Every person who lived in Jerusalem 20 years ago couldn't help but shudder at the news of the twin bombing attack in the capital on Wednesday.
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Decades ago, such explosions were almost a daily occurrence on buses or at cafes, and the emotional scars are still deeply engraved in the souls of those who experienced the events up close.
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It's not that Jerusalem hasn't had any attacks in the past 20 years, on the contrary, but none of them were as reminiscent of the past, not in the means, location or sights.
Since the beginning of the current terror wave, the security system has stuck to the explanation that the attacks were mostly perpetrated by lone terrorists, usually with problematic personal backgrounds of some kind, who woke up in the morning – many times having been "inspired" by previous incidents – and decided to step out and attack without warning. In these cases, the defense establishment's position regarding the difficulty in predicting those dangers is quite logical.
But Wednesday's twin attacks in Jerusalem were different. The preparation of the bombs required the production or obtaining of explosive material, the collection of early intelligence, coordination in placing the explosives at two different and distant bus stops, leaving the scene, and timing the activation of both charges at the same time. There is no doubt that this time, it was not a lone terrorist behind the attack, but an organized cell. The preparations must have taken months and should not have gone unnoticed by the Shin Bet security agency, which was silent in the aftermath of the attack.
It's possible that the agency knew that something was in the works. Just at the beginning of the week, there were reports of a burned vehicle on Palestinian territory near an IDF location in Judea and Samaria that had wires indicating remote activation inside and other elements suspected of being explosives.
The Shin Bet said that the incident was being investigated, but perhaps that investigation was not fast enough. Since Wednesday morning, the security establishment's main goal has been to locate where the explosives originated from and destroy that infrastructure. The second, just as important, goal is to locate and arrest those responsible for the attack and who aided them.
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