Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
IRAN has promised a reward of $10,000 (�5,600) to Islamic Jihad if the militant group launches rockets from the West Bank towards Tel Aviv, a senior Palestinian intelligence official said last week.
Speaking in his Ramallah office, the official produced a fat wad of $100 notes which he said had been confiscated from a pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad activist.
The money was said to have gone from Iran to Damascus, the Syrian capital, from where Ibrahim Shehadeh, Islamic Jihad’s head of overseas operations, transferred it to the West Bank.
So far, so good, although seeing anything pro-active from the PA in fighting rocket attacks is pretty rare. Then the article strays into things that are much harder to believe...
According to the intelligence official, the Palestinian Authority has located workshops where “Al-Quds” (Jerusalem) rockets are being made and has given their co-ordinates to the Israelis. “We understand they destroyed some of them,” he said.
So the PA knows where some of these "workshops" are and rather than go and blow them up themselves, they tell Israel to do it? In territory they consider theirs? This is stretching credibility quite a bit now.
Especially since the PA never hesitates to condemn Israel every time there is an airstrike against rockets and terrorists.
Israeli intelligence officials said that Iran was threatening the country on three fronts: through long-range missiles based in Lebanon; through terrorist networks around the world; and through the new arsenals of the West Bank.
Islamic Jihad is the only Palestinian group that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. Based in Damascus, it has an annual budget of several million dollars — provided by Iran. Ramadan Shalah, its leader, has a PhD in economics from Durham University. The organisation’s military arm is the “Al-Quds Brigades”.
OK, now we are in lefty fantasy land. Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah Al Aqsa, and the many splinter groups all of a sudden no longer call for the destruction of Israel?
Fact checking at the Times seems to be nonexistent.