West Bank Terrorists Have Anti-Aircraft Missiles, Anti-Tank Rockets
Amir Buhbut (Maariv-Hebrew 27 April 2005
[With thanks to Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs DAILY ALERT April 27,
2005]

[IMRA: If Israel were a normal country Israel would be insisting that the
Palestinians hand over the anti-aircraft missiles before ANY easing of
security measures - and certainly before even more Palestinian cities are
converted to cities of refuge with all wanted terrorists located in the
cities of refuge granted immunity for past crimes and offered a job in PA
security forces to boot.

But Israel is a special country - and in order to both please President Bush
and satisfy a blind desire to make "progress" the Government of Israel
simply cannot let the reality of the anti-aircraft missile threat interfere
with Mr. Sharon's plans (just as the reality that the Egyptians have total
control over the weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza and Israel cannot
interfere with Mr. Sharon' desire to hand over control of the Philadelphi
Corridor to Egypt.

What then will happen?

Following the long honored Israeli tradition of ex-disaster investigations,
there is no question that if, God forbid, terrorists manage to shoot a
passenger jet out of the sky and/or force down a plane into a populated area
with anti-aircraft missiles that a committee of inquiry will be appointed to
investigate the gross failure of the authorities to seriously address the
threat.

It should be noted that if a missile strikes a jet but fails to cause
significant damage that this may not necessarily count - much as Palestinian
rocket attacks don't count until someone is seriously wounded.].

The Shin Bet revealed at a high-level security meeting two weeks ago that
Bedouin from Egypt and Israel's Negev have succeeded in smuggling
anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles to West Bank terrorists.

In the wake of this intelligence information, it was decided that the
Israeli-Egyptian border had become an actual strategic threat and there was
a need to redeploy Israeli forces accordingly.