Posted on 12/24/2017 8:50:44 AM PST by Eddie01
Shin Bet Chief Nadav Argaman said on Sunday that the security agency has thwarted over 400 terror attacks in 2017, including 13 suicide attacks and 8 kidnappings, as well as 1,100 potential lone wolf attacks.
Argaman spoke at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Sunday morning and warned that “the [period of] quiet we are experiencing is misleading; Hamas is hard at work trying to execute terrorist attacks.”
He also came out against the death penalty, telling lawmakers he opposed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s proposal to allow judges to sentence terrorists to death.
Israeli law currently allows military courts to use the death penalty if there is a consensus of all the judges presiding over the trial. Right-wing lawmakers, led by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, have called for expanding the death penalty to apply to certain kinds of terrorists.
The death penalty has only been invoked in Israel on Nazi commander Adolf Eichmann, who was hung in 1962.
A new bill proposed by Liberman would allow a majority of judges to sentence a terrorist to death. A draft bill was agreed to by coalition leaders last week despite opposition leaders saying it would not deter terrorists from carrying out attacks.
“Liberman’s bill is political and not good for security, because if there was a security need for it, security forces would have demanded it, but they don’t want it,” said Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni.
Argaman noted that in 2017 only 54 attacks were successfully carried out in comparison with 108 attacks that were carried out in 2016.
In 2016, the Shin Bet stopped 344 major attacks, meaning that the total number of thwarted and successful attacks were similar between 2016 and 2017, but the security agency succeeded in thwarting more of them in 2017.
The major improvement was from preventing 400 potential lone wolf attacks in 2016 to preventing 1,100 potential lone wolf attacks in 2017.
Those numbers, however, are the subject of much debate.
Law enforcement and intelligence officials in different countries have told The Jerusalem Post that while Israel is a successful pioneer in discerning and stopping potential lone wolf attackers before they get to a serious point of carrying out an attack, the line between busting people for social media posts that are free speech and those which are dangerous incitement is a fine one.
Some refuse to use such statistics to boost their credibility when they make reports to their own legislative bodies, viewing potential attacker as a category as too amorphous. Sometimes when the Shin Bet thwarts potential attackers it means by arrest, but sometimes it could mean countering them on social media or having a serious sit down talk and merely issuing a warning.
Warning that the relative calm is misleading, “certainly following the Trump statement”, Argaman praised the work carried out by the Shin Bet's cyber unit and expressed his confidence in the abilities of the Israeli security services to withstand the coming times.
“Over the past year, we, along with our colleagues in the intelligence and cybersecurity community, have been dealing with some of the the biggest challenges in the field,” Argaman said while speaking at an event discussing cyber security at Tel Aviv University in June.
“We have carried out dozens of successful operations in this area, but given the personality and challenges of the cyberworld, it is best that we remain modest regarding our capabilities,” he continued.
According to him, over a third of Shin Bet employees focus on cyber-related issues.
Last week the agency cleared for publication that a Hamas cell in the West Bank had planned to kidnap MK Yehuda Glick or the IDF’s Arabic Spokesperson Maj.Avichai Adraee.
The cell, which operated from the village of Tel near Nablus and was uncovered during the months of October and November, later changed their plan and decided instead to kidnap an IDF soldier or Israeli citizen from a bus stop in one of the central junctions near Nablus in an attempt to use them as a bargaining chip in negotiations to release Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
According to the Shin Bet the cell was in contact with Omar 'Atzida, a Hamas military activist and a member of the Hamas headquarters in the Gaza Strip, who is said to be working to promote the the mobilization of military action and the funneling of funds from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.
Hamas has called for a new popular uprising against Israel-or intifada- and urged residents to head to the border fence to protest Trump’s statement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel two weeks ago.
Referring to the negotiations between Hamas and Fatah, Argaman said that “only time will tell if this process will be successful and what it will mean for us.”
I stand solidly with Israel.
Yes Israel, bring back the death penalty for terrorists.
I have always wondered why we do not copy their antiterrorism strategies on the ground & with their flight screening. No we’ll just go w/ our unqualified TSA people & our hit or miss antiterrorism techniques.
The TSA is absolutely a disgrace. Memphis airport seems to have recruited at shady convenience stores.
The IDF, the Shinbet and the Mossad currently administer Israel’s death penalty. It’s cheap and efficient.
+1
“as well as 1,100 potential lone wolf attacks”
I’m having trouble squeezing that into 400.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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In general, not just in Israel, I don’t believe lone wolf attacks are considered acts of terror unless there’s a clear cut link. IMO a mistake. The motivation is critical. But I think that’s how they keep the records.
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