10-Aug-06: Quietly, quietly, the war against the terrorists goes on

While the British and American authorities are claiming loud and public knock-out victories over terrorism at Heathrow today, Israel's quiet ongoing decades-long struggle with the forces of extreme darkness goes on.

The intense warfare on Israel's northern and southern borders grabs most of the attention here. Despite – but probably because of – this, the appalling battle for prestige among the various Palestinian terror groups goes on, as does Israel's constant and essential vigilance.

Few news media will report the tense high-stakes battle going on in the towns and suburbs of Israel. So we will, as we have been doing since the fraudulent Hamas truce was declared in February 2005:-

Last night, Israeli security forces spotted and arrested 2 Palestinian females at a checkpoint near Shechem (also known as Nablus) in Samaria (the northern half of the West Bank. The two women belong to the Tanzim militant group, which owes its alliegance to the 'moderate' Mahmoud Abbas-led Fatah. They were intending to kill Israeli civilians, and were on their way to an Israeli urban centre to carry out their terrorist plan by blowing themselves and everyone around them up.

It may be surprising to some to hear that this was the ninth (in a row) intecept of a Palestinian terrorist or terrorists en route to carry out a mass murder of civilians since the outbreak of the Hezbollah War. All nine have been caught in the act, in the final stages of their journey to the paradise promised them by their 'religious' 'leaders'.

The Shin Bet security service are quited in today's Haaretz newspaper saying that in addition to the nine intercepts, 12 other Palestinians have been arrested in the same time period. These 12 too were in the planning stages of carrying out terrorist bombings intended to murder Israeli civilians. The Shin Bet's analysis is that Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are making extra efforts to remain in the headlines as an essential part of retaining the financial support that flows to terrorist bank accounts from the financiers of terror based outside Israel and the Palestinian Authority areas.

Today in PA-controlled Ramallah, two long-sought 'militants' belonging to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades were arrested by Israeli forces. Ramzi Obeid was one of them. Long pursued by Israel, he is a senior operative who has been involved in a number of terror attacks.

400 additional Palestinian Arabs have been arrested since the Hezbollah War started on July 12 for their involvement in terror. Two more terrorists were permanently eliminated by means of a precision, pin-point strike by helicopter yesterday in the refugee camp section of Jenin. No other person was injured or killed in the process. This received almost zero media coverage outside Israel.

UPDATE: A late evening report that a man of 25, evidently an Italian tourist, was stabbed to death in Jerusalem tonight when walking with three friends in the eastern part of the city near the walls of the Old City. The assailant fled and has not been caught yet. Unprovoked, anonymous attacks by terrorist heroes of the Palestinian resistance on unarmed civilians, generally from behind, remain a blight on life in this country.