MIRACLE ON THE FRONT
By Moshe Schapiro

For the most part, the recent Israeli military offensive against
Palestinian terrorists has been a walkover. The two big exceptions
were the ferocious battles over Jenin and Shechem.

Israel's army finally gained the upper hand and captured both towns.
And, according to eyewitnesses among the Israeli troops, it happened
through a miracle.

For a while there it looked like the Palestinians in Jenin were going
to pull a Stalingrad. The terrorists - a term describing virtually
all of the refugee camp's 16,000 residents, including men, women and
children - wired explosives to every hovel in their densely populated
shanty town.

Snipers hid in cracks and crevices and waited for the Israeli troops
to crawl forward along the camp's narrow, winding alleyways and come
into range. Suicide bombers would burst out of doorways or even drop
down from rooftops and try to detonate the explosive charges strapped
to their body near the soldiers.

Women served as human shields for Palestinian gunmen, and children
wielding semi-automatic weapons joined the fray. The Israeli soldiers
who took part in this battle described it as a living nightmare.

he lowest point of the battle took place in the predawn hours of
Tuesday morning, when a company of Israeli soldiers walked into a
courtyard laden with concealed explosive charges. Following the
massive explosion, Palestinian snipers who had been lying in
concealment in adjacent rooftops rained down a hail of bullets on the
helpless soldiers below. The country went into mourning when it was
announced that 13 soldiers had been killed and dozens more wounded on
that terrible morning in Jenin.
And there did not seem to be an end to the battle in sight. The
Palestinians had a distinct advantage, and they knew it. All they had
to do was wait for the Israeli soldiers to approach-and then push the
button
again.

And then something inexplicable happened. On the following morning, a
news bulletin suddenly announced that the Palestinian terrorists
holed up in Jenin had given themselves up. Just like that. One minute
they are sitting snugly in their lairs, waiting anxiously for their
next kill, and the next, there they are, waving white flags, laying
down their weapons and lying face down on the floor with their arms
spread wide to either side.

What had happened?

ccording to a teacher in Yerushalayim's Bais Yaakov Seminary
(Chadash), it was the thunder that did it. She heard the following
story from her sister, who heard it from her brother-in-law, who is
serving in
Jenin:

We were devastated by the deaths of our thirteen buddies. Although
there was a sharp thirst for vengeance among the troops, our morale
was low. Frankly, we were filled with trepidation at the thought of
entering those infernal alleyways again and risk getting blown to
pieces by an explosive charge buried in the ground or concealed
behind a wall.

Aware of our state of mind, our commanders tried to intimidate the
terrorists to give themselves up by announcing over a bullhorn in
Arabic that unless they came out with their hands up, we would call
in an airstrike and a squadron of F-16s would swoop down from the sky
and reduce the camp-and everyone in it-to rubble.

The ruse seemed kind of ridiculous to us at the time. The terrorists
knew as well as we did that we would not call in the air force and
risk killing 'innocent' civilians. It was, frankly, kind of
embarrasing to even have to go through this whole show. Everyone knew
it had no hope of working.

A few minutes later, we were making some final preparations before we
mounted another attack against the camp when suddenly an
ear-shattering explosion went off seemingly right over our heads. All
of us
instinctively hit the dirt and braced ourselves for the shock waves
that always follow the detonation of an explosive charge.

But there were none. I looked up just in time to see another flash in
the sky before the next boom cracked through the valley. It was just
thunder. I heard someone near me laugh out loud. We picked ourselves
up and shamefacedly looked down at our mud-covered clothes. Talk
about nerves on edge.

The next thing I knew, I heard people screaming  in Arabic inside the
camp. We looked on with amazement as dozens of bedraggled fighters
crawled out of their hiding places with their arms raised  high in
the air. At first we thought it was another one of their dirty
tricks-pretend they're giving themselves up, and then blow themselves
up on us when they got within range.

But no, it was for real. Our Bedouin tracker yelled at them to lift
up their shirts to see if they had anything strapped to their bodies.
They didn 't. Then he told them to lie face down in the mud and not
to move a finger. And they did. Something didn't make sense. We were
still suspecting a trick.

[b]As I blindfolded and handcuffed one of the terrorists, I asked him in
Hebrew, 'Why did you give up?'

'It was those F-16s dropping their bombs,' he answered. 'You can't
fight against a plane.'

It was a real miracle. I never thought I would see something like
that in this day and age.[/b]

Thanks for that, [b]satcong[/b], it was a very wonderful article.

[b]See, I told you guys, and I told you guys, these folks have friends in high places![/b]

Very high places![:D]

Eric The(TheHighestPlaces,InFact!)Hun[>]:)]

HA HA!

[img]http://www.angelfire.com/yt/scully2/images/nel8.jpg[/img]

Shok

satcong-

good read thanks.

Back to the 'front' for this article!

Sorry - I can't help myself!

Eric The(JohnnyOneNote)Hun[>]:)]

Rah, rah, sis boom bah! [:P]

You're funny!

Thanks, [b]DaMan[/b], we all think you are hilarious, as well!

I [u]try[/u] to be funny.

Do you try to be hilarious? Or does it just come naturally? [:P]

Eric The(Yuck,Yuck)Hun[>]:)]