How is it possible that suicide bombers explode in israel ?

[Slack]

hello and shalom everybody,

i try my best to understand this conflict and understand the israeli point of view. i read much in forums and i also read jerusalem or washington post.
one question i don't understand. how it's possible that palestine suicide attackers cross the borders?
nearly every day a terrorist explode in haifa, tel aviv or jerusalem. why israel don't close the borders or check every single person which enters the land?
sorry if this question is stupid, because i never been in israel, but i think every europeen state would close at first the borders to prevent these terrible terrorist attacks to civilists.
and 2nd question, if israel got evidence that arafat stands behind this attacks, why don't they catch him and put him to an (perhaps international) court to convict him?

[ibrodsky]

Originally posted by Slack
how it's possible that palestine suicide attackers cross the borders? nearly every day a terrorist explode in haifa, tel aviv or jerusalem. why israel don't close the borders or check every single person which enters the land?

This is an important question. I believe it's because Israel's '67 borders are not defensible. This is one reason why Israel has continued to occupy the "territories." (The main reason is that Arabs have not agreed to a true, regional peace settlement.)

and 2nd question, if israel got evidence that arafat stands behind this attacks, why don't they catch him and put him to an (perhaps international) court to convict him?

Another good question. The answer, IMO, is that most of the world recognizes Arafat as the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people. (More accurately, he is the authentic leader of the Arab terrorists who pull the wool over the eyes of Western countries by pretending they just want a state of their own.)

As Ariel Sharon said earlier today, he is receiving many phone calls from world leaders who want to know whether Arafat is being confined to two rooms or three -- rather than wanting to know about the civilian victims of the latest terrorist attacks.

[Slack]

legitimate leader or not, if he was responsable for those attacks he should be convicted. if he's guily, he's a mass murder and nobody can deal with him.
if somebody deal with him, it's like supporting a mass murder.
i don't understand my own FM, he said today he's shocked about the new attacks, he convicted them but arafat is holy, he's the palestine leader and he should be able to work.
thats not logical.

from europe and it's media, it looks like he's a consens man. there are fanatic muslims, there are persian supported hardliners and there's a fanatic mass behind which is controlled by him to accept the possibility of peace talks.
after nobel price for rabbin and arafat i was so optimistic for peace, why this chance was gone?

and now, he looks like a wounded animal which wants nothing else than peace and freedom for his people.
where is the truth?

[L@mplighterM]

Manufacturing explosives is one of the easiest things in the world. It’s easier than baking a cake.

The latest incident was due to an Israeli Arab suicide bomber.

I find it odd that someone one this forum would greet people with Shalom and then ask where’s the truth.

You wouldn’t have a chance of being let into my henhouse.

[Slack]

i thought shalom means peace.
i never would enter your henhouse.
i don't want to anger you.

[NewsGuy]

Hi Slack,

I agree with ibordsky -- you ask some excellent questions.

As to the first, about how terrorists enter Israle every day, I also agree with ibrodsky that Israel's borders as they are set up currently are not 100% defensible.

The layout is that there are pockets of Israeli and Palestinian towns very close to one another, and the only way to form a border is to surround each and every of the hundreds of Arab towns, with a ring of soldiers.

Still, the ways of smuggling in suicide bombers are numerous. Here are some examples:

1. Some of the suicide bombers have been granted work permits to enter Israel legitimately for their job. Their paperwork helps them get across Israeli checkpoints.

2. Some have been transported into Israel hidden in red Crescent ambulances, either as patients or as a paramedic.

3. Some have been assisted by Arabs living in Israel, of which there are 1.5 million Arabs living in some of Israel's largest cities. One of the Israeli cities with the highest population of Arabs is Haifa, and another is Jerusalem, you may recognize these cities as being hit time and time again by suicide bombers. But Israel is too liberal to place real restrictions on its Arab population, even though they are known enemies of Israel, and publicly say so.

4. Some have breached the international borders with Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Because Israel is so small, as soon as the terrorists enter the country, they are within a few steps of an Israeli town.

5. Some have simply driven up to the Israeli checkpoints, waited their turn to be inspected, and then as the Israeli soldiers inspected them, they blew themselves up.

... And there are other ways, too.

As I have said before many times, the only realistic solution is to build a defensible international border by removing some Israeli settlements and some Palestinian settlements, and beefing up security along the border.

Other than removing the settlements, a massive population transfer of the Palestinians into the other 22 Arab countries is another option, similarly to what was done in Kuwait after the Gulf War.

The Kuwaitis were fed up with the Palestinians who supported Saddam Hussein's invasion, and after the war, Kuwait kicked out the entire Palestinian population of approx. 1.25 million. No one said anything at all to criticise Kuwait -- not the EU, not the other Arabs. That is another good model for dealing with the Palestinian terrorism.

But truthfully, a third option exists, which is instead of fighting the individual terrorists, there could be an Israeli reaction that would serve as enough of a deterrent to make it undesireable for terrorists to target Israelis. I don't know exactly what it would be, but it would have to be very substantial.

[Gatorade]

1.25 million Palistianians were exiled from Kuwait after the Gulf War? I had never heard this before. Can you supply a link to an article on this.

I remember that Arafat sided with Iraq though.

[Ezra]

I think the population of Kuwait prior to the Iraqi invasion was 1.8 million (1.1 million foreigners and 700 thousands Kuwaitis). 80% of the foreigners were Palestinians (i.e. 880 thousands).

Still, this doesn't change anything from the correct logic and reasoning of NewsGuy.

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by Ezra
I think the population of Kuwait prior to the Iraqi invasion was 1.8 million (1.1 million foreigners and 700 thousands Kuwaitis). 80% of the foreigners were Palestinians (i.e. 880 thousands).

Ezra,

I have seen figures range from 230,000 to 1.5 million. It seems that as time goes on, the numbers change, but as you said, the main point is the same.

For example, this BBC article reports about 450,000 Palestinians expelled from Kuwait:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...00/1361060.stm

In any event, goes to show that when the Palestinians cause trouble in Arab countries, the Arabs simply kick them out, and there is never any European condemnation, nor emergency UN security council sessions, etc. Only Israel gets criticised for defending itself from Palestinian terrorism.