Israel Matzav

Intelligence failure?

It is important to know how the 'Palestinian' terrorists made it into Itamar on Friday night. From the very first report I heard on Saturday night (and mentioned on this blog), there was talk of an intelligence failure. Here's what happened and why (yes, that's Itamar's security fence and guard post at the top of this post).

One area in which the IDF is concentrating its investigations is whether there were any intelligence warnings of terrorist plans before the attack that might have alerted residents.

The community of Itamar has had no terrorist attacks since 2002, when an advanced protection and security system called the Special Security Area was installed. The electronic system, which includes varied methods of observation and a wired fence, is kept in repair by the regional authority rather than the IDF.

In addition to an electronic fence surrounding the community, there is an inner, coiled wire fence. The community is allotted six non-army security personnel from a recognized security firm who are on patrol all the time. All signals go automatically to a central operations room in the town staffed by two of these guards, and in addition there is a company of soldiers on the adjoining hill.

The IDF investigation of the attack has discovered that at 20:59, terrorists entered the community. They jumped over the fence and an alert sounded. The guard on duty went to the spot from which the warning was heard, but saw no evidence of infiltration and therefore, made the erroneous decision that an animal had activated the electronic fence’s warning signal. There are many false alarms of that nature in the winter, but cameras would have shown the terrorists. However, the IDF did not agree to fund a request to keep cameras working on the fence.

A security person who was in the vicinity said that since the fence was not cut, the guard thought there was no infiltration and did not inform the IDF unit that was less than a kilometer away.

The terrorists first entered one home, which was empty. They found a weapon there, which they do not seem to have used. A group of youngsters was having a Sabbath evening party at the Fogel house nearby, and at 22:20 they left, along with the Fogel’s 12-year-old daughter, for an activity at the local Bnei Akiva youth group.

Between 22:20 and 22:30 the terrorists entered the house through the living room picture window, did not notice the 6-year-old boy sleeping on the couch and continued on to the bedroom where they slashed the throats of the father and newborn baby who were sleeping there. The mother came out of the bathroom and was stabbed on its threshold. The evidence shows that she tried to fight the terrorists.

They then slashed the throat of the 11-year old-son who was reading in bed. They did not notice the 2-year old asleep in his bed, but murdered the 3-year old with two stabs to his heart. After that, they locked the door, exited through the window and escaped.

Exactly two hours after the infiltration, there was another warning signal from the same spot on the fence, as the terrorists left the way they had come. Once again, the patrol did not identify the source of the signal as infiltration.

So whose failure was it? First, it was clearly a failure of misguided IDF defense ministry priorities. Instead of paying for cameras to protect Jews, the IDF is paying for plastic bullets to keep Jews from living in Judea and Samaria.

Should the IDF have been notified? Well, if hindsight is 20/20, then yes. But the entire point of the private security setup is to avoid having the IDF respond to animals and the like. Obviously, again, a cost saving measure whose cost was five Jewish lives.

About three or four years ago, I had the occasion to spend Shabbat in Elon Moreh, which is close to Itamar. If I am recalling correctly, at the time we were told that town did not have a physical fence around it, but had some sort of early warning system that notified the town's security if someone stepped on it (kind of an underground electronic fence). The locals claimed that since the system had been installed, no 'Palestinian' from nearby Shchem had attempted to enter the town. My guess is that all such systems will be reconsidered in light of what happened Friday night.

Of course, over the years, many towns in Judea and Samaria have refused security fences (which I believe Itamar did until the Shabu family massacre in 2002). Their point - which is correct - is that Jews should not have to cower in fear behind fences while the 'Palestinians' wander about freely. But unfortunately, unless and until the government is willing to react harshly to 'Palestinian' provocations, and do what ought to be done, all the refusal to live behind fences gets us is a lot of dead Jews (God forbid) and many fine dead Jews at that. I'd rather keep these people among us than lose them to demonstrate a principle.

Labels: Fogel family massacre, Itamar, Palestinian terror, security fence

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:25 PM