: Mideast Region Erupts Into All Out Warfare By Martin Mann
: Three of the four Israeli soldiers in civilian clothes and an
: unmarked car, who were stopped by Palestinian police in the
: Arab city of Ramallah on Oct. 12, were put to death by an
: irate crowd which assumed them to be members of an
: undercover Israeli assassination unit. Known as Sayaret
: Matkal, the killer squad has murdered dozens of suspected
: Islamic freedom fighters, intellectuals and activists in
: recent years.
: The other Israeli soldier has been reported

: "missing." "It's no wonder the anger of the
: Arab street exploded," says veteran UN correspondent
: Jean-Luc Bouchardon, who recently returned to New York
: after several weeks spent in the Middle East. "To
: Palestinians, an encounter with an unmarked car bearing
: four Israeli soldiers disguised as civilians means only one
: thing: Sayeret Matkal, the hated military hit squad."
: This special unit of the Israeli defense forces is almost
: unknown in the United States; its existence has never been
: officially recognized.
: But in Palestine, it is notorious for its lethal forays
: against suspected Arab militants, Middle Eastern diplomatic
: sources at UN headquarters have told The SPOTLIGHT.
: The Hebrew word sayeret means reconnaissance or commando
: forces, matkal is a designation suggesting that one
: contingent among these elite formations is assigned to
: performing "special tasks" under the command of
: the chief of staff of Israel's army.
: Those "special tasks" are assassination assignments,
: these sources have confirmed.
: They listed the noted Palestinian poet Ghassan Kanafani; Kamal
: Nasser, a longtime spokesman for the Palestine
: Liberation Organization; and Muham mad Najjar, a leading Arab
: activist, as among the best-known victims of Sayeret Matkal
: "termination" teams.
: "But these commando units were often sent out in teams of
: four, disguised as a civilians, to hunt and kill
: lower-ranking Palestinian militants and suspected freedom
: fighters in the streets," related Bouchardon.
: "They also do hits for the Mossad [Israel's secret
: service]."
: The operations officer in charge of Sayeret Matkal has been
: identified as Israeli Major General Avraham Arnan by
: knowledgeable diplomatic sources, who added that Israeli
: Prime Minister Ehud Barak, a retired (and lavishly
: decorated) general, himself served with a Sayeret Matkal
: unit as a young army officer. First published in The
: SPOTLIGHT

: In the wake of the anger generated by the shooting of over 100
: ordinary Palestinians, including children, D J Scheeweiss,
: press secretary at the Israeli Embassy in London had this
: to say: "Regrettably, there remain many Palestinians
: and their supporters who . . . seek to perpetuate the
: notion of Palestinian victimhood". Quoted by BBC
: online.
: Victimhood? Just remember that when you next hear calls for
: redress for the victims of the Holocaust.

: In The Times of October 17 Sam Kiley, in Ramallah, reported
: that Israeli snipers were using 22mm rifles equipped with
: silencers to "take out" ringleaders of the
: Palestinian uprising. Using hollow point ammunition they
: were aiming for the rioters chest and testicles. And as
: anyone experienced in the bloody art of war will tell you:
: silencers and 22mm firearms are the weapons of choice for
: assassins, whilst hollow point ammunition maximizes
: internal injuries. Just the sort of thing to be used on
: rioter's, especially if your claimed desire for justice is
: as hollow as your ammunition.

Have to agree with you about the Sayeret Matkal and the Israeli response. However it's rather complicated and not so one sided an issue. The PLO, Hamas, and others have used thier own "assassin squads", several times targeting schools and school buses. I think certain Palestinian leaders would see the deaths of Palestineans as a way to further thier political agendas. At the same time I think foreigners (including the U.S.) get involved when they shouldn't and just cause more trouble. One day both sides will live together peacefully (I pray this day comes sooner rather than later).