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8. Unit 1800: Targeting the Israeli Heartland
- Georgetown University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
208 IN THE EARLY TO MID-1990S, with the Oslo peace accords signed and Palestinian autonomy slowly growing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, opponents of peace funded, supported, and executed terrorist attacks to undermine the prospects for peace. Iran was especially active in promoting terrorism targeting Israel at this time. According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, “in February 1999, it was reported that Palestinian police had discovered documents that attest to the transfer of $35 million to Hamas from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), money reportedly meant to finance terrorist activities against Israeli targets.”1 Iran’s primary proxy group, however, has always been Hezbollah. It should therefore not be surprising that Hezbollah increased its support for Palestinian groups in the 1990s, investedinitsownterroristinfrastructureintheWestBank,andwenttogreatlengths to infiltrate operatives into Israel to collect intelligence and execute terror attacks. Hezbollah established a dedicated unit to pursue these goals—Unit 1800. While Israel occupied southern Lebanon, Hezbollah largely satisfied itself with targeting Israeli forces there or at the border. Carrying out attacks along the border with Lebanon in Israel’s far north was one thing, but to effectively undermine the peace process, Hezbollah leaders decided they needed to target key Israeli decision makers, symbolic sites, or ordinary Israeli civilians in downtown shopping districts. Hezbollah was out to hit the Israeli heartland. For its part, Iran sought to intensify and coordinate the terrorist operations of the various Palestinian groups it supported through its primary proxy, Hezbollah. According to a Palestinian intelligence document dated October 31, 2001, officials from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Hezbollah met in Damascus “in an attempt to increase the joint activity inside [i.e., in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza] with financial aid from Iran.” The meeting was held “after an Iranian message had been transferred to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaderships, according to which they must not allow a calming down [of the situation on the ground] at this period.” The Iranian funds, the report added, were to be transferred to these groups through Hezbollah.2 8 Unit 1800 Targeting the Israeli Heartland Unit 1800 209 From Iran’s perspective, only Hezbollah’s direct involvement would guarantee a truly successful terror campaign targeting Israel. According to US officials, shortly after Palestinian violence erupted in September 2000, Iran assigned Imad Mughniyeh to bolster the operational capacity of Palestinian militant groups, specifically Hamas and PIJ. According to a former Clinton administration official, “Mughniyeh got orders from Tehran to work with Hamas.”3 In fact, to carry out the March 27, 2002, “Passover massacre” suicide bombing, Hamas reportedly relied on the guidance of a Hezbollah expert to build an extra-potent bomb.4 Following the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in November 2004, Hezbollah was said to have received an additional $22 million from Iranian intelligence to support Palestinian terrorist groups and foment instability.5 This assignment surely struck a chord for Mughniyeh and his lieutenants, who already operated a program aimed at infiltrating operatives into Israel through third countries in order to collect intelligence, train local Palestinian groups, and execute spectacular terrorist attacks deep within Israeli territory. Beginning in 1995, a select group of operational leaders within Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) developed plans to penetrate Israel’s defenses, in the process tapping their extensive support networks abroad. Starting in the mid-1990s—unlike in his earlier operational activity in Europe, which focused on carrying out attacks there—Mughniyeh tasked his European networks with providing clandestine support for operatives who would use Europe as a launch pad for infiltrating operatives into Israel. An Israeli intelligence report assessed that “the most dangerous component in Mughniyeh ’s activity and the arena in which he excels is building a Hezbollah operational infrastructure abroad. This enables him to send more and more attackers from various arenas in the world, while exploiting the international system and its laws to implement these missions.”6 One of Mughniyeh’s key deputies within Unit 1800 would be Qais Obeid, an Israeli Arab and experienced drug smuggler whose intimate knowledge of Israel would prove invaluable for realizing Mughniyeh’s desire to take the fight into Israel ’s cities and towns.7 Mughniyeh was now well positioned to pair his own international operations expertise with Obeid’s extensive experience in the Palestinian and Israeli Arab communities in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Under Mughniyeh ’s command, Obeid would become Hezbollah’s point man for recruiting Palestinians and Israeli Arabs and...