Palestinian Terrorist Attack - Yet Another

Re: Palestinian Terrorist Attack - Yet Another


Since until now no-one knows, who carried out this attack, 'Al-Aqsa Brigades' might suit you personnally, but is just one guess between others (and different to what Israeli sources say).

Re: Palestinian Terrorist Attack - Yet Another


Read the black and white print, Walter. Look it up yourself. Cross reference that evidence, then factor in any conspiracy thoeries you may choose on, and you'll still have the Al-Aqsa Brigades claiming responsibility. How much more do you want? Just because you are loath to condemn terrorists for terrorism does not change the fact that whether it was their suicide bomber, or they took credit for another's, they are terrorists. How double, triple, quadruple, sided can this issue be for you?

The Palestinians are rife with terrorists. They breed then in percentage numbers not seen anywhere else on earth. Yet, sadly, so many utterly refuse to appropriately condemn them for this degenerative tactic. Many here are always ready to criticize the United States for innumerable perceived offenses or wrongs, then these same individuals will support the Palestinians by lashing out at Isreal, or just plain deny everything. What side are they on?

Lusatian
I do not know where and by what means you determined that the bombing an Al-Aqsa Brigades action. Based on the reports this AM it was thought to be the Lebanese Hezbollah . In any event hopefully the powers that be will not let it become the wedge that derails the march toward peace in the region.

This Israelis have to make very tangible concessions for this treaty. Are the Palestinians making any concessions beyond promises that could be revoked in an instant?

Terrorists Shatter Phoney Calm in Tel Aviv, Shop for Heavy Weapons
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DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report

The dark days of Palestinian terror returned to Israel Friday night
as a savage reminder that the three-and-a- half months of apparent
lull were a pleasant fantasy.

Israeli security forces were not surprised. Throughout the phoney
calm, between 50 and 60 threatened bombings were constants on their
screens. And although the military had drastically cut down on its
counter-terror operations and precautions to give the new Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas a chance to rein in Palestinian terror, still
ticking bombs from all the Palestinian terrorist organizations were
caught almost daily in the West Bank.

The suicide bomber who blew up a crowd waiting to go into The Stage
nightclub on Tel Aviv's beachfront Friday night, February 25, was no
lone killer. He was just the first to slip through the Israeli
security net after many of his fellows had tried and failed. He
murdered at least four people - one woman is still fighting for her
life - out for an evening of singsong and karioki. More than 50 were
injured. After the Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire declaration two weeks
ago, the club had considered cutting down on its security outlay.
With its front blown out, the owners are thinking again. The presence
of four guards outside the door deterred the suicide bomber from
trying to enter the enclosed space and killing many more people.

In Jerusalem, illusions died earlier after DEBKAfile reported three
separate alerts in the last two weeks for suicide bombers on their
way from the West Bank to strikes in the capital. All were captured
with their bomb belts. The only minister willing to tell the public
about the aborted threat was foreign minister Silvan Shalom during an
interview to Public Radio, New York.

Tel Aviv and central Israel are now too on elevated terror alert for
the coming days.

In the wake of the Tel Aviv attack, the Sharon government faces grave
charges that will resonate in its regular session Sunday, February 27.

Rather than heed their own security chiefs' warnings that Palestinian
terrorist groups were about to unleash a fresh onslaught against
Israeli civilians, prime minister Ariel Sharon and defense minister
Shaul Mofaz were preoccupied with political maneuvers over the coming
withdrawals from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. To this end,
they applied an axe to sack or silence the most effective apolitical
critics of the disengagement plan and of the premature lowering of
Israel's counter-terror guard; chief of staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon,
Shin Beit Director Avi Dichter and military intelligence chief
Brigadier Aharon Zeevi are all on their way out.

By common consent, all the Palestinian terrorist groups quickly
denied responsibility for the Tel Aviv bomb blast, pointing the
finger at the Hizballah. This cry was taken up by the Israeli media
quoting both Israeli and Palestinian official sources. Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas' vow to catch the instigators and bring them to
justice belied this claim. It betrayed his knowledge that the killer
s dispatchers are to be found at home. His officers then arrested
three suspects. Their release by tomorrow would be par for the
course. Abbas has not so far raised a finger to dismantle any of
terrorist groups and nothing more is expected from him than symbolic
punishment for the instigators.

But Sharon's office has made it clear that Abbas will be given still
more leeway before any drastic military action is undertaken and
exchanges with the Palestinians will not be interrupted.

The Hizballah fiction will be hard to sustain. DEBKAfile's Lebanese
sources report that in the two weeks ago since Lebanese opposition
leader Rafiq Hariri was assassinated, Hizballah leader Hassan
Nasrallah has sternly forbidden his men to so much as fire a shot in
Israel's direction so as not to give the US or Israel a pretext for
hitting his bases or Syria in reprisal for the murder. For once,
therefore, the Hizballah did not congratulate Palestinians on their
“success” or join Palestinian celebrations in the Gaza Strip.

The most serious allegation leveled against Sharon by informed
sources is his failure to respond to a development revealed
exclusively by DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources. Instead
of cracking down on terrorists, Abu Mazen and his sidekick Mohammed
Dahlan have secretly applied to more than 20 world governments with
urgent requests for large quantities of heavy weapons. The Israeli
government was too busy elsewhere to keep track of this development
or to calibrate national security measures and the easing of
anti-terror restrictions accordingly.

According to our sources, the countries solicited for arms are
primarily in Europe - Britain, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Norway,
Sweden as well as Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, China, India and
Pakistan. The list of countries not addressed is much shorter: United
States and Japan. Palestinian Authority leaders calculated that
however many or few respond in the affirmative - which several have -
Israel cannot afford to get into a fight with them all.

The list of Palestinian requirements is attached to an
innocent-sounding request signed by Mahmoud Abbas for combat
equipment to restore and build up Palestinian security forces with
all possible speed. He asks the recipients to contribute to the
creation of the Palestinian state by allocating outdated items no
longer in the use of their armies.

DEBKAfile has seen the list. It is impressive and hardly relevant for
a Palestinian state dedicated by international treaty to live in
peace with Israel. It includes all types of armored personnel
carriers with fixed mortars, jeeps fitted with 107 mm recoilless
guns, telescopic rifles, pistols, ammunition, communications and
engineering gear, helmets and medical equipment.

The army Abbas is building is designed to absorb the disassembled
Palestinian terrorist organizations. For the first time, they will be
equipped with heavy arms.

Asked how the shipments would be delivered over Israel's objections,
Abbas and Dahlan pointed out that once the Israelis had pulled back
the Gaza Strip and Egyptian border, there would be no one to stop the
hardware being unloaded at the reopened Gaza port or coming through
northern Sinai past Egyptian patrols.

Shopping for heavy arms is in total contravention of every
international accord the Palestinians, including Abu Mazen in person,
have ever signed with Israel and every pledge Abbas has made to the
Bush administration and other world leaders. Informed security
officials are urging the Sharon government to suspend its
interchanges with the Palestinian Authority, halt the removal of
roadblocks and handover of West Bank towns to Palestinian security
control, revert to targeted assassinations and take military action
to prevent the delivery of illicit military hardware into dangerous
terrorist hands.

In 2001, the Israeli air force and naval commandos intercepted the
Karine-A with 50 tons of heavy weapons from Iran bound for the
Palestinian Authority. Exposure of this latest underhand intrigue
should top the agenda at the London meeting supposedly on Palestinian
security reforms opening in London Tuesday. It is a matter of urgent
concern for the United States and Middle East Quartet members
committed to the road map. Instead, Russian foreign minister frankly
admitted Friday, February 25, to supplying the Palestinians with
“military machines” and said Moscow was considering sending them APCs
since the Palestinian Authority, he ventured to claim, had proved
itself in control of security.

A leading Israeli security expert, asked by DEBKAfile, how heavy
weapons deliveries would affect Israeli security, explained that
Palestinian terrorists would be able to conduct hit and run attacks
and military assaults inside Israel and against Israeli military
positions and vehicles, national highways and strategic points. They
would then escape to sovereign Palestinian territory. In Gaza, Mussa
Arafat would have the use of mobile artillery to blitz Israeli towns
and villages.

In the expert's opinion, the IDF would in the end extinguish this
peril too, but the cost in lives would be high indeed. The first to
pay the price were the victims of Palestinian terror in Tel Aviv
Friday night.