Another Day, Another Challenge

March 23, 2009

by Daniel E. Levenson 

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – When I turned on my computer the other day and read about the attempted car bombing in Haifa, I have to admit I was not all that surprised. Disturbed, upset, concerned, slightly worried about my own safety – yes, but surprised, not really. While it may be very easy for an American living in west Jerusalem to walk around with a certain degree of blissful ignorance of the realities of the region simply by avoiding newspapers and cable TV, the sad truth of the situation here in Israel is that there are still a very large number of individuals, organizations and even other states which would like nothing better than to kill every Jew living here and bring an end to the state of Israel.

As many of the news reports I read noted, this attempted attack was unusual in terms of the level of sophistication of the bomb, and Haaretz reported online that “A senior source in the Palestinian Authority told Haaretz on Sunday that he suspects Hezbollah or another organization with links to Iran was behind the attempted bombing of the Lev Hamifratz shopping mall in Haifa on Saturday night. According to the source, the PA holds definitive intelligence that Hezbollah has been trying for some time to recruit members of Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in an attempt to get operatives of those terror groups to carry out an attack in Israel.”

Of course in this region, it’s always hard to figure out what information to trust, or what kind of agenda might be behind a particular statement or suggestion. Palestinian intelligence, which is one of several branches within a confusing tangle of security and military organizations within the Palestinian Authority, could very well have its own reasons for suggesting that Hezbollah or Iran might be somehow involved. The PA may be trying to signal a willingness to work more closely with Israel in terms of security, and in so doing, intimate that they, and not Hamas, are the true potential partners for future peace. Or it could represent an effort to draw attention away from Palestinian involvement in the failed attack.

Of course what is scarier to me than the idea that Palestinian intelligence officers are spreading rumors about Iranian involvement solely to improve the bargaining position of the Palestinian leadership, is the possibility that there actually was an Iranian hand at work somewhere in this attempted bombing. If this does turn out to be the case, it would be a very dangerous move on the part of Iran, who could run the risk of starting a conflict that would extend well-beyond the Middle East and western Asia. It would also raise questions about the goals of the Iranian regime in the region not only in terms of its relationship with the Arab world, but with Israel and the west. A proxy war would ultimately lead to a direct confrontation, and the outcome of such a battle would no doubt be unspeakably horrific.

Copyright Daniel E. Levenson