Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
You may recall a gruesome terrorist attack that occurred here in late August in which a group of Hamas men strafed a car containing four Israeli cilivians and then killed them all at point-blank range. The victims' names were Yitzhak and Talya Ames, Kochava Even-Haim, and Avishai Shindler. They were from the settlement of Beit Hagai. Of the two women victims, one was a pregnant mother of six.
As of Thursday night, the Hamas cell that conducted the attack is no more. The Israeli operation, which took place at a residential building in Hebron, was prompted by a tip from the Shin Bet and conducted by the undercover Duvdevan unit of the IDF and the counterterrorism unit of the Israel Police. The terrorists who were killed have been identified as Nashat Karmi, a senior Hamas commander in Hebron, and Mammon Natshe. Everyone else who was directly involved in the August attack was taken into custody, and the weapons involved were found.
Hamas responded to the operation by threatening further mayhem against Israel and by condemning the Palestinian Authority for cooperating with the Israelis in tracking down the criminals, an allegation that is almost certainly grounded in fact. As Haaretz points out, assisting the Israelis in hunting down the killers was infinitely more palatable to the PA than a manhunt by their own security services would have been -- despite the fact that the attack was deliberately staged from within Palestinian territory to demonstrate the PA's impotence. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, in responding to the IDF operation, disappointingly (if unsurprisingly) toed the Palestinian-unity party line. “[T]he path to peace does not come by way of killing our citizens, harming them, establishing settlements or the terror of settlers,” he said. (Ugh. Blaming the settlers seems particularly poor taste in this scenario, Salam. You're supposed to be the only mensch in the bunch. Come on.)
Haaretz is beside itself because this operation provided the bad guys with two new martyrs and let the PA off the hook for apprehending the killers of the four Israelis. Both fair points, but I can't get too worked up about either of them, frankly. And if this is what going after the bad guys is supposed to look like in our new, enlightened, post-agreement world, well, I can't say I find that any too reassuring.
To everyone involved in the successful completion of this operation: Bravo.
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May '10
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
A better day's work than I have ever accomplished. The IDF: expediting the path to paradise since 1948.
Aug '10
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
Congratulations and kudos to the IDF and everyone else involved whose names we'll never know. I sincerely hope that we're capable of the same kind of surgical strikes the Israelis do so well.
One of the most admirable qualities of the Jewish people is their ability to plan in detail, maintain a cool head in battle, and act with precision - and even mercy - when victory is in hand.
The raid on Entebbe comes to mind as a classic ideal for modern warfare.
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
Spoken by someone who has clearly never been in the back seat of the car when the Berlinski family goes on a road trip.
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
Superb job, IDF. Oorah.
Jun '10
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
The only problem I see is that the captured animals will now be kept at Israeli expense for the rest of their lives in conditions better than they deserve. As for what this animals deserve, I say bring back the gibbet.
Aug '10
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Spoken by someone who has clearly never been in the back seat of the car when the Berlinski family goes on a road trip. · Oct 10 at 4:31am
LOL.... ;-D That's another Jewish quality we all love, self-deprecating humor, epitomized by Groucho Marx's famous line, "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." and, "I've got the brain of a four year old. I'll bet he was glad to be rid of it."
Has anyone ever seen a German comic? Where would the world be without Jewish comedians? It would be the very definition of Purgatory!
Edited on Oct 10, 2010 at 10:18amAug '10
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
Seems like a job well done but if I may say so, there have been rather too many serious screw-ups in recent times for any hubris to set in.
Jul '10
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
Congratulations to everyone involved in tracking down and killing those evil people.
And it is so very predictable that reactions from the Left and and other enablers of the Intifada is: this will only result in (more) violence!!!
Jul '10
Re: Justice Is Served; Let the Hand-Wringing Begin
I have never understood the knock on "creating martyrs".
I mean, I understand that a martyr can inspire terrorist acts intended to avenge him. But a terrorist who is captured and imprisoned with all the legal niceties and procedural trappings that please hand-wringing lawyers, will also inspire terrorist acts intended to free him.