Escalation against the "Lions' Den" and the Israeli elections

Written by: Mustafa Ibrahim

At a time when Israel continues its terrorist military operations and daily killing, and plans to eliminate the Palestinian resistance in the northern West Bank, especially the "Lions' Den" group, as some Israeli analysts said, it has succeeded in describing itself as a new popular phenomenon. Despite the small number of its members, any claim about its destruction in the near future will not be reliable. Because there is no clear organizational or hierarchical background here.
Practically, it is an idea more than an organizational structure, and its being so difficult to stop its spread - and the fact that the solemn funerals in bidding farewell to the martyrs of the den, and the hundreds of Palestinians who crowd around the hospitals in Nablus, when the wounded and the bodies of the martyrs are brought. This indicates that there is an important phenomenon here, and the popularity of the den is increasing, and it will not be suppressed easily.
All that the den possesses is the patriotic spirit, determination and enthusiasm of the youth, who represent the people of their generation, their ambitions, their national choices, and their frustration with the outdated and eroding representative political structures. They are waging a resistance around which the Palestinian people have gathered, who see it as a noble guerrilla phenomenon that expresses their ambition to resist the occupation, and to win for national dignity, after the absence of such a resistance for two decades.
It is an expression of the rejection of the Palestinian reality and the state of disorientation experienced by the Palestinian leadership, factions and leaders, who have taken the liberty of issuing statements and statements of support, pride, congratulation and blessing for their operations and mourning the heroic martyrs among them.
The purpose of the factions is to invest the operations of the "Black Den" group, and there are allegations of support and financing for the "den".
Following the assassination of the martyr Tamer Al-Kilani, some Israeli jurists expressed their concern about the existence of legal issues, in terms of international law, that create difficulties for carrying out assassinations from the air in the West Bank, "contrary to the situation in the Gaza Strip."
However, the reality says the opposite. Rather, the statements of officials in the Israeli army and security services are the continuation of military operations, although Israeli analysts said that the assassination of the Israeli occupation, the martyr Tamer Al-Kilani, one of the leaders of the "Lions' Den", does not change the rules of the game. And that would enhance the strength of the organization.
And that Israel's decision to cover up the assassination does not indicate a high level of deterrence, on the contrary. And that this opacity greatly magnifies this small organization, for which Great Israel does not bear responsibility and uses techniques to assassinate senior resistance fighters.
It is noticeable that Israeli analysts linked the military operation carried out by the occupation forces in Nablus to the Knesset elections that will take place in five days. The relationship between the security effort and the political background cannot be ignored.
It is important for the government, a week before the elections, to highlight that it is fighting a new and growing (terrorist) threat. The IDF and the Shin Bet were asked to show results, which also explains the unusual presence of the Army Chief of Staff, Aviv Kochavi, and the Shin Bet chief, Ronen Bar, in the Operations Command Room during the operation" in Nablus, last night.
And that the military operation in Nablus was an assassination operation, not an arrest operation, and that the army and the Shin Bet used intelligence capabilities and the eavesdropping unit 8200 in the Israeli army, and that the Shin Bet used, before the operation, the "Pegasus" program, which was developed by the Israeli cyber offensive company NSO to hack smartphones and spy on their holders and those around them. them.
Analysts wondered about the timing of the operation and the assassination of the activist in the "Lions' Den", the martyr Tamer Al-Kilani, two days earlier, and why this was not carried out until today against an organization whose capabilities are small, but it carried out armed operations in the Nablus area against the Israeli army forces and settlers.
The Israeli army has not done so until now, following a decision taken at the security level in Israel, with the support of the political level.
And that the use of the image circulated by the Israeli army to the Chief of Staff of the Army, Aviv Kochavi, the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and the head of the Operation Division, in the Operations Command Room during the military operation in Nablus, will not serve the Israeli deterrence, and broadcasting pictures of a senior leadership of this level managing such an event against a small organization . On the contrary, this ennobles the lions' den even more.
Sometimes it seems that in the security apparatus they speak with two voices. On the one hand, assassins in official statements receive respectable descriptions and are portrayed as leaders of an organization, as if this is one of the prominent (terrorist) organizations in the world. On the other hand, other security officials recommend that this organization not be magnified in this way. And that exaggerated glorification of a successful military operation may return as a boomerang to the security apparatus, and develop the phenomenon of imitating and forming similar organizations in other areas in the West Bank. Although the speed in obtaining important intelligence information, which allowed the execution of an assassination by exploding a motorcycle, confirms that the level of professionalism is low.