Today’s Top Stories
1. Israeli media reports, Samir Kuntar was assassinated because of a major terror attack he was planning, not revenge for previous dirty deeds. According to YNet, Israel viewed Kuntar as a “ticking bomb,” and even Hezbollah viewed him as dangerous freelancer, keeping the arch-terrorist at arm’s length.
Western sources believe Kuntar was in the final stages of planning and carrying out another attack against Israel, which senior Hezbollah officials apparently did not know about. These sources believe that Hezbollah viewed Kuntar as a symbol of Israel’s humiliation because of the circumstances of his release from prison in 2008 and hence did not reject him, even when his operations in 2013 and 2014 were unsuccessful.
Recently, Hezbollah officials began to reject his independent activities that were not to their liking. They feared Kuntar would get them involved in a confrontation with Israel by carrying out an attack in the Golan Heights. A successful attack and Israeli intervention would hurt the interests of the Syrian regime, those of Hezbollah, and of course Iran’s strategic interests.
More on the Kuntar fallout below.
Israeli Min Steinitz on Samir Kuntar killing: "Maybe Finland's intelligence services did it, I dunno." #haha https://t.co/C7zdp4fULP
— Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) December 20, 2015
2. In secret recordings, former Argentine foreign minister Hector Timerman says Iran was indeed behind AMIA attack
The admission was captured on secretly-recorded telephone conversations which were released on Friday by the Argentinean radio station Mitre.
In the leaked recordings of conversations with leaders of the Argentine Jewish community, Timerman, who is Jewish, defends the efforts made by the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner saying that the only goal is to solve the AMIA case. Timmerman justifies the negotiations with Iran to jointly investigate the attack saying: “Eighteen years ago they planted the bomb.”
3. David’s Sling, an Israeli medium-range missile interceptor system, passed its final tests and was declared operational.
The David’s Sling System is the middle tier of Israel’s multi-layer defense layer. The lowest layer is the Iron Dome system, capable of intercepting short-range missiles. David’s Sling is intended to engage missiles with a range of 70-250 kilometers; and the Arrow-2 (operational) and Arrow-3 (under development) are intended to engage long-range missiles.
https://t.co/2ZsXPClizw Israel completes trial of David's Sling which can destroy missiles over enemy territory
— Ben (@benusa567) December 21, 2015
Israel and the Mideast
• On the heels of the Kuntar assassination, Israel was hit by three rockets fired from southern Lebanon last night. The rockets landed in open areas causing no damage. Israel fired artillery rounds at Lebanese targets in retaliation. According to Lebanese reports, picked up by the Jerusalem Post, the rockets were fired by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
• Nice background at Haaretz:
Who was Samir Kuntar and why exactly did Israelis despise him so?
• Free Syrian Army rebels claimed responsibility for assassinating Samir Kuntar. The Times of Israel picked up on coverage from the Lebanese site, Naharnet.
There was no way to verify the claims of the FSA, which does not have air power of its own. Rebel groups often take responsibility for actions of others to score public relations victories.
• Israeli security forces uncovered a terror cell of Arab Israelis in eastern Jerusalem.
• Greek parliament to recognize Palestine.
Commentary/Analysis
• Could Russia have prevented the assassination of Samir Kuntar?
In the case of Syria, there are elements at work trying to establish themselves in the power arena – the Syrian government, Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. And Iran is angry with Russia for this very reason.
Israel is engaging in tactical cooperation with Russia, to coordinate certain kinds of actions, as a way of preventing unintentional military mishaps. But Israel most certainly would not inform Russia of targets it intends to hit. And Israel certainly would make clear to Russia that it has its own interests that it will not relinquish. Its message to Russia is, ‘If we want to hit a target, nobody can or will prevent us from doing it.’
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Yoav Limor: Bracing for Hezbollah’s next move
– Shimon Shapira: Hizbullah’s Golan Heights front loses its leader
– Sarah Tuttle-Singer: Take a deep breath before you hear the story of Samir Kuntar
– Eyal Zisser: Israel and Turkey: The risks and the rewards
– Keith Johnson: A gas-powered rapprochement between Turkey and Israel
– Robert Swift: What is Iran up to?
– Ephraim Asculai: The death knell of the non-proliferation regime?
Image of Kuntar CC-BY-SA Mardetanha;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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