Senior officer says success like that of counterterrorist operation against Salafi cell happens ‘once in a decade.’
By Gil Ronen, INN
The IDF’s Central Command is highly pleased with an operation that killed three Salafi terrorists Tuesday at Yata, south of Hevron.
“Succeeding in preventing a terror attack of this magnitude, before it is executed, and with no one hurt from our forces, is an event that happens once in a decade,” a senior source from the Judea and Samaria Regiment said
“The elimination of three terrorists and the arrest of six collaborators are a meaningful achievement,” the source said. “There are definitely people out there, we do not know how many and where, whose lives have been saved by this move.”
The terrorists were killed in a raid by Shin Bet special forces, together with the Border Police’s elite SWAT unit, Yamam. The Salafi cell was planning to carry out an attack within the next few days.
GOOD
All of this reveals why creating a Palestinian Arab state is pure folly.
No one knows if such a state won’t be taken over by extreme Islamic jihadist elements, making Hamas in Gaza look moderate in comparison.
Israel has no way of guaranteeing the PA regime in Ramallah can remain in power without IDF bayonets. And without an IDF presence in Judea and Samaria, it will be impossible to prevent the renewal of Arab terrorism.
But Israel’s leaders seem more content to place their faith in an untested assumption about Palestinian Arab stability than in the reality of the volatile situation in the Middle East, where even more radical elements usually gain the upper hand.
If an Arab state like Egypt, which is not bothered by Israel’s crippling moral scruples about human life, cannot put down Islamic jihadist terrorism in the Sinai, its not likely Israel could contain that emanating from a sovereign Palestinian Arab state.
That is a recipe for disaster and endless wars.