Security Concerns When Former 'Hitler Youth' Member Visits Israel
There have been a lot of 'Papal visits' around the globe over the last few decades. The trickiest one of all is about to happen.
ISRAEL: .. "THE Pope will be given unprecedented security when he arrives in Israel tomorrow because of fears that his brief enrolment in the Hitler Youth as a boy of 14 could trigger an assassination attempt by Jewish zealots. [...]
The Vatican insists that Joseph Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth only because it was compulsory and did not attend its meetings. He was drafted into an antiaircraft corps in 1943 and trained in the infantry, but deserted in the last months of the war.
“The fact that he was a member of the Hitler Youth and later served in the German army is more than enough for a lone gunman to try to kill him,” said a security source.
Security chiefs are concerned that a group of fanatical Israelis, such as those behind the murder of Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister, in 1995, could be planning an attack. “To penetrate this group of messianic Jews is more difficult than infiltrating Hamas,” said a Shin Bet source.
The arrest of some zealots as a preventive measure is being considered. About 60,000 policemen and 20,000 secret service agents will make up the visible security, codename Operation White Cloak.
Times Online
ISRAEL: .. "THE Pope will be given unprecedented security when he arrives in Israel tomorrow because of fears that his brief enrolment in the Hitler Youth as a boy of 14 could trigger an assassination attempt by Jewish zealots. [...]
The Vatican insists that Joseph Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth only because it was compulsory and did not attend its meetings. He was drafted into an antiaircraft corps in 1943 and trained in the infantry, but deserted in the last months of the war.
“The fact that he was a member of the Hitler Youth and later served in the German army is more than enough for a lone gunman to try to kill him,” said a security source.
Security chiefs are concerned that a group of fanatical Israelis, such as those behind the murder of Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister, in 1995, could be planning an attack. “To penetrate this group of messianic Jews is more difficult than infiltrating Hamas,” said a Shin Bet source.
The arrest of some zealots as a preventive measure is being considered. About 60,000 policemen and 20,000 secret service agents will make up the visible security, codename Operation White Cloak.
Times Online
