Yet another Israeli-Arab plot against Jews was revealed this morning, with the indictment of two Arab students on charges of conspiring to kidnap and murder IDF soldiers.
The two western Galilee residents were arrested on March 2, and were charged today in the Haifa Magistrates Court. The two - Hamad Hamdani, 23, and Ashraf Nizar Hassan, 23, from Yasif, just a few kilometers northeast of Akko (Acre) - attempted on three different occasions to abduct soldiers, but did not succeed for various reasons.
Both suspects are members of Israel's Islamic Movement, some of whose leaders are in jail awaiting trial on charges of funneling money to Hamas. The two acted independently, however, out of a desire to identify with the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and become martyrs.
On one occasion, they tracked a soldier who was driving alone on a one-way street, but he turned off and unknowingly "lost" them. On another occasion, in the coastal Galilee city of Nahariya, they stalked a soldier by foot, but he suddenly entered a building and their plan was thwarted.
Police sources say that incidents of Israeli-Arab terrorism are on the rise: Five cases were uncovered in 2002, seven in 2003, and three already in 2004.
Last month, for instance, Shabak agents arrested an eastern Jerusalem employee of the Red Crescent Society on charges of planning a suicide attack and serving as a contact between Hizbullah in southern Lebanon and Fatah. Several days before that, the discovery and break-up of an Israeli-Arab terror cell of members of Azmi Bshara's Balad political party was announced. In December 2003, a 17-year-old from the Israeli-Arab city of Taibe was indicted on five counts of making contact with an enemy and other terrorism charges. Last summer, four Israeli-Arabs in the service of Hamas were arrested while planning terrorist attacks in Israeli malls and other crowded areas.
In a crime that is still listed as merely a "criminal" attack, two Israeli-Arab teenagers from Lod brutally murdered their employer and benefactor Tzion Cohen, 59, last week.
It should be noted that the Israeli-Arab Monitoring Committee declared a day of mourning yesterday following the killing of terrorist leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Thousands of people took part in a mock funeral demonstration in Nazareth yesterday, wearing black ribbons, waving black flags, and calling for revenge.
The two western Galilee residents were arrested on March 2, and were charged today in the Haifa Magistrates Court. The two - Hamad Hamdani, 23, and Ashraf Nizar Hassan, 23, from Yasif, just a few kilometers northeast of Akko (Acre) - attempted on three different occasions to abduct soldiers, but did not succeed for various reasons.
Both suspects are members of Israel's Islamic Movement, some of whose leaders are in jail awaiting trial on charges of funneling money to Hamas. The two acted independently, however, out of a desire to identify with the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and become martyrs.
On one occasion, they tracked a soldier who was driving alone on a one-way street, but he turned off and unknowingly "lost" them. On another occasion, in the coastal Galilee city of Nahariya, they stalked a soldier by foot, but he suddenly entered a building and their plan was thwarted.
Police sources say that incidents of Israeli-Arab terrorism are on the rise: Five cases were uncovered in 2002, seven in 2003, and three already in 2004.
Last month, for instance, Shabak agents arrested an eastern Jerusalem employee of the Red Crescent Society on charges of planning a suicide attack and serving as a contact between Hizbullah in southern Lebanon and Fatah. Several days before that, the discovery and break-up of an Israeli-Arab terror cell of members of Azmi Bshara's Balad political party was announced. In December 2003, a 17-year-old from the Israeli-Arab city of Taibe was indicted on five counts of making contact with an enemy and other terrorism charges. Last summer, four Israeli-Arabs in the service of Hamas were arrested while planning terrorist attacks in Israeli malls and other crowded areas.
In a crime that is still listed as merely a "criminal" attack, two Israeli-Arab teenagers from Lod brutally murdered their employer and benefactor Tzion Cohen, 59, last week.
It should be noted that the Israeli-Arab Monitoring Committee declared a day of mourning yesterday following the killing of terrorist leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Thousands of people took part in a mock funeral demonstration in Nazareth yesterday, wearing black ribbons, waving black flags, and calling for revenge.