11-Jul-17: Incitement to terror: Sometimes it really is all about the money

Taylor Force was murdered by an Arab assailant while he jogged on Tel Aviv's foreshore on March 8, 2016. He was 29 and a student at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management. He is pictured here with his sister Kirsten [Image Source]

The US Senate is due to hold hearings tomorrow (Wednesday) on the Taylor Force Act which, if passed, is likely to substantially cut US funding to the Palestinian Authority:

The Taylor Force Act is a legislative bill co-sponsored in the United States Senate in 2016 by U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Dan Coats (R-Indiana), and Roy Blunt (R-Missouri). The legislation proposes to stop American economic aid to the Palestinian Authority until the PA changes its laws to cease paying stipends funneled through the Palestinian Authority Martyr's Fund to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to the families of deceased terrorists. [Wikipedia]

Palestinian Media Watch - an Israel-based nongovernmental organization and media watchdog group founded in 1996 by Itamar Marcus documents cases of incitement in Palestinian media - yesterday released a transcript (translated from the original Arabic) of an Israeli Police interrogation of a Palestinian Arab terrorist, one Khaled Rajoub, caught after an unsuccessful attempt to murder Israelis.

In the course of Rajoub's interrogation on February 2, 2014, he gave the police a stunningly candid rationalization for his deeds: so that he would be killed by the Israelis and his wife and children would become entitled to monthly payments from the PA's Rewards for Terror scheme.

It's material that ought to get the widest publicity. But, things being what they are, probably will not.

The text extracted below is based on a longer PMW online version ["Interrogation of Palestinian terrorist proves: PA payments motivate terror", Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Palestinian Media Watch, July 10, 2017] and an earlier version of that same report here.

Had this Rajoub died in the course of carrying out an Arab-on-Israeli terror attack, the PA would have certified him as a "martyr" (in Arabic: shaheed). His family would have become entitled to a monthly allowance of 2,800 New Israeli Shekels per month based on NIS 1,400 base pay, NIS 400 for the wife (for her life) and NIS 200 for each of the five children (for their lives). It's a good, family-sized salary in their society's terms. It would have brought honour on the head of the dead-ender who made it possible by attacking Israelis.

As PMW has reported, it's not only “martyr” families who receive monthly payments; under PA law, every terrorist prisoner is granted a monthly PA salary while in jail, ranging from 1,400 shekels to NIS 12,000 a month based on the time spent in prison. For Khaled Rajoub, the PA's Rewards for Terror and its financial rewards were all the incentive he needed. The scheme works.

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "I am a man with a family of seven, including me and my wife. I don't work. I have accumulated large debts and am unable to pay them off. I reached a point where, if my son wants a shekel, I have nothing to give him. Therefore I decided to die. It didn't matter how, by hanging, any way, [just] to die. I thought about it and said to myself that if I die by hanging, or any other way, I won't get anything out of it, so I decided to do something serious such as committing murder, something in which I will both kill and die and then my family will get money [meaning from what we call the Palestinian Authority's Rewards for Terror scheme] and will live comfortably. In other words, something will come out of my death. In the end I decided to kill Israeli soldiers. I got in a car and drove to Al-Fawwar, to the junction because there's always a military post there, and I said [to myself] that I'll run [the soldiers] over in my car and kill as many as I can and they'll shoot me and kill me. However, I didn't find a military post in Al-Fawwar. I continued to drive to a second post, to the gate of [the Israeli community of Beit] Hagai because I know there are always soldiers standing there... I did not find [any soldiers] there either. I had no other hope or way, so I broke through the gate of the settlement [meaning Beit Haggai]... I broke in with my car and smashed it and rammed into the second gate. But I couldn't smash it and the guards were behind the second gate. I tried to smash it in order to bring it down on them but it didn't come down and they didn't shoot me, but captured me instead. I was injured during the incident and they took me to a hospital..."
Interrogator: "Do you have a gun?"

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "I've never carried [a gun]."

Interrogator: "Did you consider bringing a gun?"

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "I have nothing to eat. How can I buy a gun?" 

Interrogator: "Why did you decide to kill soldiers, and not someone else?"

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "The best is to kill soldiers. That way they have guns and they'll shoot me and kill me. But if I'm not able to kill soldiers, I'll try settlers, guards - in other words any Israeli target - the important thing is that I will die and they will kill me, so that my children will receive a [PA] allowance and live happily."

Interrogator: "What did you want to achieve by killing soldiers or settlers, or any Israeli target?" 

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "So they'd shoot me and I'd die, and my children would receive an allowance."

Interrogator: "Are you still determined to do that?" 

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "Of course, 100%. I'm telling you: if you'll set me free, I'll do it again as soon as possible. I'll bring another car, and I'll run over [soldiers] at the first military post I see. I'll kill as many as possible, and they'll shoot me, and I'll die. There is no other solution... I say to you again - I don't regret what I did, and if I have the opportunity, I'll do it again, and I'll kill soldiers or any Israeli I come across."
Interrogator: "If you have the opportunity to kill soldiers or an Israeli [civilian] in another way - shooting, stabbing, or any other way - will you do it?"

Rajoub to his Israeli interrogators: "I don't know. Something like that requires checking. Why? Because someone like me, small and disabled in his leg - I barely walk - needs a thorough plan to kill in a different way. The easiest way for someone like me is to run over [someone] with a car."

(We're still trying to track down details of the circumstances of the terror attack.)

For what it's worth, let the record show we're strongly in favour of the Taylor Force Act and urge the US Congress to bring it into law as soon as possible. Can there be any doubt, after you read open and candid admissions like Rajoub's, that defunding the PA's Rewards for Terror scheme will save lives - on the Palestinian Arab side as well as on ours?

Are Europe and the UK listening?

24-Dec-15: A thwarted stabbing assault near Hebron

At Tzomet Hakvasim (in English: Sheep Junction; also called Tzomet Ha'ari) on Route 60 near the Beit Hagai community in the South Hebron hills area, a Palestinian Arab male launched a stabbing attack this morning on soldiers manning the security checkpoint located there.

(Route 60 is better known to Israelis as "Way of the Patriarchs" (Hebrew: דרך האבות‎) since, as Wikipedia describes, it follows the path of the ancient highway running the length of Israel's central watershed and plays a role in the travels of the Biblical patriarchs. Today's Route 60 runs north/south between Beer Sheva in Israel's Negev desert all the way to Nazareth in the Galilee.)

Kvasim has some heavy history: the service men were surely aware that three of their IDF colleagues had been killed at the same spot on January 23, 2003 in a shooting attack for which both Hamas and Fatah/PA/PLO improbably claimed 'credit'. The Hebrew name Tzomet Ha'Ari pays homage to the Hebrew names of the three fallen soldiers:  אסף ביטן, רון ברד ויעקב נעים - Asaf, Ron, Yaakov).

The security checkpoint was removed by decision of the government of Israel in 2008 (reported here) and then reinstated some time later.

The assailant's weapon of choice in this morning's Kvasim attack was a screwdriver was shot and killed near the West Bank city of Hebron Thursday morning, the Israeli military said. He "approached a checkpoint near Hebron and attempted to stab the security forces", says Times of Israel's report. He was shot by IDF fire before doing any serious harm, and died of his wounds at the scene.

Ma'an News Agency identifies the failed knifer as Eiad Jamal Issa Ideis 25 (and elsewhere as Eyad Jamal Ed’eis, 26; and as Eyad Edeasat) from the town of of Yatta, located close to the scene of the attack. We assume posters announcing his elevation to martyrdom - the underlying justification and 'reward' for such pointless aggression - are being printed as we write this. In parts of the Arabic-language social media (here for instance), the attempted killer is said to have been "executed in cold blood by Israeli forces".

Fortunately, no Israelis were injured in this incident. It came less than an hour after another knifing assault near Ariel, with more serious consequences to the Israeli targets, as we reported here.

25-Nov-15: Stabbing at Al-Fawwar checkpoint

The Al-Fawwar security checkpoint

The knife-wielding terrorists are out and engaging in their savagery again today.

An Israeli was stabbed and seriously injured this morning (Wednesday) at the Al-Fawwar junction, close to an Arab town of the same name three kilometers south of Beit Haggai on Route 60, south of Hebron.

The attacker was a Palestinian Arab who, according to Haaretz, emerged from a vehicle armed with a knife and lunged at the Israeli (we assume an IDF soldier, but that's not confirmed). His attack was stopped by IDF gunfire and the attacker killed.

His victim, a man in his twenties, has stab wounds to the upper body and has been rushed to Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Worth recalling that an Israeli truck driver, Avraham Asher Hasno, 54, from Kiryat Arba, came under rock-hurling attack at about the same location just a few weeks ago. Ynet says he stepped out of his vehicle to go after the attackers and was then run down by a commercial vehicle and critically injured. He died at the scene soon afterwards, leaving a bereaved his wife and seven children. The driver of the truck turned himself in to the Palestinian security authorities soon afterwards claiming that the collision was an accident and that he had fled the scene out of personal fear. Two weeks later, the Defence Ministry announced that Mr Hasno was being recognized as a victim of a terror attack. Turns out the driver who handed himself in had been involved in a physical clash with his victim a day earlier.

24-Sep-15: A day of violence - perhaps not as violent as feared

Hebron, moments before the shooting by an IDF soldier of
a woman whose knife was detected by a security machine and
who evidently pulled it to launch a stabbing attack [Image Source: Reuters] 

There's nothing quite as potent as holidays to expose our neighbours' passion for the sort of lethal violence we described yesterday ["22-Sep-15: What do the Palestinian Arabs think?"]

Tonight is the night after Yom Kippur, the 25 hour day of fasting, introspection and prayer that ended here in Jerusalem about 6 hours ago, and is drawing to a close right now in North and South America. It's also the start of the Muslim festival of Eid el-Adha.

Here's a selective, non-chronological summary of how the day (and the evening before it) passed for those charged with keeping Israelis (of every sort) safe.

• A young woman of about 18 attempted Tuesday to stab a Border Police officer at the Kikar Hashoter security checkpoint in Hevron. She was promptly shot and seriously wounded, and eventually succumbed to her injuries later in the day. No Israelis were harmed. [Israel National News, September 23, 2015]. Haaretz reports that the woman, Hadeel al-Hashlamun (in some places, written as Hadeel al-Hashlamon, was shot after launching a stabbing attack on a soldier. It quotes a preliminary investigation into the incident conducted by the IDF's Judea Regional Brigade commander: he found that a metal detector went off when the Palestinian Arab women walked through the security checkpoint; the soldiers manning the post called on her to stop. She failed to do so, and they then fired warning rounds into the ground in front of her. Then "the soldiers claim she pulled out a knife, and that's when they fired shots at her legs. The soldiers said they opened fire for a second time after the woman tried again to raise the knife."
• Just after midnight on Tuesday, the body of an Arab was found near Beit Haggai, south of Hevron. An initial investigation shows that he was killed while attempting to throw a bomb at a military vehicle. Security forces had been alerted to the scene when local residents spotted an improvised roadblock on the highway. As they combed the area, they heard an explosion and later found the body of the terrorist. He was apparently killed while trying to deploy the bomb against the soldiers. [Israel National News, September 23, 2015] The Reuters version: A Palestinian militant died when a bomb he was trying to throw at Israeli forces blew up near the West Bank city of Hebron overnight, officials from both sides said on Tuesday" [Reuters]
• Rocks were thrown Monday evening at Egged's Line 140 bus to the Samarian community of Beit El. The vehicle's windshield was smashed. Thankfully, no injuries. [Israel National News, September 23, 2015]
• Israel Defense Forces troops manning a post in the Jordan Valley arrested a Palestinian man who approached their position carrying an explosive device, the military said Wednesday. The incident occurred hours after the Yom Kippur holiday ended. The suspect was taken in for interrogation, the army said. [Times of Israel, September 23, 2015]
• Two firebombs were hurled at the at the fence of the Samaria community of Psagot, near Ramallah. Palestinian Arabs were suspected, Israel Radio reported. The explosives failed to ignite and no injuries are reported. [Times of Israel, September 23, 2015]
• Rocks were hurled yet again at a Jerusalem Light Rail tram by Arabs in the North Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat. Damage was caused to the vehicle but no injuries. Police are searching for suspects. [Times of Israel, September 23, 2015]
• A car was struck by rocks and damaged on Highway 75. [Israel National News, September 23, 2015]
• Several fires were reported to have been set in Jerusalem during Yom Kippur. Arson is suspected. [Times of Israel, September 23, 2015]
• A firebomb caused damage to the balcony and garden of a home in the Jerusalem mixed (Jewish and Arab) neighborhood of Abu Tor after midnight on Wednesday morning (Yom Kippur). [Times of Israel, September 23, 2015]
• A brush fire in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev, close to Moshe Dayan Boulevard, a major thoroughfare - but almost empty on Yom Kippur - is believed to have been deliberately set. [Times of Israel, September 23, 2015]
• A fire in scrubland near Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo is also believed to have been caused by an act of arson. [Times of Israel, September 23, 2015]
• A fire was set on Cassuto Street, in the intensely-populated Jerusalem neighborhood of Bayit Vagan, close to a synagogue. Fortunately, no injuries were reported [Times of Israel, September 23, 2015]
• Multiple reports of Arab rock-throwers targeting Israeli Jews in their vehicles during the past 36 hours, including Yom Kippur, in parts of northern Israel ["Arab Violence Erupts in Northern Israel During Yom Kippur", Israel National News, September 23, 2015]: Arabs youths placing boulders in the road to block the entrance to the northern community of Dovav on Monday night after Yom Kippur began. Police detained them for questioning. [Israel National News, September 23, 2015]
• Also: Arab youths threw rocks at a passing car near Hosen Junction on Route 89. No one was injured and there was no damage to the vehicle, though police have still opened an investigation. [Israel National News, September 23, 2015]
• Also: An Israeli vehicle traveling near Golani Junction, a major northern intersection, was hit by rocks. Tiberias police are investigating. [Israel National News, September 23, 2015]

Overall, the enlarged police presence in Jerusalem, along with the closing of security checkpoints between Judea-Samaria and Jerusalem to mark Yom Kippur, have had a positive effect on keeping the violence level relatively subdued.

31-Aug-10: Once again, the terrorists deliver their message

Israelis know from bitter experience that when Palestinian Arab political leaders are arm-wrestled into taking part in discussions about peace with the Israelis, other Palestinian Arab political leaders will take the opportunity to remind the onlooking world that they are really, really desperate, and will murder Israeli civilians to show just how desperate.

Tragically it's happening again tonight.

In the past hour, at the entrance to the Israeli community of Kiryat Arba, south of Jerusalem, four Israeli civilians were shot dead by Palestinian Arab gunmen. We know less than all the facts at this stage. 

But we know enough to report that the four, traveling in one car, were probably residents of Beit Hagai, in the Judean Hills south of Hebron. YNet quotes ambulance officers saying the victims include two men aged about 25 and 40, and two women of about the same ages, one of them pregnant. 

The attackers apparently followed up the initial volley of shots by walking over to the vehicle and shooting the two couples again at close range before fleeing the scene - a cold-blooded, hate-driven execution of innocents. The vehicle was sprayed with dozens of bullets.

The attack took place just as the Ramadan fast was ending at nightfall. Ynet quotes a Palestinian Arab security official saying this is the work of Hamas. It then quotes Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas terrorist spokesperson, saying the attack was not meant to foil direct peace talks starting today in Washington, but that the negotiations had failed even before starting.

Listen to the words of the jihadists: 

"This is a natural response by the Palestinian resistance to the enemy's crimes, and is proof that despite the resistance's persecution by the security services and despite Israel's crimes, the Palestinians are capable of responding to these crimes. This is proof that the Palestinian resistance is living, breathing, and kicking."

The jihadists speak very clearly. The question is whether the rest of us are listening.

UPDATE Wednesday morning:  The victims of last night's Hamas ambush and executions are Talya and Yitzhak Ames the parents of six children 18-months-old and up; Cochava Even-Haim; and Avishai Schindler. All were residents of Beit Hagai.

15-Jun-10: Yet another drive-by killing from the Palestinian Arab terror machine

In a reminder of how our neighbours view co-existence, a man was killed and four others wounded by gunfire in an ambush on a quiet road in the hills near Beit Hagai. The Israeli victims, all of them police officers, were being driven yesterday (Monday) morning from Beersheba to take up their posts in the Hebron area.

Sgt.-Maj Yehoshua Sofer, 39, who had been serving in the Hebron region for 14 years, was shot in the stomach and died.  He was due to marry his fiancee in about three months.

Haaretz quotes Israeli security sources saying the terrorists drove to the site on the road connecting Otniel to Beit Hagai. They walked to the ambush location where they took up positions and opened fire on the vehicle. Searches of the area after the attack resulted in the finding of a car that had been abandoned set alight. The nearby village of Dir Ibzah was placed under curfew because evidence suggests the shooters escaped through the area. In the nearby town of Dura, a force of Palestinian security is based; the exit roads from that town have also been shut down while searches go on.

Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayad condemned yesterday's attack saying variously (according to Haaretz) he is "opposed to violence" and (this source) it "harms the Palestinian cause". Ma'an News Agency quotes him saying such acts might bring back a "cycle of violence" that would only serve the "perpetuation of the Israeli settlement scheme."

Credit for the ambush and murder was claimed Monday evening by the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the terror group that answers to Palestinian Authority prime minister Fayyad's boss, Mahmoud Abbas. Maan, a Fatah-connected news service, says the underlying cause was a need to exact retribution for the shooting deaths of nine Turkish nationals aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza.

A competing claim was put in (according to the Jerusalem Post) by an unknown group calling itself, absurdly, the Flotilla Martyrs. They released a statement saying they refuse to recognize any cease-fire and they vow to continue their attacks. [As if there has ever been peace during this ongoing war.]

We have mentioned the al-Aqsa Martyrs before. For the record, the predecssor of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, left little room for doubt about the affiliation when he said this six years ago:

"We have clearly declared that the Aksa Martyrs Brigades are part of Fatah. We are committed to them and Fatah bears full responsibility for the group... The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, military wing of the Fatah movement will not be dissolved and Fatah will never relinquish its military wing."

The Israeli assessment, according to IDF sources, is that the shooter is likely a lone operator or a local cell operating on its own, without direction or backing from a larger group. Terrorism in this area in recent years has trended towards attacks by individuals, but keep in mind this was the fifth major shooting assult in the West Bank, and Sofer is the first Israeli killed, so far this year.

In 2009, four Israelis were killed in attacks in the West Bank.

• In March 2009, two Judea and Samaria police officers, Yehezkel Ramazreger and David Rabinovitch, were shot dead in the Jordan Valley in a terrorist ambush. The policemen had stopped to provide assistance to a Palestinian terrorist who pretended that his car had broken down. 
• An NCO in the Kfir Brigade was stabbed to death by a PA police officer as he sat in his car. 
• And Rabbi Meir Hai, a resident of the settlement of Shavei Shomron, who was shot to death  in December.

Beit Hagai is a religious Jewish community in the historically-rich Hebron hills area. The name is an acronym of the given names of Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein, and Yaakov Zimmerman, three young students in the Nir Yeshiva in nearby Kiryat Arba. They were murdered in a Palestinian Arab terror attack on Shabbat eve, 2 May 1980.

Beit Haggai is home to a youth village which has provided a home, education, and services for dozens of special-needs children. During the First Intifada, several residents of Beit Haggai were killed in shooting attacks near the village. Three residents were killed on the roads leading into and out of Beit Hagai during the far-more-deadly period of the Arafat War, misleadingly called the Second Intifada, that started on Jewish New Year in the year 2000. The population of the village doubled, and today it has some 95 families.