Israel nabs senior Hamas boss

Maher U'dda is implicated in the deaths of over 70 Israelis through the years. But that won't stop Hamas and others from maligning Israel as the aggressor, and possibly retaliating. "Israelis nab senior Hamas leader," from CNN, March 14:

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israeli forces have arrested a senior Hamas operative they say is responsible for killing more than 70 Israelis in various terrorist attacks, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.

Maher U'dda, who had been wanted since the end of the 1990s, was arrested Saturday night in a joint operation by Israeli police and security forces in Ramallah, on the West Bank, the IDF said.

"Pinpoint intelligence information" from the Israel Security Agency led to the arrest, they said.

U'dda, who is in his early 40s, was one of the founders of Hamas in Ramallah and lives in a village northeast of the city, the IDF said.

In the early 1990s, he formed a Hamas cell in his village that abducted and interrogated Palestinians suspected of cooperating with Israel, the IDF said.

The cell demanded weapons as ransom and used them in terrorist attacks, according to the IDF statement.

Palestinian security forces investigated U'dda in 1998 and held him in a prison for several months, the IDF said.

During the Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, U'dda helped organize and manage a Hamas military cell responsible for killing 10 Israelis, the IDF said.

"U'dda's arrest is the final stage of thwarting Hamas' military headquarters in Ramallah, which executed various terror attacks and is responsible for the murder of more than 70 Israelis," the IDF statement said.

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9 Comments

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gravenimage | March 14, 2010 11:16 AM | Reply

In the early 1990s, he formed a Hamas cell in his village that abducted and interrogated Palestinians suspected of cooperating with Israel, the IDF said.

The cell demanded weapons as ransom and used them in terrorist attacks, according to the IDF statement.
..................

More kidnapping for ransom—this time for *weapons* to wreak yet more violence, this time against Israel.

And why were these "Palestinians" considered acceptable targets for kidnapping and torture? Why, because they were considered "insufficiently Islamic", as they were suspected of "cooperating" in some manner with Israel.

And where was the "Palestinian Authority" during all this? Not protecting their constituents, obviously.

Buraq | March 14, 2010 11:21 AM | Reply

The efficiency and precision of this arrest shows that the Israelis had absolutely nothing to do with the bumbling, fumbling Dubai killing of al-Mahdoub.
Nice one lads! Keep it up!

lkeevy1 | March 14, 2010 12:08 PM | Reply

it bothers me so much that when they capture this scum, they are released with the other scum for deals. l say put him a military trial and execute when found guilty. enough for these scumbags!

Thomas Pellow | March 14, 2010 12:16 PM | Reply

I still view this video (6 mins) every so often:

Mosab Yousef, 'Son of Hamas'

http://www.jihadwatch.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/br0nc0s/managed-mt/mt-search.cgi?search=mosab+yousef&IncludeBlogs=1&limit=20

George | March 14, 2010 12:28 PM | Reply

Erstwhile enemies of Israel would be well-advised that they underestimate that country's capabilities at their own peril. These are the folks who nabbed Adolf Eichmann from a suburban Buenos Aires bus-stop and smuggled him out under the noses of Argentine authorities. Within hours he was in Israel awaiting the final chapter of his life.
And then there was the legendary raid on Entebbe. These people are professionals, not to be trifled-with.

And our idiots in Wahington, DC, would be well-advised to consider who are friends are--and who they're NOT...

Thomas Pellow | March 14, 2010 1:08 PM | Reply

Re - ENTEBBE:

Suggest see BBC 'Age of Terror', 1 'Terror international' 1-4.

Section 1 is here; sections 2,3, and 4 available online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsEHDK8xtN8

DP111 | March 14, 2010 4:06 PM | Reply

Oh dear - this arrest is insensitive and will do nothing to further the peace process, specially as VP Biden and H Clinton have lectured Israel on its waywardness.

DP111 | March 14, 2010 5:51 PM | Reply

US presses for Israeli concessions
By HERB KEINON IN J'LEM, HILARY LEILA KRIEGER IN W

The Obama administration refused to let go of the Ramat Shlomo construction controversy Sunday, with two top aides to US President Barack Obama slamming Israel amid a growing sense in Jerusalem that Washington was using the issue to squeeze diplomatic concessions from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

While the Prime Minister’s Office would not confirm the reports, it is widely believed that the US is now pressing Netanyahu to cancel the entire 1,600 housing-unit project in Ramat Shlomo.

In addition, Washington wants Israel to make a confidence building measure – such as releasing Palestinian prisoners – toward Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before US Mideast envoy George Mitchell arrives later this week to try to get proximity talks off the ground; and to agree that the proximity talks will deal with core issues of the negotiations, and not only technical matters as a way into direct talks, as Israel had demanded.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=170999

These as usual pre-conditions before any talks can begin. Once Israel gives in, the PA will pocket Israeli concessions, and fond some other excuse to break off talks.

Slice by slice, Israel will be destroyed.

dumbledoresarmy replied to comment from DP111 | March 14, 2010 7:21 PM | Reply

I'm not so sure that Israel will be destroyed.

Read the talkbacks in Jerusalem Post and Arutz Sheva online, to articles like this.

I have been reading JPost comments - and contributing my two cents - for longer than I have been reading and contributing here.

And in the past two years I have noticed a distinct shift in tone and content. I hope that in a very small way, my postings have helped.

More and more talkbackers identifying themselves as Israelis, Indians, Italians, British, Australian, Canadian, you-name-it, are exhibiting a degree of realistic Islamosavvy that was *not* really perceptible, if I recall correctly, when I first started reading there.

Words like 'dhimmi' and 'jihad' and 'taqiyya' and 'hudna' crop up much more often. One tends to find very sympathetic postings by persons identifying as from India, btw. And talkbackers identifying as Muslims, or identifiable either as Muslim janissaries or Muslims pretending to be non-Muslims, and trying to peddle the well-worn Arab Narrative about the Plight of the Pooor Palestinians [TM] are usually refuted with despatch.

I think the tide is turning. When enough Israeli Jews 'get' it, really 'get it', that what they are facing from all Muslims within and without, is ...Jihad Without End, a fight to the death, then Israel will simply have to do what they have to do, without explanations or apologies. And one hopes that by that time there may have been enough of a paradigm shift also at grassroots level in certain countries in the West, for Israel to find herself with a few new friends...for example, say, per miraculum, Geert Wilders became PM of the Netherlands, how long would it be before the Netherlands Embassy in Israel vanished from Tel Aviv and reappeared firmly planted at a suitable address in Jerusalem? And would one not expect the Netherlands voting pattern, in the UN, to become staunchly pro-Israel? Denmark might 'turn', too. Perhaps Italy.

And it should be the business of Canadian, Australian and NZ jihadwatchers to push our own governments toward recognition of the nasty fact of the insatiability of the Global Jihad, and of the kinds of actions - such as ending Muslim immigration to our shores, and actively sticking up for other majority-kafir countries, like Israel or India or the Philippines or Ethiopia or Serbia that are most violently assailed by Jihad - which are necessary to resist it.

Things are going right down to the wire. But I refuse to despair.

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