Organized Terror Is Back

The Fellowship  |  February 6, 2018

As Israeli forces have reacted after the two recent terrorist murders of rabbis, it has become clear that both attacks were the planned work of terrorist groups. Ynet News’ Ron Ben Yishai explains that this shows Israel must combat terror on two fronts – that of organized attacks by Hamas, as well as “lone wolf” attacks inspired by incitement on social media:

The murder of Raziel Shevah in January was a wakeup call for all the security agencies assigned to combating terror. It was immediately clear that the attack was carried out by a professional, well-trained and well-funded terror cell that carefully chose the location of the ambush near Havat Gilad, escape routes and hiding places for after the attack.

Some of the details regarding the escape and hiding are still under a gag order, but it is clear that they were carried out professionally.

What this means is that this was no “local resistance organization” or “lone wolf attack” but rather the act of a well-entrenched terrorism infrastructure. Hamas has already claimed responsibility.

The difference between an organized terror infrastructure and local, popular terrorism is the amount of time required for its establishment, including “executioners,” collaborators to assist them and a well-funded command center, probably located on land not directly under Israeli control. Also necessary are effective and secretive communications channels.

In the case of the “Jarrar squad”—headed by members of the Jarrar family—it is now known that its members carried out a number of terror attacks before Shevah’s murder…