A strategic choice
Dr. Nessia Shemer - Israel Hayom
Eliav Gelman, Tuvia Yanai Weissman -- more victims from more terrorist attacks. The terrorists were either captured or killed, but this is of no consolation to the bereaved families.

How is it even possible to prevent "lone wolf" attacks? When confronting organized terrorist groups, Israel has intelligence information, which gives it a variety of options when it comes to acting and reacting. But when dealing with spontaneous "lone wolf" terrorism, the defense establishment cannot anticipate where and when the next attack will take place or assemble a profile of the attackers.

This is the prevailing view on the Israeli side, but is it also how the Palestinians see things?

Last week, the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Center for Media published research conducted by Khaled Oudat Alla, a sociologist and an expert on the Israeli defense establishment and modern warfare who used to lecture at Birzeit University. In the research piece, titled "The Individual Attacks Are Making the Occupier's Security Forces Inept," Alla analyzes the unique characteristics of the current intifada.

According to him, this is an intifada of young Palestinians who no longer believe in the leaders of the Palestinian Authority or its ability to better their situation. They even believe the PA is cooperating with the enemy. Furthermore, these young Palestinians are concerned about "the occupier's" supposed violation of the status quo at Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

The distinctive feature of the current intifada, the Palestinian sociologist asserts, is that attacks are being carried out by individuals and not by organized groups. However, he says, these "shahids" (martyrs) did not appear out of thin air. Rather, they have emerged from a political environment, particularly student bodies supported by political organizations. Or in other words, terrorist groups. These terrorist groups have been encouraging young Palestinians in their villages, mosques and universities to carry out seemingly spontaneous attacks which are actually carefully planned.

Research conducted by Dr. Shaul Bartal, a lecturer on Palestinian affairs at Bar-Ilan University, reinforces this view. According to him, "lone wolf" attacks are a method used by terrorist groups who are aware of the Israel's defense establishment's ability to thwart organized terrorist activities.

Bartal's research, which included a thorough analysis of the terrorists involved in recent attacks, revealed an surprising figure -- 87% of the so-called "lone wolves" have carried out their attacks as part of an organizational activity.

To reinforce this, let's look at Alla's conclusion. "Zionist society is incapable of figuring out how deal with individuals. Its security forces know how to deal with organizations via barbaric actions including targeted assassinations and air strikes. The Zionists call individual attacks 'lone wolf actions.' Israeli security bodies are helpless against them and they have no clue that could lead them to the perpetrator of the next attack."