Samaria, whose construction was begun only after rivers of blood were spilt.
When he was director of the Israeli intelligence, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter warned that terror attacks would infiltrate via Egypt. But to the heart of the matter, the police, which he commands today, will not have an effective response to protect the open border in the coming period. Nor will the IDF, although in another two months, in the framework of beefing up the forces along the western border, a new brigade headquarters will be established. From the offensive perspective as well, the IDF has no response to yesterday's terror attack.
At the situation assessment meeting held by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, no method was presented as an effective response. The basic instinct of all the senior security officials in the wake of such a terror attack is to go back to assassinations, having been frozen in the framework of the supposed cease-fire, which is more of an Israeli capitulation, which was compelled to stop its offensive activity in the Gaza Strip while the terror organizations continue to carry out terror attacks from time to time, launch missiles and hold onto kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
The terror attack in Eilat put an end to ten months of no suicide bombings in Israel, since the last terror attack at the Rosh Hair restaurant at the old central bus station in Tel Aviv. Should the security forces once more succeed in preventing terror attacks for such a time period, this would constitute an achievement. As one truly must admit: the quiet in recent months was mainly an illusion. Attempts to commit ward terror attacks continue all the time. The Palestinian civil strife encourages even more terror attacks against Israel, which can unite the various factions and constitute a consensus, although the terror attack yesterday cannot be directly tied to the clash between Fatah and Hamas.
The only thing that prevented terror attacks from Judea and Samaria in recent months was a Sisyphean effort by the GSS and the Central Command against terror organizations.
For the past five years, Israeli troops patrol the parameters of every Arab village in Judea and Samaria too, while the Israeli army set up an elaborate system of checkpoints.
According to the policy of the Israeli defense minister, it was decided to lift restrictions on Palestinians crossing many checkpoints in Judea and Samaria, so that they are hardly checked at all. This policy may enable terrorists to get deep inside Israel with great ease.
Sources at the Israeli army central command, who tried to oppose lowering measures at checkpoints, told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in wake of the decision, that he should be prepared to hear the sound of a powerful explosion that he will be near his bureau. One must now pray that he will have no reason to soon tell him, "I told you so."
Israel's Response, or The Lack of One
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz rejected the Israeli army recommendation to kill leaders of the Islamic Jihad activists.
In the course of the security consultations that were held in the Defense Minister's Bureau the Israeli army recommended a number of courses of action that could be taken against Islamic Jihad, including a resumption of targeted killing operations. The defense minister rejected that recommendation for the time being and said that Israel needed to act prudently so as to prevent an escalation.
"There is going to be a response," Peretz said, "at the time that suits us, and we will hit whomever is necessary." Security officials said: "given the turn of events in the Palestinian Authority and given the fact that the calm has been maintained until now, the right thing to do is to consider our reaction and not to rush back into targeted killing."
A Personal Epilogue
As she did every morning, yesterday Moriel Zohar went down to the neighborhood bakery in Elat to buy fresh buns. When she checked the coins in her hand, she discovered that she was missing NIS 2.40 for the buns she had chosen. At this stage she still did not know that the missing coins would save her life.
Zohar went back home to bring the missing money, and then heard a "boom." "I went home, searched my wallet, took out NIS 2.40 and then planned to go out.
"Suddenly I heard a sort of boom at the entrance to my house, and the house really shook. I went out and saw a blast coming out of the bakery. I saw two workers from the falafel stand nearby running to the bakery to help. I went to my car and saw body parts everywhere. I was terribly frightened.
"It was shocking," she said. "I couldn't understand what was happening and I fled. I only heard a few workers shouting: 'Call an ambulance.' "
Zohar, the single mother of three children, continued, "I am simply shaking, I froze in place, I couldn't stop crying and kept vomiting."
After she understood that her life was saved because of the few minutes she was at home, Zohar still found it hard to take in what happened to the city she was born in. "There were warnings, but no terror attacks. There was nothing suspicious; nothing that could be seen by the eye that attracted attention. I could not believe that such a thing could happen here in Eilat. This is the last city that a terrorist would come to."
Read more: Find other David Bedein pieces here. |
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