The army's policy of razing houses belonging to terrorists and their families continues to save Jewish lives. A Hevron Arab yesterday turned in his son, a Hamas member, to IDF forces. Kol Rina News Agency reports that the father told the Israelis that his son was planning a terrorist attack, but "I don't want my house demolished."

IDF forces razed the home of one of the Park Hotel Pesach Seder massacre organizers in Tul Karem last night. The police, with the strong backing of Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, have also recommended that the homes of the Jerusalem Gang members arrested this past week also be destroyed. These terrorists, permanent residents of Israel, murdered 35 Jews, including 5 Americans, in three separate attacks; carried out five other attacks including placing bombs on fuel trucks and train tracks; and were about to carry out another mass attack when they were arrested. No Israeli-Arab terrorist has yet had his home destroyed in the current war.

Yediot Acharonot military commentator Alex Fishman, writing about the ramifications of the capture of the Israeli-Arab terrorist cell, has this to say: "...[T]he time has come to open our eyes and admit: Most of the resident of eastern Jerusalem do not identify with the State of Israel, they do not feel part of it, but rather see themselves part of the Palestinian state [sic]. Therefore, so long as we don't take away their Israeli ID cards, there is no security value in building a separation fence around Jerusalem, since a considerable portion of them - some tens of thousands of residents in eastern Jerusalem - live outside the municipal boundaries of the city at all... This home-based terror is so dangerous that we need to create a deterrent immediately, even a brutal one, so that members of this cell will not become a model for other 'Israeli Arabs.'"

-- Anonymous, August 23, 2002