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

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 001392 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA FOR BURNS/SATTERFIELD AND NEA/IPA 
EB FOR WAYNE 
NSC FOR ABRAMS/DANIN/KIFAYAT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2014 
TAGS: EFIN ECON PREL KPAL KWBG IS ISRAELI PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS COUNTERTERRORISM
SUBJECT: GOI INFO ON RAMALLAH BANK RAID 
 
REF: A. TEL AVIV 1325 
 
     ¶B. JERUSALEM 662 
 
Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Richard LeBaron for reasons 1.4 
(b) and (d). 
 
This message has been cleared by ConGen Jerusalem. 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  In separate meetings this week with Shin 
Bet liaison officers and the head of Israel's counter 
terrorist financing effort at the Israeli NSC and the Mossad, 
GOI officials provided some additional details on last week's 
raid on Palestinian banks.  The GOI officials rejected the 
criticism that the GOI had not attempted to use PA Finance 
Minister Fayyad as a conduit for handling terrorist financing 
issues.  (Note:  Fayyad told ConGen Economic Counselor that 
he has never been approached by the GOI with actionable 
terrorist financing information since reaching an agreement 
with the PM's Chief of Staff Dov Weissglas.  End note.)  They 
also defended the military operation to seize the funds as 
the only effective avenue remaining to them.  Despite these 
statements, the GOI officials appeared eager to find less 
controversial ways of preventing the use of Palestinian banks 
as vehicles for terrorist financing.  (Post Terrorism Finance 
Working Group is developing ideas on better ways to ensure 
effective Israeli/Palestinian engagement on terrorist finance 
cases. see septel.)  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (C) On March 2, Embassy econoff, Legatt, and FBI special 
agents met with Shin Bet liaison officers Arnon Vinceze and 
Ilan Kosanivich to discuss last week's raid on the banks in 
Ramallah.  Kosanivish began by giving the group a readout on 
the actions.  According to Kosanivish, the GOI had 
information on 45 "association accounts" related mostly to 
Hamas and information on 250 accounts linked to private 
persons.  Kosanivich said that each of these accounts could 
be traced to specific terrorist activity and that they would 
provide U.S. law enforcement with that information. 
Kosanivich claimed that they did not copy the banks' hard 
drives and other transaction information on these accounts. 
Kosanivich said that they gathered only the balance 
information from the accounts and then withdrew that amount 
from the banks' vaults.  They claimed that they took NIS 35 
million from "association accounts" and NIS 2.5 million from 
personal accounts.  Vinceze said that all of these accounts 
were funded by direct wire transfers from Jordan, and so 
there was no possibility for the GOI to freeze this money in 
Israeli correspondent banks.  In response to questions about 
why they had not sought to work with the PA on freezing these 
accounts, Kosanivich claimed that the GOI had approached 
Fayyad on two separate occasions regarding accounts connected 
to Hamas, but that Fayyad had not taken action.  (Note:  The 
Shin Bet officials did not suggest that the accounts they 
asked Fayyad to seize were among those affected in last 
week's raid, nor did they provide information as to when 
these inquiries were made.  End note.)  Legatt queried the 
officials as to why they decided to act in a way that 
appeared to affect the banks more than the account holders. 
Vinceze said that this would result in terrorists being less 
likely to use the banks as a means of transmitting funds and 
would instead opt for other channels that the Shin Bet is 
more confident in their ability to find and seize.  For 
example, Vinceze said the Shin Bet feels more confident in 
its ability to identify and take action against cash couriers 
than in stopping bank transfers. 
 
¶3.  (C) Udi Levi, the head of Israel's counter-terrorist 
financing effort at the Israeli NSC and the Mossad, told 
Embassy econoff on March 3 that the GOI is eager to work with 
the U.S. and the PA to find less destructive and 
controversial means of combating terrorist funds.  Levi was 
frustrated, however, by what he perceived as past 
unwillingness on the part of Fayyad and the PA to take action 
when given the opportunity.  Levi repeated the Shin Bet's 
assertion that the GOI had attempted to use Fayyad as a 
conduit for taking action on suspected terrorist accounts 
during the past year but had been unsuccessful.  Despite the 
past failures of these efforts, Levi said the GOI must 
explore ways to prevent future incidents like last week, but 
in a way that is still effective in combating the illicit 
flow of funds to Palestinian terrorists.  Levi said that GOI 
officials would meet with U.S. and PA officials to explore 
other options. 
 
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KURTZER