Strategic Assessment

Just before the last Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah-September 1999) car-bombs exploded in Haifa and in Tiberias, injuring several passersby. The investigation by the security authorities found that each terror attack had been conducted by a cell of Israeli Arabs belonging to the extremist northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. The cell was headed by a young imam who graduated from the Islamic College in Um el-Fahm. These Israeli Arabs were inducted into the movement by the HAMAS organization in the West Bank, and they were assigned the mission of planting bombs on Egged buses with the goal of causing mass fatalities. Evidently, due to a malfunction, the bombs exploded prematurely in their cars. Thanks to this, a heavy tragedy was averted and damage to relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel was prevented.