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EIPA: 'Paris attacks reminds us what is happening here on a daily basis'

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unnamedIsraeli  Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Silvan Shalom said the six terror attacks that struck Paris Friday, in which at least 129 people were killed and 359 wounded, 99 of them very seriously,  “reminds us of what is happening here on a daily basis, unfortunately”.

“For many years, most of the world believed that terrorism is only Israel’s problem,” he continued, recalling previous attacks in France against Jewish targets, such as the attack on the Jewish school and Toulouse and the attack at the Hypercacher kosher supermarket in Paris,’’ he said as he addressed Saturday night a rally of solidarity with France at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square  attended by thousands people.

“When they told us that it’s a fight of Muslims against Jews, we said, ‘No. Terrorism is terrorism is terrorism, and terrorism can hit everywhere and against everyone,’” he warned. “Yesterday it was in France and tomorrow, unfortunately, it can happen in other countries in Europe.”

The minister called on the free world “to be united and decide to combat terrorism. If we decide to do so, we will prevail.”

The crowd waved French and Israeli flags and signs reading 'Tel Aviv stands with Paris', in front of city hall, which was lit to look like a giant French flag.

“Thank you for your presence,” France’s Ambassador Patrick Maisonnave told the gathering.”It is a vivid testimony to the fact that France is not alone in this struggle.”

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Earlier, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the civilized world to “unite to defeat the plague of worldwide terrorism.”

“An attack on any one of us should be seen as an attack on all of us. All terrorism must be condemned and fought equally with unwavering determination. It’s only with this moral clarity that the forces of civilization will defeat the savagery of terrorism.”

He said Israel is sharing intelligence about Islamic State and other terrorist groups with its allies.

“Israel possesses intelligence; we aren’t a marginal player in this field, and the information we have we share with France and with other relevant countries, not just since yesterday,” he said. “This is an important part of cooperation against the terrorism of IS and the terrorism of radical Islam in general.”

Israel cooperates with other countries in “various ways,” Netanyahu said, adding that he could not elaborate in public.

He said Israel stands “shoulder to shoulder” with France in the battle against Islamist terrorism.

“Israel stands shoulder- to-shoulder with France in this common battle against militant Islamic terrorism. I have instructed Israel’s security and intelligence forces to assist their French counterparts and their counterparts from other European countries in any way possible,” he told reporters.

“Militant Islamic terrorism attacks our society because it wants to destroy our civilization and our values,” Netanyahu said as he drew similarities between victims in Paris and victims in Jerusalem and described them as the “victims of militant Islamic terrorism, not its cause.”

He has also ordered tightened security at Israeli missions and Jewish sites that might be potential targets.

Asked whether Israel needs to worry about IS striking next on its soil, given that the events in Paris showed the group is capable of staging a massive attack in the heart of Europe, Netanyahu acknowledged that IS has recently stepped up its terrorist activities, including the downing of a Russian plane over Sinai.

While there is no question about terrorist groups’ intentions, which are evident, he said it was not yet clear whether the rest of the world was finally willing to fight them.

He stressed that terrorism can’t be fought selectively, expecting those who condemn the attacks in Paris to also denounce attacks against Israelis.

Without providing details, Israel’s Channel Two said Israeli intelligence saw a “clear operational link” between the attack in the French capital, Thursday’s Beirut suicide bombings and the Oct. 31 downing of a Russian airliner in the Egyptian Sinai.

Israeli spy services are monitoring Syria and Iraq – where Islamic State insurgents have conquered swathes of territory – which may have yielded intelligence on the organization of the Paris attacks, the Israeli army radio said.

According to Boaz Ganor, founder and executive director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, the Paris carnage was an organizational terrorist attack and not an independent initiative of a lone wolf. 

“The model apparently used for the attacks in Paris was the model of the Mumbai attacks on November 26, 2008. Those were carried out by 10 Pakistani mercenaries fighting for Lashar-e-Taiba, an organization affiliated with al-Qaida that operates in India, Pakistan and Kashmir. During those attacks, the terrorists carried out mass killings of different sorts, including suicide bombings, indiscriminate shooting and taking hostages in heavily populated areas, tourist and entertainment centers. During those attacks, which lasted three days, some 173 people were killed.”

“Organized attacks by terrorist groups, contrary to independent initiatives of lone wolves, are the most lethal and take the biggest toll of casualties. In attacks of this kind, there are also many more accomplices involved in the secret operation, including activists who initiated the attack, planned it, laid the groundwork for the operation, trained the terrorists and, of course, those who actually carried out the attacks,” he wrote.

“These attacks, therefore, allow intelligence agents a theoretical ability to infiltrate and thwart attacks more effectively than in the case of the lone wolf. With this in mind, the French security services in particular and the Europeans in general must carry out a thorough self-examination to discover how an attack of this scale went under their radar. The French must develop better intelligence capabilities alongside a more effective doctrine to cope with terrorism.”

 

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