Israeli terrorism

This article is about hostile actions, or actions termed terrorist against Palestinians and British soldiers, by Jewish groups within the British Mandate of Palestine, and later, by Israelis.

These attacks were not all directly connected with the "mainstream" pre-Statehood Jewish leadership, who condemned these attacks publicly, and often extradicted their members. Strong ties remained, though, between the formal Jewish leadership and its underground counterparts. See also: terrorism against Israel.

Pre-Statehood Jewish terrorism In the 1940s, two Jewish underground organizations, the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern gang, were responsible for a number of terrorist acts:

• The King David Hotel bombing on July 26, 1946, killing 91.
• The bombing of the British Embassy in Rome[?], also in 1946.
• Assassinated British minister Lord Moyne[?] in Cairo in 1944 for his refusal to allow Jews to flee from the Holocaust into Palestine during World War II.
• Assassinated the UN mediator Count Bernadotte in September, 1948[?] for his allegedly pro-Arabic conduct during the cease-fire negotiations.
• Are claimed to be responsible for the massacres of hundreds of Arab villagers and the forced exile[?] of thousands. In particular, on April 9th[?], 1948a military operation at Deir Yassin.
• In 1947, killed two British hostages, sergeants who had been taken prisoner and later killed in response to British refusal to cancel the death sentence of two Jewish activists in Akko prison. Also, killed several suspected collaborators with the Haganah and the British mandate government.
• Attacked British military airfields and railways several times in 1946.
• Destroyed bridges over the Jordan River.

Actions by the State of Israel

• Qibya massacre, carried out among others by Unit 101 under the command of Ariel Sharon. It lead to the death of almost 70 civilians.
• Operation Suzannah (also known as the Lavon Affair), conducted in 1954. Conducted by an Israeli intelligence agency, it was an attempt to thwart Egypt's relations with the West by bombing selected Western targets in that country.
• In numerous cases during the al-Aqsa Intifada, Israel has assassinated self-declared freedom fighters that have been employed by the Palestinian Authority security forces and terrorist organisations including, the Fatah, Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad. Most of these assassinated people have publicly stated (before, not after their assassination) that they were behind terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. Israel has asked the Palestinian Authority numerous times to either arrest them or extradict them; the Authority never did either. Palestinians have claimed this constitutes terrorism, due to the many civilians killed as a result of this policy; Israel on the other hand declares all killings were due to a specific security alert, intended to prevent the deaths of many more civilians and as a result of the Palestinian Authority's total failure to accept responsibility.

Actions by Israeli allies

• The Sabra and Shatila massacre occurred on September 16th to 18th, 1982, during the Lebanese civil war; it was carried out by Lebanese Christian soldiers, in a zone surrounded by Israeli army. Casualties were in the thousands, though no exact number has ever been known.

An Israeli investigation found a number of officials (including the Defense Minister of that time, Ariel Sharon) "indirectly responsible" for the massacre, as they allowed the entry of Christian soldiers into the camps. This was done despite a documented history of abusive, murderous acts by the Lebanese Christian Militias. Many Arabs claim that there was an Israeli conspiracy with intent to carry out the massacre, although no evidence has been uncovered to support this claim.

See also Terrorism against Arabs -- Terrorism against Israel --Palestinian terrorism -- New Historians -- B'Tselem -- Anti-Semitism

External links

• Honest Reporting (http://www.honestreporting.com/)
• Israeli position: Israel and Lebanon (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf11)
• Information from Palestine (http://electronicintifada.net/diaries/)
• Palestinian negotiation team (http://www.nad-plo.org)
• Israeli position: 1948 Arab-Israeli War (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf4)
• Palestinian position: Israel and Lebanon (http://www.ummah.net/unity/sabra/main)
• Israeli position: Human rights in Israel and the territories (http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/myths/mf18)
• Israeli human rights organization: Human rights in Israel and the territories (http://www.btselem.org)
• Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle (1999)
  • An excerpt from The Fateful Triangle, specific to the Sabra and Shatilla massacres is online at http://www.infotrad.clara.co.uk/antiwar/fatefultri