WORRISOME DISCLOSURE

Israelis targeted in Toronto

TheStar.com

Newspaper claims Hezbollah monitored El Al crews on layover at Sheraton Centre

September 05, 2008
Oakland Ross
Middle East Bureau

JERUSALEM–Crew members for Israel's main air carrier are now on high alert while overnighting in Toronto after "terror cells" began monitoring their activities there, according to a front-page report in yesterday's edition of Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper.

The unattributed account could not be independently confirmed, but it appeared to emanate from Shin Beit, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.

"Suspected terrorists" were recently detected observing El Al crew members staying at the Sheraton Centre Toronto, according to the newspaper.

The Sheraton is one of various hotels used for overnight stays by El Al personnel operating the airline's daily direct flights between Toronto and Tel Aviv.

A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs in Ottawa said she did not immediately have information available to comment on the Israeli report. CSIS spokesperson Manon Berube declined to comment, saying the agency does not confirm or deny any specific threats.

Israel's leading international airline, El Al, is renowned for its safety record in the air, but its personnel are more vulnerable on the ground, said Efraim Inbar, head of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.

"The crew, of course, are a much softer target," he told the Toronto Star yesterday. "They go to a hotel. They go out to dinner."

Inbar said Hezbollah might choose Canada as a site for launching a reprisal attack against Israelis.

"Canada is an easy country to get into," he said. "Canada is a possibility, but I think there are easier targets in Latin America."

The report is the latest in a recent series of warnings about new dangers faced by Israelis abroad, amid mounting fears the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is preparing to carry out attacks on soft Israeli targets in retaliation for the assassination of one of its top leaders.

Hezbollah blames Israel for the death of Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed when his car blew up in Damascus this past February. Israel denies any role in the assassination.

Since Mughniyeh's death, however, Israel's embassies and consulates abroad have been instructed to adopt more stringent security measures, while Israeli businesspeople have been warned to take extra precautions while travelling outside the country. Recent Israeli concerns about possible retaliation by Hezbollah have been mostly focused on Third World countries, especially those with substantial Jewish communities.

Still fiercely opposed to Israel, Hezbollah was founded specifically to combat Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and finally forced the Israelis to withdraw in May 2000.

Two summers ago, Hezbollah's paramilitary forces fought Israel to what many regard as a standstill, following a month of fierce fighting in a conflict known to Israelis as the Second Lebanon War and to Lebanese as the July War.

Hezbollah is now a major force in Lebanon's fragile government.

Established in 1948, El Al has suffered only one successful hijacking – a 1968 incident in which all passengers were eventually freed – but it has been targeted by extremist groups in recent years.

Two people were killed in July 2002 by a gunman who opened fire on El Al passengers at the Los Angeles International Airport.

A year later, an El Al plane en route from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles via Toronto was diverted to Montreal owing to what was said to be a serious security threat in Toronto.