It’s amazing – the moment the Israeli military was about to attack a Jericho prison in Palestine territory, the British and American international monitors of the area suddenly disappeared in a timely fashion. They claimed they had to leave because the Palestinians did not implement improved security measures, when in fact they, the Anglo-Americans, WERE supposed to be the security measures.
One cannot help feeling that the British-American security team were in the know about the sinister intention of their Israeli friends.
The Israelis claimed the raid was to ensure Ahmed Saadat, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was held in the Jericho prison, would not be released by the Palestinian Authority. They fired tank shells, rockets, missiles and whatnot at the prison, and then tore it down with bulldozers. In the process they killed 2 Palestinian officers and wounded some 26 others, with 5 seriously injured.
Such aggression, such use of military power, such champions - all for one prisoner who was already under lock and key in a prison where there were international monitors.
The true aim was of course to shore up the prospects of Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party in the coming Israeli election – just a case of who’s more rightwing than Benjamin Netanhayu’s Likud Party. Even the Israeli opposition applauded Olmert's action. Bravo! Tough luck if innocent Palestinians had been killed or injured in the process.
Then the secondary aim of the attack would be to deliberately rile and hopefully provoke the new Hamas government into retaliatory action so that the new Palestinain government would be discredited if it responds to Israeli arrogant aggression on a Palestinian institution.
Right now, Europe provides the biggest chunk of financial support to the Hamas government. Israel hopes that Europe would be appalled by any Hamas violence [Israeli violence is OK], and thus cut off the funding.
The Europeans have condemned the Israeli raids but you may bet that’s about as far as any action against Israel's international crime will be.
The Palestinians realise that neither the Europeans or worse, the Americans, will ever do anything against Israel. If Israel has not shown enough by now, in this criminal act, that it is nothing more than a terrorist state, I am not sure what else is needed to convince the West of her arrogant criminal wilfulness.
All of these various alterior motives... Did it even occur to you that maybe Israel simply wanted to bring a murderer to Justice.
ReplyDeleteAhmed Saadat was responsible for the assasination of elderly (75 years old) Israel minister of tourism, Rahamim Zeevi in October of 2001.
Both Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas and the Hamas leadership had already declared they would soon release Ahmed Saadat. This was in violation of an agreement made between the PA and Israel in 2002.
It's the timing of the Israeli election and that Kadima had been slipping in its rating vis-a-vis the more hardline Likud, apart from the fact that Saadat was still safely in prison despite all the Israeli assertions. When I mentioned that the Israeli opposition supported the attack, I should have mentioned they were the usual rightwing mob, because today other Israeli parties in the opposition had accused Olmert of launching "the biggest Kadima political campaign", referring to the unwarranted act of criminal aggression.
ReplyDeletesomething tells me you aren't Tibetan, Congolese or Mexican ;-)
ReplyDelete