Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that the various terror
groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Fatah-Tanzim,
are now competing to carry out the biggest attack. Mofaz said
that the current wave of terror within Israel is liable to
"get worse in the next month." He also said that the country
should also brace for a wave of global terror he predicted
would also worsen following the double attack in Mombassa.
Warnings of terror attacks are now similar to the high level
last recorded last March before the suicide bombing of the
Park Hotel in Netanya, he said. Including that unusually
murderous attack, over 100 Israelis were murdered that
month.
At the Cabinet meeting last Sunday Defense Minister Mofaz
noted the rising cycle of terror attacks and the increased
pressure as a result of a greater number of attempted attacks
by different terror organizations in the Palestinian
Authority. He emphasized that the widespread attempts to
perpetrate terror attacks, by all terror organizations, is
extraordinary, but that the security services (besiyata
deShmaya - M.P.) are able to thwart many of them.
Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kupperwasser, head of the Intelligence
Corps' research department, said the Palestinian terror
groups are also trying to improve their weapons so as to
increase the number of victims. He said two Islamic Jihad
members killed recently were the victims of an accident that
occurred during an attempt to experiment with improved
explosives.
He also said that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser
Arafat is continuing to give financial support to the Aksa
Martyrs Brigades, a Fatah-affiliated terror group.
Mofaz also said that Arafat is continuing to spread a pro-
terror policy in the PA. He said that there is a consensus
locally and internationally that as long as Arafat remains
leader of the PA it will not be possible to get back to the
negotiating table.
He said there were missed opportunities in the past to remove
Arafat. Now, he said, the problem is "how and when" to get
rid of Arafat. He said that the government is now examining
the possibility of "creating a different situation" and
thereby enabling a resumption of negotiations.
As for the IDF's activities in Palestinian cities, Mofaz said
it has no interest in remaining there, but has no other
choice at the moment. He noted that Samaria has become a
center for terror activities.
Chief of Staff Ya'alon reportedly said at a closed forum un
Washington, D.C. last week that secret negotiations were
under way among Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), and
Muhammad Dahlan, which he described as a silent coup against
Arafat, noting that the aim of the talks was to turn Abbas
into the prime minister of the PA and bring about a three-
month cease-fire with Hamas, an idea that he said was turned
down by the Hamas leadership in Damascus despite being
supported by Hamas in the territories.
He also noted that the Hamas no longer demands a return to
the pre-1967 borders as a condition for a cease-fire but
instead reiterated demands that the IDF pull back to its
positions prior to September 2000. He said that when Arafat
became aware of the talks, he foiled all attempts to reach a
cease fire, suggesting that nothing could be done without his
permission.
