Mouhand al-Okbi , who carried out the shooting attack in Be'er Sheva. No record of criminal offenses
Shin Bet's new challenge: Terrorists with an Israeli ID
Analysis: Israel's defense establishment is dealing with an uprising which is generating unguided and unorganized perpetrators, who go to sleep as ordinary citizens and wake up as terrorists.
An Israeli identity card, a Facebook video and a knife - these are the ingredients which are repeatedly emerging from all Shin Bet investigations in the recent wave of terror.
Adris Abu Alkean, a Hura resident affiliated with a radical Salafi faction, was arrested in April 2014 after helping two other Negev residents to travel to Syria in order to join the Islamic State. In July 2015, the Shin Bet arrested six Hura residents
- including four teachers - who supported ISIS and spread the organization's doctrine in the school.
Despite the shooting attack at the central bus station in Be'er Sheva, the Shin Bet's situation report on the Bedouins in southern Israel has been relatively good in the past year, following several arrests carried out in the past two years within the community.
Binational State
Benny Cohen
Op-ed: In the current situation, citizens of the State of Israel are going out to kill fellow citizens; the fact that both the murderers and the victims have an Israeli identity card turns a battle between states into a civil war, which is harder to solve.
Nonetheless, radical Islam poses a great challenge to the Shin Bet. This time too, terrorist Mouhand al-Okbi has no record of security offenses, and the attack was likely the result of a moment's decision.
Terrorist's body in Be'er Sheva. The legend that a terrorist who dreams about an attack at night will be arrested by the IDF the next morning cannot be fulfilled with those carrying an Israeli identity card (Photo: AP)
A similar story emerged from the investigation of Israeli terrorist Tariq Yahya, who carried out the attack in Afula, and said he had decided to do it the night before, following what he defined as a feeling of anger and hatred towards Jews, which he formed after watching YouTube videos and which led him to buy a knife on the day of the attack in Umm al-Fahm.
And so without even noticing, the number of terrorists carrying Israeli identity cards has apparently gone up to 22 - 19 of them from East Jerusalem and three from Umm al-Fahm, Nazareth and the Bedouin community. All of them had no security record, all of them were inspired by social media and they all made the decision within a minute, making it impossible to arrest them.
The legend about Shin Bet investigators in the Judea and Samaria district, that a terrorist who dreams about an attack at night will be arrested by the IDF the next morning, cannot be fulfilled with those carrying an Israeli identity card. In fact, the kidnapping of the three teens in Gush Etzion last summer proved that this legend does not apply to the West Bank either.
And despite all of that, we must be careful not to make generalizations about Israel's Arabs, like the ones politicians are making these days. The absolute majority of Israeli Arabs play no part in terror activities, and it would be wrong to compare them to the residents of East Jerusalem who want to protect Al-Aqsa.
In any event, the current wave of terror poses a new challenge to Israel's security forces and intelligence organizations, which they have yet to deal with: An uprising which is generating unguided and unorganized perpetrators, who go to sleep as ordinary citizens and wake up in the morning as terrorists.
