The Palestinian Authority recently foiled a plot by ISIS to bomb Israelis when it arrested a local teacher who had been recruited by the radical jihadist group.
Alaa Bashir is a 23-year-old Koran teacher from a village in Samaria, the so-called “West Bank.” Bashir had come into contact with and enticed to join ISIS via a Telegram channel set up by the terrorists. So dedicated was she to the ISIS cause that Bashir agreed to become a suicide bomber with the intent of mass-murdering Israeli Jews. She was arrested two weeks ago by Palestinian Authority police.
There was initial widespread protest over Bashir’s arrest, prompting the Palestinian Authority to issue a vague explanation that the young teacher had schemed to “disrupt regional stability.”
It was only later that Israel’s Ynet news portal learned from Palestinian sources that Bashir had been recruited by ISIS to carry out a suicide bomb attack against Israelis. During interrogation, she admitted to being in contact with ISIS agents based in Syria and the Gaza Strip who instructed her on how to prepare large explosive charges.
Apparently, Bashir has been known to Palestinian security officials for some time as a potential threat given her affiliation first with Al Qaeda, and later with ISIS. However, given that she is the niece of a high-ranking officer in the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, no action was taken until there was evidence that Bashir was actually planning to harm others.
While it is not often reported in the mainstream media, Palestinian Authority security forces do routinely cooperate with their Israeli counterparts and do thwart a large number of planned attacks against Israelis.
At the same time, the Palestinian Authority leadership continues to praise and financially support those terrorists who do manage to kill Israelis, thus encouraging even more to follow in their footsteps. As such, it can be argued that Palestinian police efforts to halt terrorist attacks against Israelis are less about fulfilling the terms of signed peace agreements to foster an atmosphere of coexistence, and more about protecting current Palestinian interests.
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