Israel: Gangsters A Bigger Threat Than Islamic Terrorists

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February 20, 2014: Israel is still at war with Islamic terrorists and is still winning. Six Israelis were killed by Islamic terrorists in 2013. Three were security personnel and three were civilians. No Israelis were killed in Israel. Five of the deaths took place in the West Bank and the other one in Gaza. This continues a trend. Moslems in general and Palestinians in particular have been trying to kill Israelis ever since Israel was created nearly 70 years ago. There was a peace deal (the Oslo Accords) with the Palestinians in 1993 and between then and September 2000 Islamic and Palestinian terrorist attacks killed about 300 Israelis. In September 2000 the Palestinians decided to launch a major terrorism campaign against Israel and between then and the end of 2005 some 1,100 Israelis were killed (most of them inside Israel). But by 2005 Israel had developed new tactics and techniques against the terrorism and since 2005 only 135 Israelis have been killed by terrorism. Each year since 2005 the number of Israeli terrorist deaths has declined, which has only enraged anti-Israel terror groups more.

In the Sinai Egyptian over a hundred police and soldiers have been killed fighting Islamic terrorists so far this year. Since 2011 over 450 policemen have been killed by Islamic terrorists in Egypt, most of them in Sinai.  The police are taking more casualties than the army, which is only really active in Sinai.

Egypt revealed that its AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships had recently fired 24 Hellfire missiles at Islamic terrorists in the Sinai. According to the 1979 peace deal with Israel Egypt is not allowed to operate any of its 35 AH-64s in Sinai but in 2012 Israel agreed to allow Egypt to operate AH-64s in Sinai against Islamic terrorists. Israel also operates 44 AH-64s and uses them frequently and successfully against Islamic terrorists.

Egyptian Islamic terrorists warned foreign tourists to stay out of Egypt. For older Egyptians this is all too familiar. Although the Moslem Brotherhood renounced terrorist violence back in the 1970s, a Brotherhood faction went rogue in the 1990s and took part in a major terrorist campaign against the government and foreign tourists. The attack on foreigners and Egyptian civilians led to a major backlash from Egyptians in general the quick defeat of the Islamic terrorists. After that the Moslem Brotherhood promised to behave and was allowed to continue operating openly. Until recently the Brotherhood condemned the terror attacks by groups in the Sinai. These have left hundreds of Islamic terrorists, civilians, soldiers and police dead in the last year. The Brotherhood has long condemned all violence, but now it’s the 1990s all over again with some Brotherhood members getting involved with Islamic terrorists. Brotherhood members are increasingly angry at government efforts to prosecute their leader Mohamed Morsi, despite the fact that Morsi was elected president in mid-2012. The majority of Egyptians are anti-Morsi but many of those who still back Morsi are willing to use violence to try and get Morsi back in power. Israel wants things to quiet down in Egypt, as long as the place does not turn into an Islamic terrorist sanctuary.

On the Lebanese border the Lebanese army is deploying more troops and ordered them to use forced to prevent Israeli troops from crossing the border to plant spying devices or for any other reason. Meanwhile Lebanon has growing problems with violence between Shia (Hezbollah) and Sunni Lebanese. In addition to a lot of demonstrations (for and against Hezbollah, some of them violent) there are more terror bombings and assassinations. For example, today a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician was assassinated in Tripoli. On the 19th Sunni Islamic terrorists set off two bombs in a Shia neighborhood of Beirut, killing six people.

February 18, 2014: Egypt charged two Israelis and two Egyptians with spying inside Egypt. The two Egyptians were arrested but the Israelis were apparently back in Israel.

February 17, 2014: On the Syrian border with Lebanon 27 Hezbollah gunmen were killed when Syrian rebels ambushed a large groups of Hezbollah men entering Syria.

February 16, 2014: In the Sinai, near the Israeli border a bomb hit a tourist bus killing three South Korean tourists and the Egyptian driver.

February 14, 2014: Two rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza but there were no casualties. There have been 35 rockets fired from Gaza to far this year. All these rocket attacks are answered with air strikes on Islamic terrorists targets in Gaza. The UN is trying to calm things down but believes that the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is falling apart.

February 13, 2014: After a week-long Egyptian offensive against Islamic terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula the army claimed 112 Islamic terrorists killed or wounded and 69 arrested. Lots of equipment and many documents were seized. On the Gaza border troops found and destroyed another 49 smuggling tunnels and seized a lot of items from the smugglers, including 104 assault rifles and 12,500 rounds of ammo. More buildings within 500 meters of the Gaza border were also destroyed. The Gaza operations are part of a six month (so far) effort to destroy all buildings within 500 meters of Gaza, making it more difficult to build new smuggling tunnels and easier to find the ones that are undiscovered. Security at the only legal crossing from Gaza to Egypt has become more intense. Egypt believes many anti-Egyptian terrorists have sanctuary in Gaza where they plan and launch attacks against Egypt. Hamas denies this but the facts say otherwise. With or without the permission of Hamas, several terror groups are based in Gaza and Hamas cannot or will not shut them down unless these groups openly rebel against Hamas rule. Meanwhile Egypt is accusing Hamas of arresting and harassing Egyptians working in Gaza. The Egyptian army has also been launching periodic sweeps for Islamic terrorists in Sinai in addition to lots of patrols and raids on known Islamic terrorist houses and camps. Egypt reports that troops keep finding evidence of continued connections between Sinai based Islamic terrorists and counterparts in Gaza.

A Palestinian was killed by Israeli security forces while trying to damage the border fence. Palestinian terrorists are regularly trying to plant bombs (to hurt passing Israeli patrols) or damage the security fence (so it can be breached). The Israelis shoot back when Palestinians refuse orders to back off. Islamic terrorist groups in Gaza also organize large crowds to throw rocks at Israelis maintaining or repairing the border fence.

February 10, 2014:  In Egypt (Sinai) terrorists blew up a portion of a natural gas pipeline. This is the fourth such attack in 2014.

A rocket was fired into Israel from Gaza but there were no casualties.

February 8, 2014: In Tel Aviv a man was killed by a bomb planted in his car. This was the third such attack in a week and is all about a feud between criminal gangs, not Islamic terrorism. Car bombs have become a favorite weapon of the local gangs.

 

 

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