This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 001325 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
TREASURY FOR DAS ZARATE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/02/2014 
TAGS: PTER PREL KPAL IS COUNTERTERRORISM ISRAELI PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS ECONOMY AND FINANCE
SUBJECT: ISRAELI COUNTER-TERROR OFFICIAL DEFENDS RAMALLAH 
BANK RAIDS; EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER WESTERN UNION MONEY 
TRANSFERS 
 
REF: JERUSALEM 601 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
. 
 
¶1. (S) Summary:  NSC Counterterrorism Chief BG Danny Arditi 
expressed concern to the Ambassador March 1 about continuing 
support from Hizballah for Palestinian terror groups in the 
West Bank and Gaza Strip.  While the U.S. and Israel are 
making progress in combating financial flows from Saudi 
Arabia and Europe, he said, flows from Hizballah in the last 
two weeks alone amounted to close to $1 million.  According 
to Arditi and his staff, these funds are channeled primarily 
through the Arab Bank and Western Union.  Arditi defended the 
IDF operation the previous week that seized $9 million from 
310 bank accounts in Ramallah, although he took on board U.S. 
criticisms and made clear that this operation was "unique." 
End Summary. 
 
¶2. (S) In a March 1 meeting with Ambassador Kurtzer and 
poloff, NSC Counterterrorism Bureau Chief BG Danny Arditi 
expressed concern that Palestinian terror groups, 
particularly those in the West Bank, are receiving 
considerable support from Hizballah.  He opined that 
Hizballah is benefiting from the emerging sense of chaos in 
the Palestinian territories.  In addition, Hizballah has 
managed to exploit gaps in operational coverage between the 
IDF and security services in the West Bank and Gaza. 
According to Arditi, Hizballah channels its support through 
four main channels:  The Arab Bank, Western Union, smuggling 
across the northern border, and Israeli-Arab citizens whom it 
manages to recruit while on the Hajj or while studying or 
traveling abroad. 
 
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Strong U.S.-Israeli Cooperation 
On Combating Terror Finance 
------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) Arditi was accompanied in the meeting by advisors Guy 
Sella, who covers C/T technology issues and C/T cooperation 
with the United States; Amnon Zehavi, who covers all other 
international cooperation; and Udi Levi, who is responsible 
for financial aspects of terrorism, both at the NSC and for 
the Mossad.  Asked by Arditi to brief on GOI efforts to 
combat terror finance, Levi praised U.S.-Israeli cooperation 
on this issue, noting that, in his six years of working on 
terror finance, terror finance cooperation had been the best 
during the past 12 months.  Levi was particularly grateful 
for the efforts of Treasury DAS Juan Zarate on this front, 
including at the previous week's multilateral meeting on 
terror finance in Paris, at which, according to Levi, the GOI 
had shared a substantial amount of documentation about 
financial flows.  Levi predicted that the European approach 
would change as a result of these interventions.  Meanwhile, 
he said, the U.S. and Israel are also working closely to find 
a solution to financial flows from Saudi Arabia.  "We're on 
the right track," he said, forecasting "dramatic and 
strategic changes" in the coming months. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
But Problems with the Arab Bank; Western Union 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶4. (S) Arditi and Levi were less sanguine about dealing with 
terror finance channeled via the Arab Bank and Western Union. 
 Describing the scope of the problem, Levi said most, if not 
all, of Hizballah's transfers to the Territories in the past 
two weeks (which they claimed totaled close to $1 million) 
were made via Western Union.  None of this money, he said, 
was even ostensibly for charitable purposes.  He emphasized 
that the problem goes well beyond the Arab-Israeli context; 
al-Qaeda has also made use of the Arab Bank for financial 
transfers, as did Saddam Hussein.  Asked whether GOI 
representatives had been in touch with Western Union 
officials, Arditi responded that the GOI had not yet taken 
such a step, due to the sensitivities of dealing with a U.S. 
company on such a matter.  He appeared open to doing so under 
the right circumstances, however. 
 
------------------------------- 
Registering Strong Disagreement 
On the Ramallah Operation 
------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) In response to concerns expressed by the Ambassador 
over the previous week's IDF operation against five Ramallah 
branches of the Arab Bank and the Cairo-Amman Bank (reftel), 
Arditi argued that the ends justified the means, exclaiming 
that, "In the end, we found $9 million -- even we were 
surprised at the magnitude!  The very amount shows how 
important this operation was."  In this context, Levi 
asserted that the GOI could prove that every dollar 
confiscated from the 310 bank accounts had been related to 
terror.  Arditi and Levi also argued that PA Finance Minister 
Salam Fayyad's inaction when presented in two separate 
instances in the past with actionable information about Hamas 
funds justified the GOI raid on the Ramallah banks.  Arditi 
opined that the operation had been "inevitable," although he 
also noted that PM Sharon had postponed it "time and again" 
for reasons that were not specified. 
 
¶6. (S/NF) Ambassador Kurtzer made clear that the USG 
disagreed fundamentally with the GOI on this issue.  While 
making no excuse for the banks' involvement in transferring 
funds used to support terrorism, the Ambassador took issue 
with the means employed, emphasizing that it was not 
appropriate to drive APCs up to banks and forcibly seize 
cash.  He stated firmly that these tactics should not be used 
again.  He reminded his interlocutors that there were 
alternative means of blocking terrorists' access to illegal 
financial flows that were consistent with the rule of law. 
Indeed, a mechanism had been agreed in previous discussions 
between Sharon's Chief of Staff and Salam Fayyad; ORCA 
channels were available to convey specific information.  The 
Ambassador said that it was regrettable that the GOI had not 
taken advantage of these channels in this instance. 
 
¶7. (C) Noting that the PA does not accept that the GOI has 
the right to spend the seized money -- even on improving the 
Palestinian humanitarian situation -- Ambassador Kurtzer 
urged that the GOI should be in touch with Fayyad about how 
to return the money.  Arditi said that the GOI understood the 
negative impact of this kind of operation on Fayyad, but he 
also conceded, in response to the Ambassador's question, that 
perhaps the GOI had not fully appreciated the negative impact 
on the United States.  He opined that the GOI could return 
the money to Fayyad, but that it must first find a mechanism 
to ensure that it is not used to support terror. 
 
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