Israelis see al-Qaida creeping closer

jerusalem | Many Israelis sighed with relief at the news that only one citizen of the Jewish state had been slightly wounded in last week's Sharm el-Sheik terror attack, but the triple bombing at the scenic Red Sea resort reminded Israelis that al-Qaida is getting closer.

How close? Israeli intelligence experts aren't sure. Some suggest it's only a matter of time until al-Qaida hits targets in Israel, while others believe that global Islamic terror groups have other priorities — at least for the time being.

Islamic radicals long have set their sites on Jewish targets — such as the synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, that was hit by a truck bomb in April 2002; Jewish institutions in Morocco bombed in May 2003; and two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, which were hit in November 2003.

But they haven't ignored Israeli targets either. In June 2000, Israel arrested Nabil Okal, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip who had studied in Pakistan and later trained in an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan. Upon returning home, Okal tried to set up his own cell in Gaza.

A year later, another cell purportedly linked to al-Qaida sent the so-called shoebomber, Richard Reid, to Israel to scout out targets.

Prior to the decision to launch the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, an al-Qaida branch was working on a plan to strike Eilat, according to local intelligence sources.

The July 23 attacks in Sharm el-Sheik — which killed 64 people, according to the Egyptian Health Ministry and as many as 88, according to local hospitals — have increased Israel's nervousness, as the threat is seen to be getting closer. The working supposition is that for the time being al-Qaida is preoccupied with Western regimes and allegedly "treacherous" Arab countries such as Egypt rather than with Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces' intelligence division recently prepared an operational blueprint for greater in
The Israeli military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi Farkash, said recently that he was convinced Israel's intelligence vis-a-vis al-Qaida could reach "similar standards to those reached in preventing Palestinian terrorism." With this intelligence, Ze'evi was quoted as saying, within three years, 70 percent of international terrorist attacks could be prevented.

This might sound too good to be true, but Ze'evi adds two stipulations: Such success can be achieved only through the cooperation of all the major intelligence agencies in the world, including those from Egypt, Russia and other countries that to this point remain hesitant to join the counteroffensive against terrorism.

Second, in Ze'evi's view, only the symptoms of terrorism — that is, the attacks — will be curbed, while the real challenge is to eradicate the grass roots of world Islamic terrorism: the religious schools where radical Islamist ideology is taught, the hotbeds of missionary activity that recruit youngsters into the religious system and the political organizations that nurture the next generation of terrorists.