Posted on 06/22/2004 7:11:46 PM PDT by blam
Israeli pressure 'is paying off against terrorists'
By Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem
(Filed: 23/06/2004)
Israel has turned the corner in the fight against Palestinian terrorist attacks, the defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, claimed yesterday.
He said the marked drop in attacks was due not to lack of motivation among the militants but because their capabilities to carry out operations had been significantly reduced.
Mr Mofaz told senior officers at a briefing: "We are seeing a new trend. The level of terror is slowly declining. We must keep up the offensive operations. The pressure is working."
This year 19 people have died in two suicide bomb attacks but there has not been a big incident since March. This compares with 25 attacks in 2002, which killed 147 people, and 20 in 2003, which killed 141.
Officers at the briefing said that so far this year Israeli forces in the West Bank has been able to foil all attacks associated with the 103 terror alerts that were in effect. Attacks that did occur, such as two in Jerusalem, were not preceded by advance alerts.
Since the beginning of the year, 2,000 Palestinians have been arrested as suspected terrorists, including 58 potential suicide bombers.
The Israeli army has, in recent weeks, acknowledged steps taken by the Palestinian Authority to prevent terrorist activity.
The authority is reported to have stopped transferring money to a militant offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
Looks like we finally got the leash off Israel.
The two usually go hand-in-hand.
3 years.
This should have been done 3 years ago, it would have saved many lives.
U.S. must do the same, it will save many lives!!!
When will people learn!! Kill the heads of the snakes!!!
Keep it up Israel!
I have nothing but complete respect for the Israelis. They know how to fight and how to unleash hell. We need to start taking some lessons from them.
Good for Israel! However, don't let the pressure off. The terrorists are just cooling off waiting for an opening. Be careful!
Looks like killing off the leaders of Hamas has helped to discourage their terrorist followers.
Arafat's been pretty quiet lately too.
I'm glad to see this new aggressive, Bush doctrine approach to fighting terrorism.
Go Israel!
Also, remember that Saddam's money is no longer available to bribe parents into strapping bombs on their children.
The Israelis know how to do it!
I saw Benjamin Netanjahu being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer today, and he was so cool! Wolfie lst asked him about a rumor that some Israelis were in N.Iraq working with the Kurds. THIS WAS GREAT: Netanjahu told him that he would neither confirm nor deny..if we did have folks in there, I WOULD NOT TELL YOU!!!! Man, not enough people tell CNN where to put it these days. Kudos to Benjie!
"Since the beginning of the year, 2,000 Palestinians have been arrested as suspected terrorists, including 58 potential suicide bombers."
Now Israel needs to re-institute the death penalty and the world will be 2000 terrorists lighter and the 58 can have their own personal death wishes fulfilled.
And that goes double for the US. We executed McVeigh, and we better start executing the rest of the slime. Life sentances are undeserved by these people.
I heard Newt Gingrich on with Sean Hannity last friday, he would extend the DP to all aiders, abbettors, and colaborators. I think that is an excellent idea and would go a long way to determining those who are with us and those who are against us stateside.
They're there and also in Syria and Iran...The Israeli's and Kurds have a thing going on.
We just may end up with a Kurdistan out of this whole thing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.