Israel braces for new terror war
IDF to issue report warning Israel headed toward major, violent conflict with Palestinians; states unilateral withdrawal may contribute to escalation
Israel is headed toward a major, violent confrontation with the Palestinians while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to withdraw from most of the West Bank will "not help" to decrease the terrorism, according to an Israeli army assessment.
The prognosis will be released in an official Israeli Defense Forces report next month. It follows a series of WorldNetDaily exclusive interviews in which the leaders of every major Palestinian terror organization said recent events here are leading them to launch what they call a third intifada – or violent confrontation against Israel. The terrorists warned of suicide bombings, rocket attacks against Jewish communities and "a few new surprises in our arsenal."
"The new intifada is only a question of time and this will be the hardest and the most dangerous one. It's just about timing until the order to blow up a new wave of attacks will be given," Abu Nasser, a senior Al-Aqsa Brigades leader from the Balata refugee camp in northern Samaria told WorldNetDaily in an interview.
The IDF report outlines the army's general assessment for the next five years. It lists Iran's nuclear program as the top danger to Israel, followed by the threat of a renewed conflict with the Palestinians. The third level of threat is all-out war.
According to sources close to the report, it states that in order to prepare for the expected upcoming conflict with the Palestinians, IDF resources should be shifted more toward counter-terrorism units and away from traditional forms of warfare, such as armor, artillery and the engineering corps.
'We can target Tel Aviv'
Some officials tie the expected increase in violence to Olmert's West Bank withdrawal plan. After Israel announced it would withdraw from Gaza, terror organizations, mostly led by Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees umbrella group, increased attacks in the area, at one point firing an average of seven rockets per day at Gaza's Jewish communities.
Security officials told WND they fear terror groups similarly will increase attacks to claim credit for any Israeli pullout from the West Bank.
In Gaza, the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella organization consisting of several Palestinian terror groups, has taken credit for many of the rockets launched from the area since 2000.
Abu Abir, spokesman for the Committees, boasted his group transported missiles to the West Bank.
"If there is need, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and everywhere in Israel can become our target," Abu Abir told WorldNetDaily. "Israelis must also know that we have already transferred the knowledge and the technology of producing rockets to the West Bank."
Reprinted with permission of WorldNetDaily
