The No-Fear Factor Analysis by Arieh O'Sullivan from the Jerusalem Post (August 6) - Not since the Iraqi Scud attacks of the 1991 Gulf War has the IDF's General Staff headquarters, the heart of Israel's military infrastructure, been so close to danger as it was yesterday, when a Palestinian gunman fired at soldiers at its gates. But the worrying nature of increasing numbers of the attempted terrorist attacks is the fact that they are not being carried out by young, brainwashed, fanatical zealots. Rather the perpetrators are married men with jobs, or mothers, or bumbling young teenagers. They fit a different profile. And it is this profile which marks a turning point in the conflict with the Palestinians, which should be sending alarm bells through the defense establishment. The IDF has long held that this is no longer a popular uprising by the Palestinians and has pointed out that the masses of stone-throwing crowds dissipated a few weeks into the conflict. "The rampant incitement by the Palestinians is doing its job and can cause those who don't necessarily have the profile of an attacker to join them," said one senior security source. But dismissing it to incitement is short-sighted. Could this not be a sign that the conflict with the Palestinians is returning to a popular struggle against Israeli rule? In some ways, the 23-year-old mother of two from Nablus who dropped everything and tried to plant a bomb last Thursday at the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, and the bumbling young teenager who fumbled his bomb on the No. 963 bus northward last week, and the Arab man in his 30s from east Jerusalem who took his brother's car and stolen M-16 to attack soldiers at Israel's Pentagon yesterday are likely to go down in Palestinian folklore in much the same way Mordechai Anielewicz is remembered for his role in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. They have no fear. And that makes them almost invincible, if not unstoppable. Security checks have proven useful. It was an alert guard who foiled the bus-station bombing. It was a courageous bus driver who thwarted the suicide attack. And it was chance a clear-headed cop put an end to yesterday's drama. But luck, and an armed Israeli, will not always be there to deal with a hostile people that is so desperate. "There is unequivocally no solution to this," said Anat Kurz, an expert on Palestinian terror at Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. "You can reduce the threat and can try to close in on the terror leaders and can certainly foil attacks. That is the best method. "But this has always been a popular uprising. The atmosphere is playing a part here and if these people have links with terrorist organizations, then you can learn that these organizations are trying to use non-identifiable persons in their attacks," said Kurz. "The problem is that these are not identified terrorists and it is hard to get to them." A senior military official said yesterday that the IDF is aware of the growing resentment among the Palestinians and their frustration at seeing no light at the end of the tunnel after all they have sacrificed. "I don't see any possibility of easing the closure, due to the warnings for attacks," he said. "If we do, it will make it easier for the terrorists to get in." But the Palestinian leadership, and obviously the Palestinian people, view the situation much like a gambler at a casino. They have lost so much that, if they quit now, they'll walk out empty-handed and even more frustrated than before. If they keep playing, there is still a chance they could win concessions from Israel or hit the jackpot and draw international intervention. "Israel's society understands that we can't surrender to terrorism, because if we do, it will have far-reaching ramifications for our existence here," said the security official. "This is a war against terrorism and we can't let terrorism beat us." In the movie Godfather II there is a scene when Michael Corleone is in Batista-ruled Havana. A Marxist rebel is arrested, and rather than be taken alive he explodes a grenade he had hidden in his jacket, killing himself and the officers arresting him. His partner says: "Those rebels, you know, they're lunatics." "Maybe so," Michael Corleone says. "But it occurred to me. The soldiers are paid to fight - the rebels aren't." "What does that tell you?" asks his partner. "They can win," he replies.
