Terrorism Can Be Defeated, But Israel Can’t Cede Crucial Territory

When Hamas began carrying out suicide bombings in the 1990s, Israeli security forces confronted what was then a relatively new tactic. The Shin Bet soon focused its attention on Yahya Ayyash, Hamas’s chief bomb maker, who had been involved in planning most of the attacks. Avi Dichter, then head of the Shin Bet’s southern division, directed the operation that culminated in Ayyash’s assassination; it involved locating the terrorist in Gaza’s refugee camps, infiltrating his inner circle, and then placing a miniature bomb into his cell phone. Reporting on a recent interview with Dichter, now a member of the Knesset, Yaakov Katz writes: