THE LION'S DEN
I’ll skip mentioning the Knesset elections scheduled to be held
next week. I’m not prepared to wager on the outcome, mainly because your guess
is as good as mine, and my forecast is as good as the predictions currently voiced by
legions of well-paid experts.
Instead, this week’s post will deal mainly with the “Lion’s Den
Phenomenon.” It has been variously described by foreign news outlets as an
armed Palestinian group operating in
the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It was formed early in 2022 by former
members of other Palestinian militant organisations, and is reportedly
based in the Old City of Nablus. It has experienced a rise in popularity
among Palestinians in the West Bank, regularly sharing videos of their attacks
on TikTok and Telegram. Their TikTok account was suspended in
October 2022, leading the group to publish the rest of their videos to
their Telegram account, which holds 130,000 followers as of 20 October 2022. That being said, let’s not assume that these groupies
are standing in line to take up arms against Israel.
BBC’s Jerusalem correspondent posted the following description of the events that led to the group’s
formation : “There has been an intensification
of violence between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank in recent weeks
amid an ongoing Israeli operation to root out militants following a wave of
deadly attacks against Israelis earlier this year. The Lion's Den group was
formed following near daily arrest raids by Israeli forces targeting militants,
concentrated in the northern West Bank.
Well, I prefer to call a spade a spade. Palestinian militant
organisations are terrorist groups.
In line with the paper’s editorial policy Amos Harel Haaretz
used similar terminology when he wrote about the Lion’s Den Phenomenon: “The
Israeli army is ratcheting up its crackdown against the Nablus-based militant
group, even though they number only a few dozen. But as the Palestinian death
toll rises and the Palestinian Authority looks away, growing support for the
Lion’s Den is liable to ignite a popular struggle.”
Udi Dekel, The Institute for National Security Studies INSS, was
more to the point in his description “Recent activity in the Nablus area is
tied to an association of terror elements, including dozens of armed activists
that are not affiliated with Hamas, Fatah/al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, or Islamic
Jihad. Most of their members are young Palestinians – some former members of
Fatah, Tanzim, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad – and some are sons of fathers serving
in the Palestinian Authority security apparatuses. Most of the shooting
incidents in the West Bank in recent weeks are attributed to this group, which
is the main element responsible for the escalating terror in the area. However,
Dekel also cautioned that the Lion’s Den phenomenon serves as both another
signal to Israel that it will not be able to ‘contain’ the Palestinian
territories forever, and another expression of the weakening of the Palestinian
Authority as the day after Abbas approaches. A number of scenarios could result
from the current situation:
“(1) a sweeping grass-roots initiative that draws the Palestinian
people into action that will change the leadership and the current rules of the
game; (2) a takeover by Hamas of the situation’s dynamics, leading to increased
terror and chaos in the West Bank.” His
remarks were made prior to last Monday night’s incursion. Here’s what happened:
“The IDF and other Israeli security forces raided overnight a hideout
apartment in the Casbah of Nablus used as a headquarters and explosives
manufacturing site by the main operatives of the ‘Lion’s Den’ Palestinian
terrorist group.
This group has gained notoriety over the past few months and is
responsible for most of the terror attacks and attempted attacks against
Israeli soldiers and civilians recently. Its name is meant to instil fear and
deter Israeli troops from entering the city. So far, Israeli security forces remain unperturbed
and undeterred by the “Lion’s Den” group.
During the Monday
night operation, carried out under heavy
fire, the Israeli forces managed to achieve their main target: the elimination
of 31-year-old Wadia Alhuh, the “Lion’s Den” leader. According to an IDF
statement, the forces relied on accurate Shin Bet intelligence and were
deployed using a variety of weapons including sniper fire and shoulder-fired
missiles.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that over 20
Palestinians were reportedly wounded and six more were killed during the operation. Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, described the Israeli raids as “war
crimes”.
An IDF spokesperson stated that all the Palestinians killed in the operation
were terrorists. The Israeli forces suffered no casualties.
“Our goal was and remains to deal a severe and ongoing blow to
terrorism and its agents in Jenin and Nablus, and anywhere else where terrorism
develops,” said Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, on Twitter.
Before, during and after the Nablus incursion IDF, Shin Bet and
Border Police troops continued the “Breaking the Wave” anti-terror operation in
other parts of the West Bank.
I think it’s pertinent to add at this
juncture that a few score armed Palestinian terrorists are no match for the
combined well-trained Israeli security forces and their unparalleled military intelligence
sources.
On the other side, the Lion’s Den terrorist
group has guns, guts and an impressive Telegram account.
Following the Monday night Nablus incursion
the BBC reported- “Nablus is now on strike. Shops and
restaurants are shuttered along street after street usually busy with markets
and children heading out from school. The quiet is broken only by the sound of
gunmen returning from the funerals still firing into the air.
The Guardian claims there’s an ulterior motive for the increasing tensions, “They come
ahead of Israeli elections on 1 November. The paper’s correspondent seemed to
know more about the outcome of the elections than all of us. He claimed that, “Prime
minister Yair Lapid, who is unlikely to win a stable majority, said that Israel
would continue its campaign against militant targets in Nablus and other
cities.
For the purpose of gaining a deeper insight of the current situation
in the Middle East I have been following reports posted by Ohad Hemo. For the past 15 years Hemo a fluent Arabic speaker,
has been reporting for all three of Israel’s main TV channels. He has taken the
pulse of the Palestinian street and been the eyes and ears of ordinary Israelis
eager to understand the nuances of Palestinian society and politics.
He’s been beaten up by Turks inflamed when they heard him speaking
Hebrew and by Israeli settlers accusing him of treason.
He still shudders at the memory of the cold metal of the rifle held
to his temple by a masked gunman in Gaza who thought he was from Hamas.
And he regularly despairs when he recalls the young children in
refugee camps, he heard talking nonchalantly about killing Jews and becoming
martyrs.
Ohad Hemo doesn’t believe the ‘Lion’s Den’ terrorists are bent on
becoming martyrs. They want to live to fight another day.
A report in themedialine noted that day after day, Ohad Hemo returns to reporting from the heart of anti-Israel sentiment because he believes that his fellow Israelis need to see and hear what he experiences through the reports that run on Channel 12, Israel’s most-watched commercial TV channel.
At present, I am reading his book -“The Terrain.” “The Palestinians,
a view from within.” Currently available in Hebrew. It’s not a book you would want to read before going
to bed.
Have good weekend,
Beni, 27th of October, 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment