British Jews recently began an organized effort to prepare
for a possible outbreak of suicide terrorism, but those
involved decided to keep the effort under wraps to avoid
causing panic according to a report in the Israeli daily
Ha'aretz
Jewish activists and rabbis were to meet this week with the
Israeli group ZAKA -- the charedi Rescue and Recovery
voluntary organization -- to discuss Jewish law procedures
for evacuating the bodies of terrorist victims. ZAKA is
preparing a seminar to train volunteers to evacuate and
identify victims of terror attacks, based on lessons learned
in Israel.
The course begins in June and dozens of volunteers have
indicated an interest in registering for it. Experience
accumulated in Britain during incidents such as the 1988 Pan
Am Flight 103 disaster at Lockerbie will be reviewed.
But the Jewish community is not alone in believing it is just
a matter of time until a mass suicide attack reaches
Britain.
British security sources say Scotland Yard and intelligence
experts are worried that the suicide terrorist phenomenon
could soon arrive in Britain, and local security forces lack
the know-how or means to counter such a threat.
This assessment was reinforced several months ago when a
senior delegation from Scotland Yard visited Sri Lanka and
Israel to study how both countries deal with suicide
attacks.
The British visitors got an unequivocal message - suicide
bombings will increase in the coming years, and not just by
radical Islamic groups, but by militant secular organizations
seeking to spread terrorism.
According to a British source, "Suicide attacks are regarded
today in Britain and among other security services in Europe
as a general threat, because the concept of martyrdom could
also take hold among extreme Christian right-wing
organizations, and there are already some signs of this in
the United States. The concern is that Europe might be the
next target for these types of attack."
As reported in Ha'aretz, a week ago 20 pro-Palestinian
leftists tried to storm the Israeli embassy in London.
Embassy guards, reinforced by British police, repulsed these
protesters.
