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Tracking down terrorists
Responding to the two recent suicide attacks launched by terrorists in the heart of Jerusalem, Israeli government officials have warned that if Yasser Arafat does not crush Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Israeli forces will. Without going into specifics, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security committee said a day after the Sept. 4 triple-suicide attack on Ben Yehuda Street that "Israel will act against the terrorist organizations and their infrastructure to ensure the security of its citizens and their right to self-defense." Netanyahu's top aides, however, went further, hinting that Israeli troops may hunt down Islamic militants in areas controlled by the Palestinians. "The security forces will operate and do everything they have to do independently, without any connection to the Palestinian Authority, concerning everything to do with terror organizations," said Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh. David Bar-Illan, the prime minister's director of communications, said, "Every government reserves the right to enter those areas where there is no opposition to terrorism, and there is no repression of terrorism. We will do whatever is required to protect our citizens." The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently conducted a simulation of an invasion into Palestinian-controlled territory in the West Bank and Gaza, and IDF units, according to the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, will start training for a possible conflict with Arafat's military forces, which number between 30,000 to 40,000. While the simulation determined that the army could easily retake control of the territory handed over to the Palestinians under the 1993 Oslo Accords, it also concluded that such an operation would cost the lives of hundreds of Israeli soldiers and thousands of Palestinians. Joel Singer, the former legal adviser to the Israeli Foreign Ministry who negotiated the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, said Israel has a right under the agreements to take actions to protect the security of its citizens and restore overall security to the area since Arafat has failed to abide by the "basic commitment" to fight terrorism. After the Ben Yehuda attack, Israeli forces arrested 100 suspected Palestinian militants from West Bank areas still under Israeli control. When asked whether the United States was advising Israel not to go into Palestinian areas to make mass arrests, James Foley, the State Department's deputy spokesman, said he did not want to answer "hypothetical questions." "I can only emphasize what we've been stating from this podium for weeks now, and which I reiterated yesterday, which is that we expect the Palestinian Authority to do its utmost," Foley said the day after the Ben Yehuda attack. "We look for 100 percent effort, including unilateral measures, to root out and destroy the terrorist infrastructure in those territories." Although the P.A. arrested two Hamas leaders in Ramallah who issued statements supporting the recent attacks, many others rounded up before Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived in the region last week seem to have been arrested for their political views rather than any involvement in terrorist activities, according to reports. The arrests made by the P.A. _ which has indicated that it is planning to launch a new campaign against Islamic terrorism _ were rejected by Netanyahu as a "show." Singer _ who was sent to Oslo in 1993 by then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to see if the Palestinian were prepared to be serious negotiating partners _ said Rabin agreed to move ahead with talks, in part, because the Palestinians agreed that there should be a coordinated effort with Israel to fight terrorism. Although Israel legally can take measures against terrorists, Singer and other observers _ including Israeli experts in counterterrorism _ question whether they could do this on a political level without aggravating the deteriorating situation even more. In a recent analysis of possible Israeli options to combat terrorism emanating from the Palestinian-controlled territories, Michael Eisenstadt, the military affairs fellow at the Washington Institute for Near Policy, said the negatives associated with Israeli military actions have so far prevented Israel from launching an all-out war on terrorism. Eisenstadt, however, wrote that "at some point the P.A.'s use of, or indulgence toward, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror as a means of pressuring Israel may compel Israel to react regardless of cost." Some of the costs include losing soldiers in battles with Palestinian police similar to those fought last year after Israel decided to open the Hasmonean exit of the Western Wall tunnel. Such military or covert operations also could spur an escalation in terrorist attacks. Last week, Hamas accused Israel of kidnapping one of its leaders Ibrahim Maqadmeh, who has been hiding since he was released by the P.A. in March. In charging Israel with capturing Maqadmeh in Palestinian-controlled Gaza, Hamas said it would launch more terrorist attacks against Israel. Israel denied that it has Maqadmeh. "You can say unequivocally that Israel did not kidnap Maqadmeh. Unequivocally that [the allegation of kidnapping] is not true. There is absolutely nothing in it," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Shai Bazak told the Reuters news agency. PLO officials described the leaflet issued by the military wing of Hamas as a ploy to get Palestinian police and Israel to stop hunting the leader.
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