From Haaretz, :
The Shin Bet security services and the Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday they have in recent weeks arrested 16 residents of Bethlehem who are suspected of having planned a series of large-scale terror attacks in Jerusalem. The cells allegedly planned to launch two pairs of suicide bombers to the Mea She'arim neighborhood in the capital, and are said to have planned a terror attack using an explosive-laden ambulance. Also attributed to one of the cells is a plan to attack a bus carrying worshippers to Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem.Based on details released on Tuesday by security forces, Hamas was to provide the suicide bombers for the missions, while Islamic Jihad was supposed to supply the explosive devices. Some of those arrested, including the would-be suicide bombers, served in the Palestinian national security services. Among those arrested is Hamed Dar'awi, an active member in the PA's national security services, who is said to have been the mastermind for the ambulance attack.
OMG, I have relatives in Mea Shaarim and several close friends who go to Kever Rachel daily. The Jews in Hevron are in such danger, they are constantly threatened. Yet for the longest time, we in North America have been able to ignore threats like these because "it's only Israel".
And funny that Haaretz would break this story. They were the folks who last week ran an op-ed piece pointing out that far more Palestinian children have been killed than Israeli children. My youngest child could shoot holes in that logic. Any group of 'freedom fighters' who hide behind weomn and children and then call a press conference when their precious children die are nothing more than animals. I am so grateful that these attacks were stopped in time!
I just read on Arutz Sheva that the cells consisted of PA police and other officials. That certainly illustrates the kind of people that Israel is supposed to negotiate peace with.
http://www.arutzsheva.com/news.php3?id=71445
If they bomb Bethlehem, they are literally begging for us to bomb MECCA!!!
Thats justice!!!
Doubtless the ambulence would have been "borrowed" from UNRWA and driven by one of its employees.
The "'Palestinian' security services" are but the armed contingent of the PA. These PA security services are supposed to restrain jihadist fervor in Gaza after Sharon's pullout. There is talk of putting EU and/or NATO troops into Gaza to work with the Egyptians (Moslms) in restraining eager jihadists yearning to kill Jews.
This will give the PA jihadists the opportuntity to shoot at the Israelis--with rockes, missiles, mortar rounds, bullets--whilst hiding behind the Europeans. If Isarelis shoot back, they will (the PA jihadists are hoping) hit EU troopsm thus causig a confrontation between the EU/NATO and the IDF. Clever Arab Moslems, eh what?
The reasons behind Sharon's retreat from Gaza are too obfuscated to go into here. Suffice it to say that it is not for the benefit of Israel. It might be for the benefit of Sharon, the EU and the US, who hope to settle the "Palestinian" question by having Israel shrink and shrink and shrink until poof! only "Palestine" remains. (Tony Blair sees it as a country in the ME already, perhaps an ally of the UK? The Brits always had a thing for the Arabs.)
Now as to Bethlehem, celebrated in song and story, especially at Christmas time, it has been almost completely cleansed of Christians. Were it not for Israel's intervention, another, a huge, mosque would have been built in Manger Square.
Israel cannot do so, but the World's Christians should demand that this town be preserved as a holy place, not be taken over as another one of the "holy" places of Islam in honor of the Islamic "prophet" Issa--known to Christians as Jesus of Nazareth.
I'll go a step further: we'll also demand that the UN and other international agencies declare not only Bethlehem a world heritage site to be kept sacred for Christians, but also the Wailing Wall, that it be kept sacred for Jews. Let's throw in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron; that it be kept open and secure for members of all Abrhamic religions.