Israel Update for April 2011

David Dolan

As anti-government protests intensified during April in neighboring Syria and Jordan, Palestinian terrorists based in the Gaza Strip attacked an Israeli school bus, severely wounding a teenage boy who later died from his injuries. Several weeks later, a Jewish worshipper whose aunt serves in the Israeli cabinet was shot dead by a Palestinian near Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Five others were wounded in the incident.

The bus attack sparked off the worst clashes between Hamas and Islamic Jihad rocket- firing militiamen and Israeli Defense Forces in nearly two and a half years. With around one-fourth of Israel's civilian population now under deadly Palestinian rocket range, besieged residents were ordered to keep students out of school for several days while staying close to local bomb shelters, seriously disrupting normal life in several large cities and many smaller communities. As a result of the rocket barrage, the IDF prepared for a possible new air and ground operation against the Iranian-backed Hamas militia and its allies, which analysts said could potentially spark off a wider war with Lebanon and Syria. This came as calls increased for a new violent Palestinian uprising to be launched in the coming weeks or months.

In Syria itself, anti-Assad regime street protests further intensified, leaving hundreds more dead and injured and the country in chaos. For the first time during the current crisis, the Syrian army was sent into action against demonstrators in the port city of Latakiya where Russian naval vessels are regularly stationed. The army was subsequently sent to other areas as well. Israeli military forces remained on high alert along the Golan Heights border, where concern grew that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad might order an armed strike in an attempt to reunify his crumbling nation against the external "Zionist enemy." Vigilance was also the order of the day along the tense border with Lebanon, where two IDF soldiers were killed last year.

Intensifying unrest in nearby Jordan during the month was also being closely monitored in Jerusalem; with signs growing that a new government might emerge out of the crisis that, at the very least, weakens ties with Israel, as demanded by most protestors. The continuing conflict in Libya was also being followed with interest, given that Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi has been a longtime supporter of international terrorist actions that have sometimes been directed at Jews. The violent upheaval in Yemen-widely believed to be backed by Al Qaida operatives-and the continuing unrest in Bahrain were also being watched with keen interest, as was the case in Egypt where fierce clashes erupted between Christians and Muslims in the south of the country.

Israeli officials were gladdened by a NATO decision to stage a strong international naval show of force in the Gulf during late April and early May-a clear warning to nearby Iran that its threats to close off oil shipments from the area during any regional conflict would be met with significant world opposition. At the same time, the soaring cost of oil-due mainly to the spreading political turbulence stretching from North Africa to Iran-hit the Israeli pocketbook hard during April as the government-controlled price of a US gallon of gasoline rose to the shekel equivalent of eight dollars. Analysts warned that surging petroleum prices could seriously weaken Israel's economy, which had been performing very well before the regional upheaval began in Tunisia and Egypt early this year.

Palestinian Rockets Meet Iron Dome

The month of April began with another round of Palestinian rocket, mortar and Grad missile strikes on Israeli population centres north and east of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, some thirty miles south of Tel Aviv. Israeli Air Force jets were sent into action to counter the attacks, hitting a smuggling tunnel from Egypt that runs underground into the southern Gaza border town of Rafiah. A terrorist from the Islamic Jihad group was killed while preparing to fire additional rockets at Israeli civilian communities.

The clashes came just days after Palestinian Muslim warriors fired powerful Iranian-supplied Grad missiles in the vicinity of Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor. The reactor is situated in the northern Negev Desert not far from Israel's sixth largest city, Beersheva. Coming just as Japanese emergency workers were struggling to prevent a nuclear meltdown following the massive earthquake and tsunami which rocked the northeast of the island nation in early March, senior Israeli defense officials said the missile attack in the direction of Israel's main nuclear reactor crossed a serious red line. This prompted Defense Minister Ehud Barak to order the deployment for the first time in the area of Israel's new Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, jointly developed with US financial and technical support in recent years.

Speaking at an inaugural ceremony in Beersheva at the beginning of April, Barak told the assembled guests that "we trust the system will be operated as well as it can be, even though we know that no trial run can be one hundred percent." Still, he added optimistically that "if this will be like the previous test runs, it should be very good." He later said four additional Iron Dome batteries would be deployed in the Gaza area in the coming years.

Attending the ceremony, Air Force Commander Ido Nehushtan said, "This battery is ready for action," noting that the IDF is "the first army in the world to use this type of defense system against enemy missiles." He also predicted that the Iron Dome system, which deploys highly sophisticated laser and radar technology to intercept low flying enemy projectiles, will become "an integral part of the Air Force." However the senior commander echoed Defense Minister Barak's words of caution, admitting that the system "has limitations and cannot give a full defense."

Talking with reporters earlier the same day in Jerusalem, Israeli rocket scientist Uzi Rubin said the Iron Dome system had indeed done remarkably well in test trial runs, adding it "offered the best protection against Katyusha rockets available to any civilian population anywhere on earth." Although the Palestinian Kassam rockets are homemade versions of the Soviet-era rockets he mentioned (which are possessed in great quantities by Hizbullah forces in Lebanon, and also by Syria), they are nevertheless very similar in structure and flying capabilities. The more powerful Iranian Grad missiles-which can potentially destroy entire buildings in one go-likewise travel on trajectories and heights comparable to Katyusha rockets, meaning the new Iron Dome system is also capable of taking them out of commission while in route to their intended targets.

Bus Attack Sparks Fierce Clashes

As additional Palestinian rocket attacks took place the first week of April, IDF jets struck and killed three Hamas operatives who intelligence sources said were planning to kidnap Israeli tourists visiting the Sinai Peninsula during the annual Passover holidays. This in turn prompted the radical Sunni Arab group to declare that Israel would face "grave consequences" for the action. The Israeli government subsequently urged all Israelis to stay away from the Egyptian resorts which many usually visit during the spring holidays when Sinai's temperatures are still relatively moderate. This came as the IDF military intelligence director, Major General Avi Kochavi, told a Knesset committee that Hamas continues to receive substantial aid from Iran, including "money, weapons, knowledge, experts and ideology."

On April 7th, a Palestinian Russian-built Kornet anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip zeroed in on an Israeli school bus as it passed a kibbutz community near the Arab coastal zone. Fortunately most young passengers had already gotten off the bus. Still the driver and a 16 year old teenage boy were injured, the latter critically. Several weeks later, Daniel Viflic died of his wounds at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.