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Terror in Jerusalem / No intelligence ahead of attack
By Amos Harel
Tags: Jerusalem, terror

After a week of failed efforts to settle scores with Israel for the casualties caused by its operation in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian terror organizations scored a string of successes Thursday. The day began with the bombing of an army jeep along the Gaza border, which was videotaped by Islamic Jihad. It continued with a direct rocket hit on a house in Sderot that wounded several people, and ended with the deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, the flagship institute of the religious Zionist movement. The latter was the worst terror attack to take place inside Israel in almost two years.

It provided a grim reminder of those days at the height of the second intifada, when Jerusalem was hit by a string of murderous terror attacks. What Israel's security services have accomplished in the West Bank over the last three years is a virtual miracle in professional terms: They succeeded in bringing terror down to a very low, even tolerable, level. It is commonplace to claim that terror cannot be defeated militarily, but in the West Bank, Israel has come as close as humanly possible - closer than anyone else has come in any other similar conflict elsewhere on the globe in recent years.

The success of Thursday's attack shows that the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank is still alive and kicking. And the terrorists' motivation has apparently been spurred by their heavy losses in Gaza, as well as a desire to avenge the killing of senior Hezbollah operative Imad Mughniyah (a group called the "Mughniyah Brigades" was the first to claim responsibility for the Jerusalem attack, though the truth of this claim is doubtful).
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The defense establishment received several warnings about plans to perpetrate terror attacks inside Israel this week, but none, it seems, about the one in Jerusalem. And that makes sense: In recent years, Israel's superb intelligence network in the West Bank has enabled the security services to foil almost all attacks about which they receive even the tiniest scrap of information.

As of press time Thursday, the terrorist who perpetrated the shooting had not yet been identified. However, it seems likely that residents of East Jerusalem either perpetrated or abetted the attack. Because East Jerusalem residents carry Israeli identity cards, they can move freely throughout the country, making it easier for them to gather information about a target like Mercaz Harav, which is located deep in west Jerusalem. But it is also important to remember that nearly six years after Israel started building the separation fence, it is still far from finished. Thus it is possible to enter Jerusalem from the West Bank.

The Jerusalem attack will most likely prompt only pinpoint responses: arresting those in the terrorist's immediate circle, identifying the cell that sent him and then eliminating the cell. The closure on the West Bank will probably be tightened for a few days, and additional checkpoints will be set up. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's demand that Israel reduce the number of checkpoints in the West Bank will evidently have to wait. Security will also need to be beefed up in Jerusalem, lest the terrorists try to build on their success by launching a string of attacks that would undermine the sense of security of the city's residents.

Even if there is no direct connection between the attack in Jerusalem and the situation in Gaza, each arena influences the other. Anger at the attack in Jerusalem might spur the government to take harsher measures in Gaza, especially if it turns out that Hamas was involved in the attack. Moreover, given that Mercaz Harav is the ideological bastion of the religious right, the incident might spur revenge attacks by Jews.

The new year is just over two months old, and the number of Israelis killed by Palestinian terror - 15 - is higher than the total for all of last year (13). That does not bode well for the future.
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  1.   The fence 10:47  |  MR 07/03/08
  2.   This is no ordinary religious school,it is a Talmudic school 11:51  |  lakshmi 07/03/08
  3.   Israel should start fighting terror 11:59  |  Nechama 07/03/08
  4.   Puts a bit of different slant on it Lakshmi 12:28  |  Kiwi girl 07/03/08
  5.   as close as humanly possible 12:29  |  JJ burke 07/03/08
  6.   danger and threat are everywhere 12:30  |  jean marie 07/03/08
  7.   An attack by Moderate Palestinians 13:58  |  Avi 07/03/08
  8.   Think again... 14:06  |  Buzaglow 07/03/08
  9.   sorrowful if not wise sanity from Sydney 14:10  |  Not alone, Nechema 07/03/08
  10.   ONLY THIS WILL BREAK GAZA OPEN! 14:29  |  NEIL GOLAN 07/03/08
  11.   lakshmi racism trying to justify the massacre 14:36  |  Gabriel 07/03/08
  12.   "Tolerable" Terror? 14:50  |  Eli T. 07/03/08
  13.   The attack 15:03  |  Chris Linthwaite 07/03/08
  14.   Moderate Palestinians 15:04  |  Bob`s Mother 07/03/08
  15.   Kiwi Girl 15:12  |  Jay 07/03/08
  16.   Just a bee that takes revenge for the killing of a fellow bee 15:17  |  Arab Bee 07/03/08
  17.   A Call for Israel to have a Far Stronger Leadership 15:17  |  Natasha 07/03/08
  18.   U.N. refuses to condemn attack. 15:17  |  To Foreign Minister 07/03/08
  19.   How did this monster came in ? 15:19  |  Jacob 07/03/08
  20.   Will the world care? 15:23  |  Rightster 07/03/08
  21.   *2 and *4 15:26  |  Mike 07/03/08
  22.   You Reap What You Sow. 15:40  |  Cool B 07/03/08
  23.   #11 Jacob 15:43  |  Chris Linthwaite 07/03/08
  24.   @8 If they really care ... 15:46  |  Jacob 07/03/08
  25.   Why did a Yeshiva hire a Muslim driver? 15:47  |  B (The other one) 07/03/08
  26.   Mike your jewish g_d likes to kill babies? 15:48  |  Mike 07/03/08
  27.   Those who not learn from history - Part II 16:20  |  Lisa 07/03/08
  28.   Here is a novel idea 16:36  |  sama 07/03/08
  29.   Hit arab Bees where it hurts most:Take Israeli ID from family 16:52  |  Absolute Sweden 07/03/08
  30.   Fundamentally Flawed Approach 16:56  |  Shlomo 07/03/08
  31.   18 your kind of course but leaders unfortunatley are`nt religious 16:56  |  Angel B. 07/03/08
  32.   No intelligence is absolutly correct 17:11  |  Ben 07/03/08
  33.   This article isn`t even accurate! 17:14  |  Woo 07/03/08
  34.   This Article 17:23  |  Awful 07/03/08
  35.   Lakshmi 17:50  |  Nick Ferriman 07/03/08
  36.   To Lisa 18:10  |  Espart 07/03/08
  37.   in response to B #17 18:16  |  Leo 07/03/08
  38.   To Kiwi girl 18:17  |  PW 07/03/08
  39.   The Jihad - Another Step 18:19  |  Jon MacArthur 07/03/08
  40.   Sorry Arab Bee (8) he was a citizen of Israel with Israeli 18:30  |  Karl 07/03/08
  41.   Of course there was "intelligence." 18:40  |  Yossi 07/03/08
  42.   Too many James Bond Movies 18:48  |  Mark Lincoln 07/03/08
  43.   Leftwinger 18:49  |  Abe 07/03/08
  44.   Ben - intelligence and the current government 18:51  |  Mark Lincoln 07/03/08
  45.   Ham as now says it had NOTHING todo with the attack 19:00  |  Dagma 07/03/08
  46.   To Haaretz Censors- be careful, your bias is showing 19:25  |  Lisa 07/03/08
  47.   Response to Espart 19:35  |  Lisa 07/03/08
  48.   HOW MANY HAVE TO DIE FOR OLMERTS FAILED POLICYS 19:43  |  THE WARRIOR 07/03/08
  49.   WHY IS IT OK TO MURDER PALESTINIANS BUT NOT JEWS?? 20:02  |  Alabama man 07/03/08
  50.   Think maybe there`s a pattern here? 20:07  |  Colin Wright 07/03/08
  51.   #8 Arab bee... 20:36  |  DR 07/03/08
  52.   This is a wakeup call for Israel to get rid of Olmert 20:37  |  Blaster 07/03/08
  53.   Wrong, Haaretz 20:56  |  Barf 07/03/08
  54.   Alabama man 38 21:31  |  alan 07/03/08
  55.   # 2, Lakshmi`s subtle falsehoods 21:34  |  PW 07/03/08
  56.   How can anyone detect a particular attack like this? 22:29  |  Efox 07/03/08
  57.   re: Colin Wright 22:38  |  Efox 07/03/08
  58.   Someone`s a serious liar! 22:39  |  Paul 07/03/08
  59.   Talmudic 22:43  |  Paul 07/03/08
  60.   #38, alabama man--here is the significant difference 03:04  |  Voice of Reason 08/03/08
  61.   One last attempt to pass the censor 03:55  |  Mark Lincoln 08/03/08
  62.   What intelligence? 06:32  |  Boris 08/03/08
  63.   This shows Olmerts Government is a complete failure 08:35  |  Dish It Out 08/03/08
  64.   lakshmi/ferriman 08:50  |  danny 08/03/08
  65.   What if there is no "cell?" 08:54  |  spyguy 08/03/08
  66.   Ferriman - Really surprised you couldn`t find info 16:26  |  * BEN JABO 08/03/08
  67.   Voice of Reason & Alabama Man 17:52  |  Lisa 08/03/08
  68.   re: spyguy 20:58  |  Efox 08/03/08
  69.   re: Lisa 22:23  |  Efox 08/03/08
  70.   re: B (the other one) 22:30  |  Efox 08/03/08
  71.   To this American our path seems clear 06:26  |  tug919 09/03/08
  72.   #71 tug919 - You can`t wash your hands 16:53  |  * BEN JABO 09/03/08
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