Assassination

Katz, Samuel M.

Assassination Samuel M. Katz WHEN KARIM MUHED HEARD THE EXPLOSION, HE pushed his brother to the ground and hit the deck. It was just before noon on Nov. 9 in the West Bank town of Beit Sahur,...

...For decades, as a matter of policy, Israel never publicly admitted its role in any high-profile "hit" on a terrorist commander...
...The report cites a high-ranking official in the security forces, quoted in Ha'aretz on Jan...
...B'Tselem also says "backroom" decisions to kill can lead to errors, and that innocent people are often struck down—citing bystanders killed in recent assassination attempts...
...Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights...
...Inside the parcel was a copy of German Field Marshal Gerd Von Rudnstedt's book The Commander and the Man...
...The subcommittee was "implying that Israel needs to re-examine its methods of battling terrorism," wrote Melman in 1998, "its use, for more than three decades, of carefully targeted assassinations as a means of achieving its goals...
...is a government that opposes peace," Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a senior aide to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, told Reuters in a recent interview...
...In practice, the liquidations only broaden the cycle of violence and create a superfluous balance of revenge...
...Army spokesman Brig...
...It's an ineffective and inefficient policy," Meretz Knesset member Naomi Chazan, identified with the Israeli left, told the Washington Post Aug...
...The only way to stop them is to intercept them...
...The occupants of the car probably never heard the beating rotor blades of the AH-64 Apache attack chopper and they certainly never heard the swooshing explosion of the guided missiles...
...she was discovered only after she refused to have her bag inspected...
...Thabet, a peace activist who had been photographed with former U.S...
...If we use F-16 fighter bombers against their headquarters, they say that this is an excessive use of force," Shteinitz told Arutz-7, adding: "If we then concentrate on specific targets, on the terrorists themselves, with minimum damage to their surroundings, they condemn us for not holding a trial...
...Just how much impact targeted killing has in the military struggle against terror is debatable...
...to [an...
...Even according to a March 17, 1998, article by Melman, the 1995 slaying of Islamic Jihad leader Shiqaqi in Malta not only disrupted operations, but "has, up until this very day, deterred Islamic Jihad activists from planning suicide bombings in Israel...
...In July 1973, a Mossad hit-team was dispatched to Norway, acting on intelligence that Munich Olympic massacre organizer Ali Hassan Salameh would be in Lillehammer...
...And revenge was exacted 10 days later, at the crowded pizzeria...
...Instead of killing Salameh, the agents assassinated a Moroccan waiter...
...The changing nature of the conflict also called for different tactics," wrote Deborah Sontag in the Times on Dec...
...Mahmoud Hamshari was killed in Paris when his telephone exploded...
...Some Palestinians admit that deterrence works...
...The reason, ultimately, may have less to do with military strategy than with the Israeli public's desire—some would say burning need—for some kind of action against terrorism...
...We are not keen to kill," a senior army general told the Times August 2. "We know that using helicopters to kill Hamas leaders will lead to a certain escalation for a while...
...Norwegian police arrested several Mossad agents, who eventually served prison sentences...
...Israel held Meshal responsible for a series of suicide bombings in Jerusalem...
...We have succeeded in getting to, in an exact, pinpoint, and clean manner, people who have launched terror attacks, murdered Israelis, and are planning even more murderous attacks," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel radio...
...it is incumbent on us to prevent it...
...Hafaz, a skilled case officer, had been dispatching Palestinian terrorist squads to southern Israel...
...It prevents specific attacks, eliminates key operatives, and acts as a deterrent by sowing fear in the hearts of would-be terrorists, they say...
...When faced with such a dire threat to its national security, one in which the whole world is watching...
...We know the price and we consider it very carefully...
...Ron Kitri told the Jerusalem Post that assassinations are carried out when the IDF "knows with a high degree of certainty that the target is either planning an attack, or is actually in the process of carrying one out...
...But we have to do something...
...Israel said the militant was behind a failed attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza, and that he was planning to kidnap high-level Israeli military officials...
...On April 4, 2001, the IDF fired on the motorcade of Gaza Preventative Security Chief Mohammed Dahlan—a high-ranking Palestinian leader and one of the most powerful men in Gaza who, many believe, is viewed as a possible successor to Arafat...
...Assassination Samuel M. Katz WHEN KARIM MUHED HEARD THE EXPLOSION, HE pushed his brother to the ground and hit the deck...
...Consider perhaps the most notorious example...
...Despite the diplomatic, political, and military risks involved, Israel is forging ahead with targeted killings in a very public way...
...The uprising began with large clashes between Palestinian rioters and Israeli soldiers...
...An Israeli helicopter gunship had just fired a Hellfire missile at the car of Hussein Obaiyat, 34, a Palestinian military commander, killing him and two middle-aged women, both bystanders...
...The Palestinians are extremely unnerved by an Israeli government that embraces...
...Does targeted killing work...
...When we know of a terrorist who is a ticking bomb...
...Sharon's office said the men "were in the process of planning further terrorist acts...
...Foreign minister Shimon Peres defended the strike, pointing out in a television interview that Israel faces a threat known to no other nation on earth...
...His killing sparked international outrage and condemnation...
...Shiqaqi had been behind the January 1995 bombing of a snack area in Beit Lid, near Netanya, in which 21 Israeli soldiers were killed and about 100 were seriously wounded...
...history of 'liquidation' ISRAEL'S DENIABLE POLICY OF STATE-SPONsored assassination is as old as the Jewish State— many of Israel's pre-independence underground armies assassinated key enemy commanders and political figures...
...Then on May 20, the IDF rocketed the Ramallah home of West Bank Preventive Security Chief Jibril Rajoub, another high-ranking security chief and possible Arafat successor...
...In December, Israeli radio and the newspaper Ha'aretz quoted senior military officials who openly admitted to Israel's policy of "liquidations...
...The activists were not limited in their movements...
...And yet the day after the killings, tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in Nablus, calling for revenge...
...Indeed, following the failed attack on Meshal in Jordan, a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense subcommittee issued a report that was viewed by some as an indictment of assassination...
...realize that they walk a fine line...
...But the fact that the Mossad had attempted such a brazen operation in Jordan incensed King Hussein and damaged the strategic relationship he had forged with Prime Minister Rabin...
...In the majority of [assassination] cases the true motivation derived from domestic policy rather than from operational considerations," wrote Melman Nov...
...Something" is exactly what Israel did on a recent hot and muggy July night inside the West Bank, where a white sedan carrying three of Israel's most wanted Palestinians moved slowly through the back roads and mountain passes...
...remains] a combatant until...
...The liquidation policy was intended to disrupt operation plans, prevent the implementation of terrorist attacks, and deter others from attempting to carry out such attacks," columnist Yossi Melman, coauthor of Every Spy a Prime—The Complete History of Israel's Intelligence Community (Houghton Mifflin, 1990), wrote in Ha'aretz on Nov...
...The report also cites a Dec...
...Until then, Israel had targeted mainly known militants who were not also politicians...
...Israel further maintains that it would prefer the Palestinian Authority (PA) to arrest militants, but that it has refused...
...There are those who criticize us for killing them without a trial—but they don't propose an alternative...
...he added...
...Yet the detention was not exactly an Israeli military victory...
...Some Israelis say assassinations are warranted by the spiraling level of Palestinian violence, and should not be viewed outside the context of daily life in Israel—much of which never makes headlines...
...Top-ranking army officials said they had solid reasons for killing Thabet, but could not disclose them...
...According to Melman, the Ha'aretz columnist, after the assault Hezbollah—aided by Iranian intelligence—tapped operations contractor Imad Mughniyah and assigned him the job of exacting revenge...
...2 "Perhaps Israel's citizens should be told the brutal truth," wrote Meretz leader Yossi Sarid in Yediot Ahronot following the July 31 attack...
...The Ayyash case offers a similar example...
...Assassination, Hartov added, "sends a resolute message that 'we are ready, willing and more than able to bring the war down to your level, to fight according to your rules, and you will suffer the consequences.' In many ways such an ability is the cornerstone of how a nation facing the threat of terrorism can defend itself—through lethal deterrence...
...One of the most recent controversial killings was the Dec...
...Further, the army believed Obaiyat was going to station himself in the building and fire on a nearby army base...
...Israel also has had several "near hits" that might have escalated the conflict in unpredictable ways...
...In July, Israeli security sources disclosed that the PA had placed a number of mid-level terrorists into "protective custody...
...A statement released on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Web site continues: "An individual who becomes a combatant...
...In December 1988 Israeli commandos used rottweiler dogs fitted with explosive packs to assault the underground fortress of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command warlord Ahmed Jibril in Lebanon...
...13 assault on Rachel's Tomb, several shooting incidents in the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo, and an assault in a Palestinian village in which an Israeli soldier died...
...hostilities come to an end, and not merely during that exact instant when the individual is carrying out or organizing an attack...
...On Sept...
...The most effective and just way to deal with terror is the elimination or incarceration of the people who lead these organizations...
...With a new intifada raging across the West Bank and Gaza Strip and terrorism proliferating inside Israel, Israeli officials came right out and admitted assassinating Obaiyat...
...The army had feared the worst, but said that because the Hamas leaders were involved in planning imminent attacks, it had to act...
...Israel, too, began thinking as it had in Lebanon, using intelligence information to track down field commanders...
...Specially-trained "hit teams" were dispatched to Europe and the Middle East to hunt down those responsible...
...The target was Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Hafaz, commanding officer of Egyptian Military Intelligence in Gaza...
...Alternative or no, other Israelis argue that assassinations violate basic human rights and don't achieve their goal...
...Israelis demand action that will stop the attacks against them...
...A poll published by Ma'ariv some eight months after the assassinations began found that three-quarters of Israelis surveyed either endorsed Sharon's handling of the conflict—including targeted killings— or felt it was not enough...
...asked a retired U.S...
...Further, proponents say, surgical strikes cause far less collateral damage than a general assault...
...Yehiya Ayyash, the enigmatic Hamas bomb-builder and military commander known as "The Engineer," was killed on Jan...
...Take the Obaiyat case...
...Two days later, a Palestinian sprayed automatic gunfire from an M-16 assault rifle outside the "Kirya," the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Israeli Defense Ministry, injuring ten...
...This is the best that the Israelis can come up with...
...22, paraphrasing senior government officials...
...Two days after the attack, on the 20th anniversary of the Entebbe rescue, Prime Minister Sharon's cabinet approved the continued used of liquidations as a tactic...
...31, 2000, assassination of Thabet Thabet, a Tulkarem dentist shot to death outside his home...
...We have gone from...
...When Hafaz opened the book, a powerful explosion ripped through the office, killing him instandy...
...But it mutated into something more akin to a Lebanon-style guerrilla war, in which Palestinian gunmen mounted shooting attacks and planted bombs...
...The continuing killing has an impact in diminishing die capabilities and expertise and know-how of Hamas and Islamic Jihad—this accounts for an increasing number of failures in these operations," Ziad Abu Amr, a Palestinian lawmaker who has studied Hamas, told the Washington Post August 2. "The lack of cadres affects the level of professionalism...
...He too survived...
...26, 1995, Fathi Shiqaqi, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, was gunned down in Malta...
...Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir coverdy authorized her intelligence services to assassinate those terrorists responsible for planning, facilitating, and executing the Munich operation...
...It's a policy of self-defense," Rabin- Pelossof told Israel radio...
...4, 2001, who told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee: "The liquidation of wanted persons is proving itself useful...
...According to the security officials, some of the activists had actually requested protective custody, because they feared they were targets of assassination...
...If they become too embroiled in the armed struggle, and leave fingerprints on the operational orders of a terrorist attack, they are only a Hellfire missile away from obliteration...
...Fearful of Israeli undercover squads rumored to be operating in the area, the vehicle traveled cautiously, cutting through olive groves and fields...
...that the terrorists continued operating from jail, sending teams of Palestinians to either shoot at Israeli targets or to act as suicide bombers...
...22: "The shooting from Beit Sahur onto the Israeli Army outpost dwindled to almost nothing...
...And Black September operatives began turning up dead...
...Consider one recent 48-hour span...
...On August 3, an Arab armed with three mortars attempted to get into the rear door of a bus on its way to northern Israel...
...The surgical strike had united all the major Palestinian factions—a rare alliance—for demonstrations at the funerals...
...The same intelligence apparatus went to work against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad following their 1994 suicide bombing campaign against Israel...
...Israeli helicopter gunships fired antitank missiles into a third-floor office, killing senior Hamas political leaders Jamal Mansour and Jamal Salim, as well as six other Palestinians...
...25, 1997, four Mossad agents carrying Canadian passports were arrested in Amman, Jordan, after spraying Khaled Meshal, a Hamas leader, with a poison toxin...
...On July 11, 1956, a double agent delivered a package to Hafaz's Gaza headquarters...
...the front page headline in Yediot Ahronot that day was: "Revenge Alert...
...Mahmoud Boudia was killed by a bomb in the seat of his car...
...the people who turned Entebbe into a catchword for innovative victory [can't] come up with something more innovative and long-term...
...A report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem titled "Israel's Assassination Policy—Extra-judicial Executions," also concludes that Israeli officials have found the fear factor to be effective...
...14, 2001, Israeli military gunships flying over the Gaza Strip fired missiles at the car of Massoud Ayyad, a top Palestinian security officer, killing him instantly...
...This policy was reaffirmed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet in August, following Israel's July 31 missile attack against Hamas offices in Nablus...
...We have to do something' Israel considers the killings counter-terrorist operations, not assassinations, and says that under international law and laws governing armed conflict, "individuals who directly take part in hostilities cannot then claim immunity from attack or protection as innocent civilians...
...A government that takes such dangerous decisions to assassinate people...
...We have suicide bombers," he said, "and suicide bombers cannot be threatened by death...
...The Israeli public does seem to support the attacks...
...But the army said Obaiyat was involved in an Oct...
...So why, after the Obaiyat strike, did the army suddenly admit to using the tactic...
...12, 2000...
...Indeed, 10 days after the July 31 strike, a suicide bomber walked into a packed Sbarro pizzeria in the heart of Jerusalem and blew himself up, killing 15 Israelis and wounding more than 100...
...Some Israeli analysts say there is historical precedent for assassination as a successful deterrent...
...The hits were meant to placate an angry and frustrated public, drum up public opinion in support of the government and its decisions, and raise national morale...
...We learned to respect the Israeli intelligence services," said a former associate of Abu Jihad, the PLO military commander assassinated in 1988 by Mossad agents in Tunisia (see sidebar, right), "because we never knew where or how they would strike...
...he was stopped by an alert driver and two soldiers...
...2 "It breeds more hatred and more terrorism instead of eliminating or even reducing it...
...they had free cell phone access, and were allowed visitors in their Palestinian Authority compounds...
...Sontag, writing in the Times on Dec...
...Hartov is emphatic on this point...
...Israel is a nation of laws, and, therefore, it is on the surface inherendy handicapped to wage a counter-terrorist war," said Steven Hartov, a former Israeli military intelligence operative...
...On Oct...
...On Feb...
...At least two of five detained activists were on an Israeli wanted list...
...Their] political leaders...
...The Israelis became embroiled in a lethal subterranean firefight that resulted in the death of the IDF commander...
...Even when we assassinate a terrorist, we create with our very hands 10 new terrorists in his place...
...19, 2000, article by Roni Shaked in Yediot Ahronot, paraphrasing security officials who say that the "liquidation" policy is "the best way to fight terrorism today...
...According to these officials, the effect of this week's liquidations are already evident: The number of terrorist attacks against Israel is declining...
...The Hellfire warheads struck the car in a blinding flash, illuminating the sky in the orange glow of fire...
...Killed that night near Jenin were Mohammed Besharat, a key Hamas operative wanted for recruiting suicide bombers...
...It's back to 1948 all over again and enough is enough...
...The Muslim militant group Hamas said the bombing was retribution for the Nablus assassinations.Still, some Israeli military commanders say assassination is indeed effective...
...selective killing [as] national defense policy," he said...
...Instead ' of being crippled by the assassination of Ayyash, one 1 of Hamas's most senior militants (and by far its most « famous operative), the terrorist organization " launched a suicide bombing campaign that killed ° nearly 100 Israelis and wounded scores more...
...12, 2000...
...a country almost on line with a European standard of living...
...and Walid Besharat, a high-ranking Islamic Jihad officer...
...With the dissolution of the Oslo Accords and the eruption of the intifada in September, Israel began using assassination as a conventional tool, targeting mid-level operatives as well...
...On Feb...
...President Jimmy Carter, was a high-ranking Fatah official and, Israel said, was deeply involved in terrorist activity...
...Vengeance motivated Israel's retaliation for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre by Black September, in which 11 Israeli athletes were killed...
...All of which begs the question, as a military tactic, does assassination work...
...With each shooting attack, roadside ambush, and suicide bombing, their need to respond increases...
...The "surgical strike" was seen as a more effective tactic than the shelling of security force headquarters or government offices—often destructive operations for which Israel paid a hefty public relations price...
...Officially, that incident remains an unsolved crime...
...After the July 31 attack against Mansour and Salim, some Palestinians confirmed the army's point...
...The same day in Tel Aviv, a bomb-toting Arab woman attempted to board a bus at the central bus station...
...Other analysts believe assassination does work as a deterrent, mainly by inducing fear...
...Israeli officials said it was a preventative measure to stop a suicide bombing...
...By July, when Israel's security cabinet formally decided to continue using assassination as a weapon, Palestinians claimed that 40 people had been targeted and killed...
...special forces officer who trained with the Israeli Defense Force...
...Adel Wael Zwaiter was gunned down at pointblank range in Rome...
...Secretary of State Colin Powell told Reuters, "We continue to express our distress and opposition to these kinds of targeted killings and will continue to do so...
...For years, successive Israeli governments failed to develop a policy for fighting terrorist organizations based on indepth thought and a logical, ongoing and consistent policy," the subcommittee on secret services concluded...
...The attack marked a shift for Israel, because the targets were also wellknown West Bank political figures...
...In part, at least, it has to do with new military realities...
...A month later, Melman says, Mughniyah and his units blew up the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 and wounding some 200...
...Instead of assembling a large team of Mossad agents to embark on highrisk missions thousands of miles from home, Israel could use lethal AH-64 Apache helicopters against targets just across the Green Line...
...Abu Hameish, a Fatah activist involved in several bombings in Israel...
...Dahlan survived the strike...
...Israel had always used assassinations sparingly, reserving it for high-ranking operatives guilty of the most horrific attacks...
...All of which leaves some military analysts scratching their heads...
...And that is what we do...
...Prime Minister David Ben Gurion authorized one of the new state's first official assassinations in 1956...
...existence where children have to be ferried to school in armored buses...
...9 in the West Bank town of Beit Sahur, near Bethlehem...
...this activity paralyzes and frightens entire villages and as a result there are areas where people are afraid to carry out hostile activities...
...Look at what has happened to this country," an army reserve intelligence officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said...
...European foreign ministers have chastised Israeli leaders for the killings...
...There have also been tactical mistakes, which can come with devastating political and diplomatic consequences...
...6, 1996, when his cell phone exploded...
...Indeed, in the weeks and months that followed, Israel would turn to assassination as a military tactic more frequently...
...ONE MAIN ARGUMENT MADE BY PROPONENTS is that killing key terrorists prevents imminent specific attacks, and reduces future attacks by eliminating military personnel, one terrorist at a time...
...We aren't going to go back into Gaza, Jenin, and Ramallah and reoccupy the areas under Palestinian control—imagine the international outcry...
...22, 2000, went even further: "Several wellknown Palestinian commanders are keeping a lower profile now, out of fear that they will be chosen for attack...
...16, 1992, Israeli gunships attacked the motorcade of Hezbollah leader Abbas Musawi as it twisted through the narrow mountain roads of southern Lebanon—killing him, his wife, and his 5-yearold son...
...This is a war," Yuval Shteinitz, a hard-line Likud Knesset member, told Arutz-7 news service...
...Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, one of those at the meeting, said Israel would continue using targered killings as necessary...
...And assassinations have rekindled the image of Israel, especially in western European circles, as a rogue nation unconcerned with human rights...
...Permission to kill, an Israeli army spokesman told the New York Times, had come "from the highest political level...
...On April 9, 1973, three of Black September's top commanders were assassinated in their Beirut homes by a combined Mossad and Israeli commando task force commanded by Ehud Barak...
...Israel says killing individual enemy combatants is allowable under the International Committee of the Red Cross Model Manual ("There is nothing in law to prevent the attacking of an enemy individual provided he is a combatant") Critics like B'Tselem counter that the killings violate Israel's Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty ("All persons are entided to protection of their life, body, and dignity"), the U.N...
...By late December, army officials were citing the "positive aftermath of the Obaiyat assassination," according to Sontag, writing in the Times on Dec...
...Israel had evidence that Obaiyat was orchestrating shooting attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, and had assassinated him in a "surgical strike...
...Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had long made it a national priority to stop Ayyash, who produced suicide devices from store-bought goods and helped engineer Hamas suicide bombing campaigns that killed more than 100 people...
...Israeli security sources told Ha'aretz...
...And logistically, the hits were suddenly much more feasible...
...And of course, assassination operations can be costly...
...Jibril survived the attack and is believed to have played a major role in planning and executing the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, two weeks later...
...The Palestinian militant was not shooting at Israeli targets when he was killed: He had gone to Beit Sahur to look at a building destroyed by Israeli shells...

Vol. 26 • October 2001 • No. 5


 
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