Israel News Digest

DAVID DOLAN, Christian Friends of Israel
September, 2001

"I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness. I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you." (Isaiah 42:6)

PALESTINIAN ATTACKS MOVE MIDEAST BACK TO THE BRINK

Israeli and international attempts to persuade Yasser Arafat to keep his June commitment to arrest around 100 known Islamic terrorists bore no fruit during August. Instead, major suicide assaults were launched in Jerusalem and Haifa, resulting in the deaths of 15 civilians - four of them children, three teenage girls and a pregnant woman - and the wounding of over 150 others, several critically. The attacks provoked world condemnation of Arafat's failure to curb such atrocities, but also the usual rebukes against the Jewish State for being unwilling to just roll over and play dead in the face of such horrendous assaults. Adding bold insult to severe injury, two PLO members later took part in a daring overnight raid on an Israeli army base in the Gaza Strip, leaving three soldiers dead and seven wounded.

The veteran Palestinian leader responded to the terrorist atrocities by demanding, and getting, emergency United Nations and Arab League meetings during the month. They were designed to put additional pressure on the Israeli government to accept some sort of international force to be stationed between Israeli-held territory and Palestinian self-government zones. The proposed force is not intended to protect innocent Israeli children and adults being shot dead while driving on roads, or slaughtered or maimed by suicide bombers while eating in restaurants, or standing outside shops or nightclubs. Instead, world troops would guard the very areas and people from which the Palestinian attackers originate. To his credit, US President George Bush ordered his UN ambassador to veto the Palestinian resolution, effectively killing it, at least for now.

Coming on the heels of the massive explosion that took 21 young lives in Tel Aviv on June 1, Arafat had pledged in writing to curb Islamic terrorist bombings as part of the ceasefire pact ironed out by visiting American CIA chief, George Tenet. According to the agreement, which was also signed by Israel, the Mitchell Committee recommendations for ending the violent Palestinian "Al Aksa uprising" and returning to the peace table, would only be implemented once escalating terrorist assaults come to an end. Israel would give Arafat a list of known Hamas and Islamic Jihad attackers, and the Palestinian leader would see to it that they were put behind bars. Israel sent such a list to Arafat in early July. On it was Abdullah Barghouti; the man who officials say was behind the August 9 massacre in the heart of Jerusalem. Of course, Palestinian security forces did not arrest him either before or after the attack, nor any of the other named extremists.

STILL DREAMING

It was precisely the PLO leader's quite appropriate fear of Hamas and Islamic Jihad's growing power and widespread influence, that led him to reject former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak's far-reaching final status peace proposals at Camp David in July, 2000, and revert to the well-oiled warpath. These Muslim groups, and others like them, have only gained additional credibility and public backing during the violent "holy war" that began last September-a fact reflected in recent Palestinian opinion polls. The fanatics are financially and logistically supported by several regional countries, meaning they will always be able to recruit and train new "martyrs" for their jihad battle to destroy the detested "Zionist entity." Most importantly, they will forever pose a deadly threat to any Palestinian leader who would dare to seriously stand in their way. After all, they are terrorist organizations who specialize in wiping out anyone who opposes their holy war agendas. Of all people, Arafat understands what that means, having cut his teeth in the international terrorist arena.

With these facts in mind, the veteran Palestinian leader has never tried very hard to crack down on Muslim militants. Instead, he predictably played to the many in his overwhelmingly Islamic population who could never accept a Jewish State in the heart of the Arab-Muslim Middle East.

That Arafat would focus on currying favor with Muslim fundamentalists, despite his Oslo commitments, was already clear in 1994 when he told an international Islamic audience in South Africa that "jihad for the liberation of Jerusalem will continue until our Palestinian flag flies over every inch of our holy city." He confirmed this path in 1996 when he hailed the Hamas and Islamic Jihad suicide terrorists who carried out attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as "heroic martyrs for our cause." This pro-Islamic-extremist position was reiterated later that year when Israel opened a tourist tunnel along the excavated northwestern wall of the Temple Mount. Realizing that it hardly harmed Palestinian interests, Arafat nonetheless stroked Muslim passions and fears by accusing Israel of further attempts to "Judaize our capital city" and of plotting to dig underneath the mount from the newly opened tunnel in order to cause its mosques to collapse! His incendiary comments helped stir up a week of rioting that left many Palestinian and Israelis either dead or wounded.

HEART OF THE MATTER

The August 9 attack at the always-crowded downtown corner of Jaffa Road and King George Street was particularly cruel in that it targeted a well known, popular family restaurant at lunchtime. It was bound to take the lives of children, their mothers and fathers, the elderly, other ordinary Israelis and even a few tourists, which it did.

The suicide blast wiped out half of the Schijveschurder family that had immigrated to Israel from Holland. Among the dead were both adult parents, their 14-year-old teenage daughter, a 4-year-old son and a 2-year-old girl. Stirring pictures of an older surviving brother trying to comfort his orphaned 10-year-old sister after they had just visited another 8-year-old sister at a local hospital-the only family member eating in the pizzeria to survive the carnage-will not quickly be forgotten by most Israelis. All joined in their anguished grief over the senseless slaughter. The nationally televised testimony of their grandmother, who survived several Nazi concentration camps in the early 1940's only to see her offspring perish decades later in a horrendous blast in the center of Judaism's holiest city, will remain etched in many minds as well.

Another small family was deeply affected by the suicide blast. A 39-year-old mother from Jerusalem and her 8-year-old daughter, recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union, were both killed in the attack. A Jewish boy, just 10, and a 62-year-old mother and grandmother also perished in the explosion.

Possibly the most moving accounts of the terrible attack came from the staff of the Sbarro Italian restaurant, where 23-year-old Izzadin Masri strategically blew himself to bits and pieces for the sake of Allah and Palestine. Employees related that the always-busy fast food outlet had a staff of nine Jews and nine Arabs before the powerful blast took the life of 19-year-old Jewish waitress and cashier Tehila Maoz. The surviving staff, some recovering from their wounds and all unemployed since their pizzeria was totally destroyed, testified that they had worked well together despite the ongoing crisis between their two peoples. Most said they especially liked the friendly Maoz, who had just traded cash registers with an Arab employee, sealing her fate since it placed her closer to Masri and his insidious hidden bomb.

The Israeli public was sickened to see Arafat's television stations showing thousands of local and regional Arabs dancing in glee over the Jerusalem slaughter. Feelings of revulsion were only compounded when the stations later broadcast interviews with Masri's family, praising him for joining the growing list of "holy martyrs" who have taken innocent lives, as well as their own.

MORE THAN STATISTICS

Another fatality was a well-liked 15-year-old girl who held duo Israeli and Australian citizenship (her mother was originally from the United States). Malka Roth, an accomplished violinist, died next to her best friend, Michal Raziel, a native of Jerusalem who helped care for her young mentally handicapped sister. The two 15-year-old teens had been nearly inseparable since Roth emigrated with her family from Melbourne in 1988. On their way to a youth meeting in the Talpiot industrial zone in south Jerusalem after decorating the room of another friend flying in later that day from abroad, they had stopped by the Sbarro restaurant to meet a fourth friend. There, they would perish standing side by side. After arriving at Ben Gurion airport, their traveling teenage friend sobbed uncontrollably when told of the tragic and untimely end of Malka and Michal's young lives, later discovering they had left "welcome home" signs and balloons in her room as their final testimony of friendship toward her.

The Jerusalem deaths, occurring at a well-known kosher restaurant that most residents of the city have probably visited, or at least walked by at some point, brought to 155 the number of Israelis killed since the violent uprising was launched last September 28 (the terrorist murders of three soldiers in the Gaza Strip and a couple driving home outside of Jerusalem on August 25 brought the toll to 160). Most of the dead have been innocent civilians killed while carrying out the daily routines of their lives. Over 1,500 others have been injured, a number for life. Over 500 Palestinians have also perished, most of them while directly involved in violent attacks or in immediate military reactions to the same. Others were known terrorist activists who were deliberately targeted by Israeli forces in an attempt to halt their attacks. Some were innocent bystanders caught up in the crossfire. However, only a handful, if that, were the apparent victims of Jewish revenge attacks. None were killed by Israeli suicide bombers, since such people do not exist.

Islamic militant attempts to raise the Jewish death toll continued later in the month. Just five days after the deadly Jerusalem blast, a suicide attacker blew himself up in a quiet restaurant outside of the port city of Haifa, injuring 15 people. Some would have undoubtedly perished had the terrorist not brazenly raised his shirt to display a bomb strapped to his body, asking a startled waitress, "Do you know what this is?" The waitress screamed out "Terrorist!" which gave nearby patrons a few seconds to move away from the hellish blast which followed. A week later, Israeli police intercepted a Palestinian trying to smuggle another bomb into Haifa. Some days before that, a young suicide attacker attempted to board a packed public bus south of the Jordan Valley town of Beit She'an. The alert driver pushed the terrorist off the bus after noticing a wire protruding from his duffle bag. The Palestinian tried, and failed, to trigger his bomb while falling backwards to the ground.

A small bomb exploded in Jerusalem on August 21 under the front hood of a car parked outside of a restaurant just two blocks east of the destroyed Sbarro eatery. For obvious reasons, the dozen patrons inside-which included a Christian resident of Jerusalem who represents a pro-Israel ministry based in Germany and a British-born pastor just ending his service with the city's King of Kings congregation-had avoided sitting near the outer windows of the restaurant, which were blown in by the blast. A far more powerful bomb, planted in the back trunk of the car, failed to explode. Police said it was probably meant to go off soon after the smaller explosion took place, in time to kill or maim dozens of security and medical personnel who were dutifully arriving at the scene.

ORIENT HOUSE

In its place, Peres approved the dispatch of F-16 fighter aircraft for a second time in the current uprising, to bomb Palestinian positions in the town of Ramallah (they struck again in late August in the Gaza Strip after the terrorist infiltration that left three soldiers dead). The target was chosen because Arafat had scheduled a meeting there with senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders the night of the Jerusalem blast. The purpose: To discuss the formal inclusion of the militant groups in his autonomy government. Israeli leaders wanted to show their displeasure over the fact that the aging PLO chief was not just failing to keep his June commitment to arrest known Muslim terrorists, but was actually planning to invite their leaders into his ruling circle! Despite the fact that the parley was postponed after both groups took "credit" for the hideous Sbarro attack, Israeli jets struck the Palestinian police headquarters in Ramallah early the next morning. However, the move was mostly for show since Sharon and his senior ministers knew that all Palestinian government buildings in Arafat's zones of control had been evacuated in anticipation of an Israeli response.

Meeting soon afterwards in special session, Sharon asked his entire cabinet to approve his decision to order a major political retaliation-the closure of Arafat's unofficial government house that has operated north of Jerusalem's walled Old City since before the Oslo accords were signed in 1993. Both Peres and Ben Eliezer had earlier nixed the move in the inner cabinet. They argued that it would only deflect world attention from the terrorist massacre and give Arafat more political ammunition in his drive to impose international forces on Israel. However, since it was not a military response, Sharon was free to take his intention to shut down "Orient House" before the full cabinet, which overwhelmingly endorsed the closure.

Doing away with the eastern Jerusalem Palestinian government center has been a major Likud party goal for some years, even though former Likud Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu only felt strong enough to order such action just before he was swept from power, thus thwarting its implementation. All other right wing and religious parties have long called for the center's closure, seeing the ongoing operation of Orient House as a clear violation of the Oslo Accords. They noted that Arafat had agreed he would have no political authority over any part of Jerusalem, at least not before a Final Status Peace Accord was arrived at. Palestinian leaders have long argued that Orient House was not connected to Arafat's autonomy government. But, their frequent attempts to officially receive foreign dignitaries there gave the lie to that contention.

In the end, the closure, carried out by Jerusalem police, did not cause most of the local and international ripples anticipated by Peres and his nervous party. The American government and others did condemn the move as "unnecessary and provocative political escalation." Yet all seemed relieved that the Israeli response to the atrocious Jerusalem blast was not something that could spark an all out war in the region.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell urged Sharon to quickly reverse the closure order. The Israeli leader replied that it was really "a matter of law enforcement" rather than war by other means. But he did acknowledge his hope that this action would be a signal to Arafat that he "has much more to lose, if he continues to do nothing to stop the rising terrorist attacks" upon the Israeli public.

Meanwhile, local Arab response was rather mundane, with only a few dozen activists, led by Hannan Ashrawi, turning out to protest the closure in the days following its implementation. In fact, many more Israeli left-wing demonstrators and journalists gathered almost daily near the site than did Palestinians. This may be because most Arab residents of Jerusalem, especially many Christians and well-educated Muslims, are not really longing to be placed under Arafat's autocratic control. Indeed, fears that they may eventually find themselves under his despotic sway probably help explain a recent sharp upturn in the number of Jerusalem Arabs applying for visas to move to the United States and elsewhere.

THE MASTER PLAN

The big question mark in such an operation is the response of the tens of thousands of heavily armed Palestinian "policemen" serving in Arafat's Oslo-sanctioned paramilitary forces (the numbers are around twice as many as allowed under the crumbled peace accords). If, as expected, Arafat's highly-trained men joined the fray, then Phase Two of the army plan would come into play: A direct assault on his Palestinian autonomy government, including broadcasting stations, the airport near Gaza City, and many other official targets. This action would undoubtedly bring down the verbal wrath of the entire Muslim world, and probably most everyone else as well. The remaining question mark is how regional Islamic states like Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq might respond, and what public and private stands the US and the European Union would take.

Phase Three would depend on outside Arab and Muslim world reaction. It is considered likely that Saddam Hussein would order his "Jerusalem liberation army" to fight for Arafat (they were sent out into the streets in mid-August in an anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian show sponsored by the brutal Iraqi regime). Even if Saddam could only field around one million men, as most Israeli analysts guess, it would be a significant force to deal with, especially if Israel were basically acting alone. Iraqi forces could pose a significant threat if they successfully crossed into Jordan, headed for that country's long shared border with Israel, either with or without the approval of the Hashemite government in Amman. (Internet reports, that a thousand or more Iraqi troops infiltrated the country in late July, have remained unconfirmed here in Jerusalem, with most Israeli security experts saying they were probably exaggerated at best. However there are definite indications that Saddam has smuggled in some underground agents with orders to help local Palestinian groups topple the pro-Western Jordanian monarchy).

If Iranian-backed Hizbullah militiamen, who have completely taken over all of southern Lebanon since Israeli forces evacuated the area in May 2000, and/or Syrian troops entered the conflict-also considered a very real possibility- then Israel would probably attempt to completely shut down Arafat's autonomy government. The PLO chief would be sent packing, while Israel's outnumbered, but not outclassed, military machine worked to repulse all the regional forces fighting on his behalf. Syrian leaders again vowed in August to defend the Palestinians "against growing Israeli aggression." The statements came after the Assad regime followed Saddam's lead and organized mass pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the country.

Shimon Peres did agree to approve a "test" of the army's ability to carry out Operation Pines. After the August 12 Haifa attack, a column of army tanks was sent into the Arafat-ruled town of Jenin, located in northern Samaria near the Israeli Jezreel Valley. The official excuse for the military foray was the fact that the dead suicide bomber had come from the town, as have at least seven other attackers in recent months. Around a dozen tanks rumbled into the center of Jenin-the first army incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory outside of the Gaza Strip. The tanks did encounter fierce light-arms resistance, but it proved ineffective against the expensive armored vehicles. The tanks withdrew after blowing up Jenin's Palestinian police headquarters (another message aimed directly at Arafat).

Israeli forces were also poised a few days later to enter the Palestinian-ruled towns of Beit Jala and Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. The order to surround the towns came after professional Arab sharpshooters once again attacked the nearby Gilo neighborhood. Israeli officials said the attack was launched from several directions, in some cases hitting apartment buildings that had previously been spared (one bullet lodged in a wall just above the bed of an American Christian minister and his wife). An Israeli man was wounded in the eye by bullet shrapnel.

However, the army incursion was called off at the last minute after American leaders pressured Ariel Sharon to desist, and persuaded Arafat to order his gunmen to stand down (which they have done until this writing, proving once again that he can control at least most of the violence if he wants to). Still, Israeli forces remain poised for action just outside of the towns, ready to act if firing upon Gilo resumes.

CYCLE OF VIOLENCE?

Although such politically correct statements may help ensure continuing Arab oil supplies to America, they can only further enflame the region. Such "evenhanded" statements-denouncing the reactions of a democratic state under siege with its demented attackers-can only encourage Arafat and his minions to think that their attempts to goad Israel into a major military response (which would naturally be strongly denounced by the world) will work in the end. Thankfully, President Bush himself does not seem to be parroting the immoral line taken by his "balanced" State Department.

Palestinian apologists like Hannan Ashrawi and Saib Erekat constantly portray the Mideast situation as just the opposite of what it is. In their oft-repeated version of reality, it is the Israelis who are violating the Oslo accords and carrying out "state-sponsored terrorist atrocities against unarmed civilians." But Western leaders and media outlets should keep in mind what the basic facts are: The Israeli government was at the point of ceding most of Judaism's remaining biblical heartland-deeply loved by many Jews-to Arafat last summer, along with the entire Gaza Strip. This was despite the fact that the PLO leader had hailed earlier suicide bombers, refused to stop incitement in his media and reduce his armed forces to agreed-upon numbers, and encouraged the 1996 and May 2000 Palestinian riots that left many dead and wounded.

It was the Palestinian "president" who flatly turned down Ehud Barak's painful, far-reaching Final Status peace proposals, as confirmed by Bill Clinton and other American officials. Soon afterwards, Arafat's television began to screen frequent scenes of earlier uprisings and terrorist attacks, hailing the participants as "true sons of Palestine." (I watched them myself many times last summer.) Of course, such scenes were deliberately designed to encourage a repetition of the same, especially among the young and impressionable. When the new Palestinian holy war "spontaneously broke out" last September 28, it was immediately named "the Al Aksa intifada" by Arafat. This clearly linked it to the Islamic desire to pursue not peace with the hated "Zionist entity," but jihad war for Jerusalem.

WAR AND PEACE

Still, Jewish immigration has continued this year despite the violence, even if at slightly lower numbers. And anyway, it has always been the Lord's apparent choice to deal with His difficult, special people only after they call out to Him for help. Such a time seems to be drawing near for the despised and outnumbered-but ultimately not forsaken-people of reborn Israel.

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