Thursday night a terrorist entered the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem and killed 8 young men who were students there. According to Ha’aretz:
The Shin Bet security service said the gunman was not known to them. Major General Ilan Franco, the commander of Jerusalem’s district police, told Channel 2 that the attacker was “not known to the security forces.”
In other words Israel’s security services hadn’t seen any activities by Ala Abu Dhaim that raised suspicions about him.
The same article also tells us:
So far no Palestinian or Arab organization has claimed responsibility for the attack, although Palestinian sources have said that the attack had been planned by a Hamas network in the West Bank acting on orders from its leaders in Damascus. Hamas’ leadership in Gaza was not privy to the plan, which was drawn up in coordination with Hezbollah, the sources said.
Still something about the article is curious.
An initial police investigation has revealed that the shooting was not a spontaneous attack, but had been planned in advance. Police also learnt that Abu Dhaim had personally chosen the location and time for the shooting. To this end, he carried out extensive reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering work on the yeshiva.The gunman had also stockpiled weapons and ammunition, only some of which he took to perpetrate the attack – an AK-47 assault rifle, two pistols and a few magazines.
Since Abu Dhaim, an East Jerusalem resident, had a blue identity card, and since he transported people in the area, he was able to move freely in the city’s western part, too, and seems to have been well-acquainted with the attack site. The key question is where he obtained his AK-47 assault rifle, which he used to attack the yeshiva.
(More details from Meryl.)
That is key. That and how did he train with the weapon. According to other reports he fired hundreds of rounds and changed clips during the massacre. That requires some level of training. Together that’s very troubling.
If he had regularly been meeting with Hamas personnel, he’d have drawn attention to himself. There’s one other possibility. And it’s not a new one. He got his weapons and training from the Palestinian police.
Here’s Newser from this past October.
EU and United States rules forbid either Smith or Dayton from supplying the Palestinians with weapons or giving them firearms training.The result, Smith says, is a police force ill-equipped to face down often better-armed criminals in an area awash with automatic weapons. He would like to see them stripped of the grab-bag of guns they now carry and issued with modern, efficient and properly registered sidearms.
“They carry pistols, but there’s a variation,” he said. I’ve seen some old Russian pistols around, they’ve got some really old AK 47 (assault rifles)…They need re-equipping.”
Smith wishes the PA police had more recent AK-47’s but as other news stories inform us, antiquated or not, it is the main weapon of the Palestinian police. Shortly afterwards, Israel approved the transfer of AK-47’s from Jordan. If Abu Dhaim was meeting with Palestinian police it likely would raise lesser concerns than if he was meeting with members of Hamas.
But shortly after the AK-47’s were received Ido Zoltan was killed by members of the PA Police force.
But this also could explain why Israel has been somewhat restrained in its response so far. If the PA Police who are affiliated with Fatah were providing the logistics for an attack planned by Hamas and Hezbollah, it would be impossible for Israel to continue talks with Abbas. For Abbas would be shown to be no less a double talker than his mentor Arafat.
The timing of this attack, too, must be judged in light of a recent statement Abbas made to a Jordanian newspaper.
In an interview with Jordanian newspaper Al-Dastur last week, Mr. Abbas spoke with pride of violence he had waged in his past, suggested that terrorism could start anew in the future, and essentially backed away from repeated statements that he “recognizes†Israel’s right to exist. A top congressional appropriator, Foreign Operations Chairman Nita Lowey, said flatly, “President Abbas’ recent statements cast doubt on his willingness to take the steps necessary for peace with Israel.â€But Mr. Abbas’ comments alone likely would not have sparked this fracas. Just one day after news of the interview shocked key legislators and staffers, who learned of it last Thursday when it was translated into English by watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the administration sent over its request for $150 million in direct cash assistance to Abbas’ PA.
“What were they [administration officials] thinking sending over the request the day after Abbas announces he’s open to re-starting terrorism and doesn’t really recognize Israel’s right to exist?†asked one miffed Hill staffer.
(Daled Amos on how this aid request is rubbing in the salt.)
Good for Representative Lowey for calling the administration on this request. And if the Merkaz Harav murderer is tied to Abbas, it should force the United States and, of course, Israel to take a much tougher approach with Arafat’s successor. It is becoming clearer that not only has been unable to stem anti-Israel violence, he has been uninterested in stopping it. More likely, he has been active in promoting it.
For more on Palestinian firepower, here’s an analysis by the late great Scott Shuger.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
