By Mudar Adnan Zahran
In recent weeks there has been a surge in terror attacks against both Israeli soldiers and civilians, Though those attacks have not been on a grand scale, they have been consistent, precise and disruptive in the sense that they targeted innocent civilians and killed some.
In order to effectively deal with the situation, Israel must ascertain the facts.
That said, many journalists have blamed a small group based in Nablus that calls itself the Lion’s Den as being solely responsible for the recent attacks. Recently, I wrote Who is the New Palestinian Terror Group, The Lions’ Den? in which I explained that it’s made up of just few dozen young men who lacked combat experience and leadership skills. They are geographically confined to Nablus.
Furthermore, the Lion’s Den, lacks a benefactor. Terror groups operate on money. There is no indication that this terror group has any benefactors of significance, financiers or source of funds. Therefore, I question the alleged clout being attributed, by some journalists, to the Lion’s Den group. I simply believe the group doesn’t have much influence.
In the past few days, Hamas media, the Jordanian state media and some Israeli journalists have magnified the terror group above and beyond. Some of those claimed the terror group is moving to the rest of the West Bank, and some said it’s a nightmare for Israel. Well, such claims can be attractive to readers and could get their attention. Nevertheless, facts on the ground suggest the Lion’s Den is neither the main event, nor an upcoming show. Last weekend, the Lions Den themselves gave us a very solid piece of evidence that the terror group is nothing but a bubble.
On 15 October, the Lion’s Den group called on all Arab Palestinians in the West Bank to take to streets and attack religious Jews and Jewish settlers. The group issued a public statement calling every single Palestinian to act and launch a wave of attacks by all means possible. Both the Palestinian Arab media and the Jordanian media, which are very followed by Palestinians in the West Bank, circulated the call for terror by the Lions Den. But what was the outcome? Did the Palestinians listen to the terror group? The answer is an emphatic no.
Palestinian Arabs did not take to the streets to attack Jews, Arabs in Jerusalem did not prevent Jews from entering the premises around Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. It was mostly business as usual in Israel, with not an iota of Arab compliance with the Lions Den’s orders.
The shocking terror attacks promised by the Lions Den were not delivered the next day. Only one shooting took place, and targeted the Israeli troops near Nablus. There was nothing else of significance.
What is most significant here, is the fact that the Palestinian Arab public doesn’t seem to listen to the Lions Den group or take them too seriously. And above that, the group doesn’t have the resources to fire things up. Usually, Palestinian terror groups fire things up by carrying out their own attacks or by financing and paying handouts for people to protest and make trouble. In other words, the Lions Den group has proven itself a bubble being magnified by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to blame someone else for terror attacks they might carry out themselves in the future. On the other hand, the Lion’s Den has been naively promoted by some Israeli journalists who at best simply may not even know much beyond what they read in the Arab Palestinian media itself. This makes them, at best, poor journalists.
What many may not realize is that the emergence of small Palestinian Arab terror groups is not new. Jordan-based think tank, Strategiecs, noted this; “The phenomenon of armed [Palestinian Arab] groups is not new, there has been many names of paramilitary and unofficial formations of Palestinian factions. These have been numerous since the first Intifada,” For example; “The Night’s Knights” group from Nablus. This group was no more than a media bubble and it no longer exists.
Still, the magnification of the Lion’s Den group could prove dangerous because other terror groups may be encouraged to commit terror attacks in their name. Thus they are free to negotiate with Israel as though they were not responsible for the terror attacks.
On the other hand, since October 14, the Palestinian Authority’s media has stopped glorifying the Lions Den group. At the same time, the Palestinian security forces began putting it under control. A very well-connected Arab government source has informed me that these changes were made by the Palestinian Authority after the Israeli government warned them, they would be held responsible if they keep turning a blind eye to the Lions Den and other small troublemakers. The source said the Palestinian Authority immediately stopped promoting the Lion’s Den in its media.
It will become clearer with time that the main terror players in the West Bank are the same as they always were, namely, the PLO, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad.
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