THE Israeli attack on Jericho prison has probably won the election for acting Premier Ehud Olmert and the new Kadima party founded by Ariel Sharon. It has certainly inflicted further damage on moderate Palestinian opinion and given yet more ground to hard-liners, including those in Hamas, who reject any peace negotiations. The withdrawal of US and UK police from the prison hours before it was attacked has exposed the “honest broker” role they play on behalf of the Palestinians for what it is.
The destabilization and humiliation of the people in the occupied territories and their political leaders is wanted by virtually all Israeli politicians, regardless of party, because as long as the Palestinians can be kept buzzing with anger, there will be no stability, no calm and little mood for the real peace talks which Israelis dread. After all peace for Israel would mean loss of so much stolen land.
In pursuit of this cynical tactic, there seems little to which they will not stoop. The prime target of their raid was Ahmed Saadat and other leading members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Saadat is accused by the Israelis of organizing the murder four years ago of Israeli Cabinet Minister Rehavam Zeevi. Even last week the Israeli government announced that if it chose to, it would murder members of the newly elected Hamas government in response to any terror tactics, just as they have murdered Hamas leaders in the past, including Sheikh Yassin, the movement’s spiritual leader.
How would Israelis react if a Palestinian force with overwhelming firepower from the land and air were to move into Israel and seize those who killed Yassin and carry them back to Palestine to face trial? Israelis would certainly not shrug their shoulders and admit that such a move was after all fair. Instead they too would be buzzing like angry bees and vowing revenge.
The only good that may have come out of the Jericho raid is that the European Union, which was entertaining Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the time of the assault, has shown itself disgusted by the Israeli action. Abbas was forced to fly home and so failed to address EU legislators as scheduled. The pro-Israeli lobby in Europe will already be working to repair the damage done by this latest savage military operation. Unlike their colleagues in the United States, these cheerleaders for anything that Israel does now need new arguments. Europeans are increasingly angered by charges of anti-Semitism if they criticize anything to do with Israel. What is more, their common sense is outraged by insinuations that Palestinians are implacable terrorists, violent and venal and incapable of governing themselves. The EU with Russia could provide the international balance to US influence that has been wholly lacking and that encourages Israel to persist in its belief that assassination is extension of peace negotiations by other means.
