To catch a terrorist: 7 things to know for December 10

1. Fight for baby’s life after terror attack: A shooting attack on a bus stop outside the settlement of Ofra north of Jerusalem has refocused attention on the West Bank, after a period of relative quiet when most tensions were centered on Gaza and the northern border.

• Seven civilians were injured in the shooting attack, including a pregnant woman in her 30th week who was rushed to a Jerusalem hospital in serious condition. Doctors managed to deliver the baby, but while the woman’s condition has improved by Monday morning, doctors are still fighting to save the infant boy.
• Doctors at Shaare Zedek hospital say the woman was shot in the stomach, but the bigger issue is blood loss, according to Dr. Alon Schwartz, a surgeon there.
• “A pregnant woman who loses so much blood cannot provide the oxygen needed for the baby in her stomach,” Schwartz tells Army Radio. “This was apparently the harm to the baby that we discovered.”
• The doctors’ initial success in saving the baby is hailed by tabloid Yedioth Ahronoth as a “minor Hanukkah miracle.”

2. West Bank search: The Walla news site reports that an army patrol nearby shot at the suspects as they fled the scene after the drive-by, to no avail, leading to yet another manhunt in the West Bank.

• Arabic reports pointed to Israeli troops raiding the nearby village of Silwad, though the army only confirms that it’s carrying out searches in “nearby villages,” publishing a video of troops going into Palestinian homes.

• Arabic reports also point to low-level clashes with troops in Nablus, seemingly part of the same operation.
• There all also tweets that claim to show a picture of the car used in the shooting attack, abandoned in what looks to be a Palestinian town, without providing details. The car looks to have an Israeli license plate and not a Palestinian one.

• A video widely shared by Hebrew media shows what appears to be the same car carrying out the attack, followed closely by a yellow Palestinian taxi (Israeli taxis are white) that authorities suspect may have been used a getaway vehicle or connected in some other way to the attack.

Footage of shooting outside Ofra that injured 6, including a pregnant woman pic.twitter.com/8UUGdFvTha

— Jacob Magid (@JacobMagid) December 9, 2018

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3. Another manhunt: The search is the second ongoing in the West Bank, with the killer in an attack at the Barkan industrial zone two months ago — the last major attack in the West Bank — also still on the lam.

• Walla’s Amir Bohbot says there is nothing concrete to connect the two, “but they point to a downward trend in the West Bank and a period of decline in the feeling of security among residents on the area. Once a terrorist is able to escape armed and is not caught for more than 60 days, it inspires others.”
• On Monday morning, the Jewish Home party was attempting to squeeze some lemonade out of the attack, using it to push for increased settlement building as a response to terror.

4. Peace plan to increase tensions? Bohbot indicated that the Palestinian street is boiling beneath the surface, with only the Palestinian leadership keeping a lid on things — and the release of the US peace plan, whenever it may come, possibly leading to an outbreak of violence.

• In al-Monitor, though, Yossi Beilin writes that Palestinian public opinion is actually more moderate than the leadership, which is also the case in the US and Israel, citing a recent Washington institute survey.
• “The Palestinian public is far from insisting on the positions of its leaders, and would back an American plan that would force the two sides to make significant concessions on what have been previously presented as the Palestinians’ red lines,” he writes.

5. Lebanese warning: On the northern border, the army is cautioning residents of Lebanese towns on the border that it can’t guarantee their safety as it continues its campaign to find and destroy Hezbollah tunnels running under the border, warning of explosions that can affect homes across the Blue Line.

• IDF Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee told residents of Kfar Kila and Ramya in a series of tweets that the army did not know how their homes would be impacted by the demolition of the underground passages running beneath their towns, but suggested they leave the area until after the ongoing military operation.
• “Hezbollah put an explosive barrel under your homes,” IDF Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee posts on Twitter. “We do not know what the consequences of the operations will be for the homes on the Lebanese side.”
  The comments appear to be part of a wider overall strategy to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and Lebanon.
• Giving a rare interview to pan-Arabic daily A-sharq Al Aswat, Adraee’s boss IDF Ronen Manelis tries to convince the Lebanese to quit supporting Hezbollah, and warns of the consequences of war.
• “The response will target the southern Beirut suburbs of ‘Dahieh,’ a Hezbollah stronghold that was also targeted by Israel during the last war it waged against the party in July 2006,” the paper reports. “Other areas will also be within Israel’s range, he warned, holding Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, Army Commander Joseph Aoun and other leaders responsible for Hezbollah’s actions because they are ‘being deceived by the party.’”
• “[Iranian IRGC commander Qassem] Soleimani is living comfortably in Tehran and [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah is in Beirut. They are holding Lebanon and the Lebanese hostage, while the Lebanese leadership is turning a blind eye,” Manelis is quoted saying.
• Haaretz’s Amos Harel writes that the IDF is attempting to leverage the tunnels for every bit of public relations it can, as well as for support for completion of its border wall with Lebanon, which is only partially funded and also under dispute.
• “The IDF has prepared an intelligence file on every tunnel, which includes data ‘incriminating’ Hezbollah in violating the UN resolution. Israel will try to use the violations by Hezbollah as justification for continuing the work on building the wall, which so far have been conducted at a slow pace in disputed areas, partly out of a fear of a harsh response by Hezbollah,” he writes.

6. Nothing to see here: Tensions in the north also briefly spiked Sunday night with reports of an attack near the Damascus airport by “hostile” forces, widely assumed at first to be Israel.

• By Monday morning, the Syrian army had retracted its earlier report, with a military source quoted by state media SANA saying “there was no attack on the airport and the air traffic is normal,” Reuters reports.
• Nonetheless, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and area residents did report explosions in the area Sunday night, adding to the mystery.

7. Deputy mayor fight in Haifa: Haifa Mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem is pushing ahead with appointing as her deputy Joint (Arab) List council member Raja Za’atara, a member of the Communist Party of Israel, which has been criticized by many in recent years for supporting Bashar Assad’s regime and its allies in the Syrian civil war.

• Za’atara is also being slammed for past statements he has made in apparent support of Hezbollah and Hamas, with pressure from Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being brought to bear on Kalisch-Rotem against the move.
• Amnon Lord in pro-Netanyahu Israel Hayom asks whether anyone really knows who neophyte politician Kalisch-Rotem is, and accuses the Labor Party, apparently made up of “elites,” of becoming an incubator of anti-Zionist ideals.
• “The elite class is no longer beholden to the national interest, but only to the interests of its group. Haifa shows that Israel is already stuck in the same trap as Western democracies, which prefer to devote themselves to totalitarianism and violence rather than support the national society,” he writes.
• Defending the right of the mayor to appoint Za’atara deputy, Haaretz’s lead editorial accuses Netanyahu, Deri and most of Israel of employing democracy as a cudgel to trample minorities.
• “Za’atara is a legitimate representative, even if his views displease the interior minister. His appointment as deputy mayor is important for Haifa; it is a harbinger of integration and a shared life in Israel’s most tolerant mixed city,” the editorial reads.