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Jerusalem Bombings Don't Mark Beginning of Third Intifada

(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - Since March, shootings, stabbings and car rammings by Palestinians had claimed 27 lives in Israel. Still, Wednesday's twin bombings in Jerusalem felt different, recalling the bus bombings in 1995-1996 and the attacks of the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005. Yet there are several substantial differences between then and now. The first difference is that the IDF can and will go into any Palestinian city and neighborhood whenever it wants, which was not true of the first two years of the Second Intifada - until Operation Defensive Shield in 2002. Today, Israel acts continuously to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Palestinian cities. Secondly, in the early days of the Second Intifada, before the IDF moved back into the Palestinian cities, Israel's intelligence about what was going on in those cities was limited. Today, its intelligence picture is significantly better. Third, there remains nominal security coordination with the PA, unlike the Second Intifada when Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority was largely behind the terror war against Israel. Fourth, the security fence, which was not in place in 2000, makes carrying out attacks more difficult. Before it was erected, terrorists could simply walk across fields and blow themselves up inside Israel's cities.
2022-11-24 00:00:00
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