Counter-Terrorism: Anti-Israel Arab Israelis

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October 3, 2013: Israeli Police revealed that in early September they had disrupted a Hamas attempt to bomb a Jerusalem mall. A Hamas operative in the West Bank had recruited two Arab employees of the mall to plant the bomb. There were three other Hamas members in Jerusalem who obtained the components to build the bomb. Israeli intelligence picked up on this scheme, and it took over a week to round up all members of the terror cell. Israeli intelligence services warn that decades of Palestinian efforts to radicalize Israeli Arabs is paying off, with more Israeli Arabs openly supporting the Palestinians (who want to destroy Israel, not make peace) and supporting or joining Palestinian terrorist groups and seeking to make terror attacks inside Israel.

Israel has been trying to cope with the growing number of Israeli Arabs radicalized by Arab anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda. Spying, terrorism, and recruiting because of this is becoming more common among Israeli Arabs. Back in 2009, Israel banned (for supporting terrorism) two of the three Israeli-Arab political parties, but that just drove a lot of this anti-Israel activity underground. Arabs make up twenty percent of the Israeli population, and in 2009 seven of the one-hundred and twenty members of the parliament were Arab. Now it’s twelve. Some Israeli Arab politicians have been caught working for Hezbollah, and other anti-Israeli organizations, although most are loyal. But these loyalists are under increasing pressure from the growing number of Arab Israelis who want to destroy Israel.