Avi Melamed’s Insight about the Lion’s Den terror group were quoted by James Shotter, the Jerusalem correspondent for the Financial Times.

Read the article in the Financial Times by James Shotter – November 23, 2022

Avi Melamed in the Financial Times: “The most significant factor in the story of Lions’ Den is that it meets the Palestinian need for something new..”

(…) “People . . . feel there’s no hope for a solution,” said Bassel Kittaneh, a community activist from Nablus who was jailed in 2003 for affiliation to Hamas’s military wing. “So when they find a group of guys like this, they will support them.”

Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official, said the fact the Lions’ Den was not affiliated with any existing faction was also part of its appeal. “The most significant factor in the story of Lions’ Den is that it meets the Palestinian need for something new,” he said.

Over recent weeks, however, the group has been steadily weakened. Two days before the October raid, another of its leaders was killed by an explosive device hidden on a motorbike that detonated as he walked past. Others have handed themselves over to the Palestinian security services.

But analysts say that even if the Lions’ Den is dismantled, it is unlikely to change the broader patterns of conflict in the West Bank. “It’s a matter of time before we see a new Lion’s Den or another group somewhere else,” said Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University. “And the main problem is that the PA has a very limited impact on these organizations.” (…)

Full article here >>   Upsurge in violence heightens anxiety over stability of West Bank

Insights of Avi Melamed originally quoted in the Financial Times – November 23 – 2022 article by By James Shotter, the Jerusalem Correspondent for the FT. He was previously central Europe correspondent, was posted to Frankfurt covering German finance, and before that to Zurich as Switzerland and Austria correspondent. He joined the FT as a leader writer in 2010.

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