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Jericho Raid: To Get Saadat, Help Olmert or Curb Hamas?
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Palestinian "security men" were ordered out to strip by Israeli occupation forces. (Reuters).
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By
Khaled Mamdouh, Ahmed Fathi, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
March 15, 2006 – The timing of Israel's controversial raid on the
Jericho jail prompted analysts and observers to read it on the backdrop
of Israel's coming general election and Palestinians' choice of Hamas to
rule.
The
massive Israeli raid that took place just after US and UK monitors had
been withdrawn from the jail Tuesday, ended with the arrest of jailed
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Ahmed Saadat
and five other Palestinians.
"The
timing of this assault to coincide with the Israeli election campaign is
designed to promote the goals of Olmert and his Kadima Party in their
pursuit of right-wing votes," according to Nasser Aruri, chancellor
professor emeritus of political science at the University of
Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
Israeli
general election is to take place March 28, with the nascent Kadima
Party and Likud being frontrunners, and the issue of
"security" is typically taking center stage.
Palestinian
leaders' comments and reactions on the raid centered mostly on the issue
of Israeli elections being a pivotal factor behind carrying out the raid
now.
Winners
of Palestinian elections Hamas accused acting Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert's government of "trying to use Palestinian blood to win the
Israeli election."
Diaa
Rashwan, Expert at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and
Strategic Studies, also viewed the Israeli escalation in that light,
linking the Jericho raid to Israeli desire to achieve "internal and
external goals."
"Olmert
wanted to send a strong message to the Israeli public opinion to the
effect that he is capable of preserving the security of Israelis, in a
bid to groom the Israeli extremist rightists," Rashwan told IOL.
Escalation
by the Jewish state against the Palestinians has always been a landmark
of electoral campaigns. In the run-up to elections in 2000, Ariel Sharon
made his famous visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque, sparking the second Intifadah
that eventually secured him the post of prime minister.
Shimon
Perez, as acting prime minister in 1996 following the assassination of
his predecessor Issac Rabin, ordered the Qana bombing — known by
Palestinians as Qana massacre — in the run-up to elections. He,
however, lost that election.
US-UK
Collusion
The
Jericho raid raised huge question marks on the perceived British and US
collusion with the Israelis.
"The
storming of the Jericho prison and kidnapping of Ahmed Saadat and his
four colleagues by Israeli troops only 15 minutes after the withdrawal
of US and UK guards demonstrates Anglo-American collusion in this
illegal action," according to Aruri.
"It
also compounds the illegal treatment of these political prisoners held
in the Jericho prison under an extra-legal agreement imposed on the weak
PA by Israel, the UK and the United States."
US
and UK have officially unveiled a letter they sent on March 8, to the
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatening to withdraw their
monitors "unless security was improved."
"If
the Palestinian Authority would like the US and UK to continue their
involvement with the monitoring mission, conditions at the Jericho
prison must be brought into full compliance with the Jericho monitoring
arrangements," the letter, a copy of which was sent to IOL Tuesday,
March 14, read.
Dan
Chugg, from the Press Office of the US Foreign Office, denied
coordination with the Israelis on the timing of withdrawing the
monitors. Replying to a question from IOL on whether the PA was notified
of the exact timing of the withdrawal, Chugg said "no."
Hamas
Observers
and analysts further linked the Jericho raid to the declared stance —
by Israel, US and Europe — not to deal with Hamas unless the
resistance group agreed to explicitly recognize Israel, "denounce
violence" and disarm.
Hassan
Nafa'ah, teacher of political sciences at the Faculty of Economy and
Political Sciences, Cairo University, told IOL "the latest Israeli
escalation in the West Bank is due to Israel's desire to cut off Hamas
and prove the group's inability to preserve the security of
Palestinians, in a clear attempt to distort its image among Palestinians
and abroad."
Chugg,
however, denied Hamas was the target.
The
letter, sent by US and UK governments to Abbas, made a vague reference
to Hamas, without naming it.
"The
pending handover of governmental power to a political party that has
repeatedly called for the release of the Jericho detainees also calls
into question the political sustainability of the monitoring
mission."
An
EU diplomat, speaking to IOL on condition of anonymity, asserted the
timing of the raid was actually linked to both "helping Olmert and
curbing Hamas."
"At
a year of approaching elections in the United States (Congress and
Senate), no one in Washington thinks about putting any pressure on
Israel, and the UK is a close ally of the Bush administration," he
said.
"It
is also no secret that both the US and EU won't be happy to see [Likud
leader Benyamin] Netanyahu replace Sharon now. Olmert is the man both
can do business with.
"As
for Hamas, it is unthinkable for both Washington and London to soften
their strict approach towards a group they both brand as terrorist even
if that group is now a democratically elected party."
Nafa'ah
also believed that the Jericho raid was an Israeli message to the effect
that "whatever the Jewish state does in the Palestinian territories
is supported by the British and American governments and that both see
eye-to-eye as regards Israel's policies in Palestine."
Israel
detained Saadat and his five jail-mates and it now says it will hold
them "for a long time." The Palestinians vow the incident will
not pass unnoticed and the Jewish state will pay dearly. London has lost
a great deal of credibility among the Palestinians and is now viewed as
being as biased as Washington. What is the impact on the already boiling
situation in the Middle East? The coming days are sure to unveil the
answer.
(Adam
Wild Aba contributed to the story from Washington.)
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