A Recent Shooting Is a Reminder of the Constant Threat of West Bank Terror

Monday night, a Palestinian terrorist opened fire at a bus stop in the Israeli town of Ofra, wounding seven people, including a pregnant woman whose baby, despite doctors’ heroic efforts, died yesterday morning. Just two months ago, a terrorist succeeded in killing two Israelis in the Barkan industrial zone. Yoav Limor writes that these attacks don’t reflect an “uptick” in terror but an ongoing problem:

On a nightly basis, dozens of army and police teams, mainly under the direction of the Shin Bet security agency, operate to thwart terrorist attacks. From the beginning of the year until Tuesday morning, over 530 significant terrorist attacks—bombs, abductions, car-rammings, stabbings, shootings—have been prevented, and more than 4,000 Palestinians have been detained. During this period, ten Israelis were murdered and 76 wounded in Judea and Samaria.

By comparison, although the northern and the southern sectors have occupied the most attention these past two months, [they have borne a much smaller death toll]. There have not been any casualties along the borders with Lebanon and Syria, while in the Gaza sector two IDF officers have been killed and a Palestinian living in Ashkelon was killed by a Hamas rocket attack.

While the potential for a dangerous escalation in the north and south is considerably greater, in Judea and Samaria the routine is one of consistent bloodshed. It is barely news when Molotov cocktails and stones are thrown at IDF troops, and localized clashes—some of them admittedly instigated by radical [Jewish] elements in the settlement movement—are hardly noticed. . . .

Hamas, via its headquarters in Gaza and Turkey, is investing tremendous energy in carrying out attacks. While the terrorist group has sought to reduce the flames in Gaza, it wants to ignite a powder keg in Judea and Samaria. To this end, it is trying to exploit a situation that is already unstable for numerous reasons: the lack of a successor to the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas, the stalled peace process, economic frustrations. . . . There will always be that one cell or lone terrorist who sneaks through the cracks.

Read more at Israel Hayom

More about: Hamas, Israel & Zionism, Israeli Security, Palestinian terror, West Bank

Why South Africa Has Led the Legal War against Israel

South Africa filed suit with the International Court of Justice in December accusing Israel of genocide. More recently, it requested that the court order the Jewish state to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip—something which, of course, Israel has been doing since the war began. Indeed, the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) has had a long history of support for the Palestinian cause, but Orde Kittrie suggests that the current government, which is plagued by massive corruption, has more sinister motives for its fixation on accusing Israel of imagined crimes:

ANC-led South Africa has . . . repeatedly supported Hamas. In 2015 and 2018, the ANC and Hamas signed memoranda of understanding pledging cooperation against Israel. The Daily Maverick, a South African newspaper that previously won an international award for exposing ANC corruption, has reported claims that Iran “essentially paid the ANC to litigate against Israel in the ICJ.”

The ANC-led government says it is motivated by humanitarian principle. That’s contradicted by its support for Russia, and by [President Cyril] Ramaphosa’s warmly welcoming a visit in January by Mohamed Dagalo, the leader of the Sudanese-Arab Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. Ramaphosa’s smiling, hand-holding welcome of Dagalo occurred two months after the RSF’s systematic massacre of hundreds of non-Arab Sudanese refugees in Darfur.

While the ANC has looted its own country and aided America’s enemies, the U.S. is insulating the party from the consequences of its corruption and mismanagement.

In Kittrie’s view, it is “time for Congress and the Biden administration to start helping South Africa’s people hold Ramaphosa accountable.”

Read more at The Hill

More about: International Law, Iran, South Africa