MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/04: Ariel Sharon and his government are preparing the way to kill more Palestinian street and faction leaders using various forms of high-tech assassination. They are also preparing world public opinion not only for bringing the Arafat "Authority" to an end but for killing and expelling as many Palestinians as circumstances will allow. Shimon Peres has now repositioned himself once again with his new resignation "threat" just in time to claim he is not implicated in all this. Of course what the Americans might do -- pressed as they will be by Arab and European countries -- is a major consideration and thus considerable Israeli efforts are being expended in the U.S. with both the media and the Congress to prepare the way. This pre-war to position themselves with public opinion and the U.S. Government is one the Israelis are also winning. The Arab regimes are scared and cowered as usual -- well aware the Israelis are threatening their survival should they dare to seriously stand up and oppose Israeli designs. The Arab and Muslim groups in the States are still remarkably amateurish and unsophisticated, as well as co-opted. Jewish and Christian groups opposed to what is happening remain extraordinarily weak, misguided and terribly lead. The likelihood is that when the proverbial shit hits the fan there will be all kinds of carefully-crafted duplicitous words from the White House and State Department; but no serious action to stop the Israelis. Various branches of the U.S. government, especially the Pentagon and the CIA, in addition to the Congress, are actually working extraordinarily closely with the Israelis, more so than ever. Whether the U.S. will also veto any strong new U.N. Security Council resolution under all the circumstances is also likely, even at potential cost to U.S. interests in the region. These two articles from Ha'aretz today help explain how the stage for what is to come is being further set:

[Ha'aretz, 4 July] A gathering storm of pressure for all-out war on the Palestinians cast an ominous shadow on the decision by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's security cabinet to cling to the U.S. mediated cease-fire -- while widening a hit-list of candidates for liquidation in escalating "active self-defense" against terror attacks.

Soon after Sharon's security cabinet met in an acrimonious session, focusing on the extent to which the government should push the envelope of a truce hammered out last month by CIA Director George Tenet, a Fatah activist prominent on Israel's most-wanted list was gunned down at close range.

The activist, Hazam Natcheh, 22, a leader of the armed Tanzim wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, was seriously wounded in the attack in a section of the West Bank powderkeg city of Hebron, but was expected to survive. Asked about reports that the gunmen were Israel Defense Forces troops disguised as Arabs, the army said only that it was "looking into the incident."

Israeli-Arab legislator and former Arafat aide Dr. Ahmed Tibi called the Hebron shooting "an in-the-field translation of the cabinet's decisions to increase the liquidations - in violation of the position of the international community, in violation of international law." Tibi said that some Palestinians believed the assassinations were aimed at killing off what was left of the cease-fire.

But rightist ministers failed during the four-hour debate to convince Sharon to abandon what ultra-Orthodox cabinet minister Shlomo Benizri condemned as "the Diaspora mentality of continuing to hold back, while continuing to bury our dead."

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres countered that Israel should allow dialogue with Yasser Arafat, saying that the government had no other "address" for negotiations with the Palestinians. But right-wing Public Security Minister Uzi Landau said that, "There are still naive people among us who messianically believe that something could still come out of (negotiations with) Arafat," and demanded that the military be unleashed in order to sap the strength of "whoever heads the Palestinian Authority. He must have no options in hand, his cards must be weak, he himself must be weak."

Landau said the PA should realize that even territory already ceded in past negotiations could fall out of their hands. "The PA should know that here, too, it may be facing a reality that it will find most surprising," he added.

The Fatah movement lost little time in vowing to avenge the Natche shooting. But Landau said the liquidation policy should be stepped up even more to include Palestinians who bore responsibility for - but no hands-on involvement in - terror attacks. Referring to Nazi extermination mastermind Adolf Eichmann, the only man ever executed in Israel under the state's capital punishment statutes, Landau said, "No one who is involved in terror should be immune from a hit. We put Eichmann on trial here not because he himself carried out the murders."

IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz, increasingly vocal in support of escalated army attacks, was quoted by Israel Radio as having asked the security cabinet: "What normal country would just go on with business as usual under a situation like this?" then adding, "Arafat deceives us every single day."

According to Ha'aretz commentator Gideon Samet, in the current hawkish atmosphere of the Israeli public, none of the hopefuls for Labor Party leadership can afford to offer a dovish or even moderate alternative to the Likud-led government's position.

"The right is running the country mostly because of the fear of Israel's loss of deterrence and punishment. The lack of faith in the PA has reached the level that anyone from Labor trying to soften its position and propose a more creative approach would be viewed by most Israelis as foolish, deaf and evil."

[Ha'aretz - 4 July] The IDF will from now on be given a broader license to liquidate Palestinian terrorists, the kitchen cabinet decided yesterday.

Formerly, the IDF was only permitted to assassinate "ticking bombs," meaning terrorists actually en route to commit a major attack. The new guidelines allow it to act against known terrorists even if they are not on the verge of committing a major attack. A security source explained: "In places where we have asked the Palestinian Authority to work to foil attacks and it is not doing so, we will have to act in its stead."

In other respects, however, the kitchen cabinet agreed to continue the policy of restraint.

A dispute erupted on this subject between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, with the former advocating more vigorous action against the Palestinian Authority in response to Monday's violence - the worst in a month - and Peres arguing that "even if we need to do something, this is not the time."

But in the end, Peres won out: The cabinet agreed that Israel will continue to refrain from striking at official PA targets, and that the IDF will in the main continue to be limited to "low-profile" actions that do not attract wide media coverage. In addition, the relatively strict rules of engagement instituted after the cease-fire was declared will remain in force.

However, the cabinet adopted Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer's recommendation that the IDF be given greater freedom to deploy its forces in Areas B and C, under Israeli security control, and even to destroy houses that constitute security risks in these areas. It also decided to increase the IDF presence on roads in the territorries.

Finally, it agreed that because of the continued violence, Israel will continue to postpone implementing some of its obligations under the cease-fire agreement: Restrictions on Palestinian traffic, for instance, will remain in place throughout much of the West Bank.

In addition to Sharon, Peres and Ben-Eliezer, Finance Minister Silvan Shalom and Deputy Defense Minister Dalia Rabin-Pelosoff were present at the meeting. All of the kitchen cabinet's decisions will be brought to the full cabinet for approval this morning.

Meanwhile, senior IDF officers predicted yesterday that the violence in the territories is likely to ratchet up again as of tomorrow.

The IDF believes that recent statements by Palestinian leaders are meant to prepare the ground for a new wave of violence. For instance, the head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, Amin al-Hindi, declared yesterday that "tomorrow [i.e. today] the quiet period will end," apparently referring to the week-long period of absolute quiet Sharon has demanded before the start of the cooling-off period called for in the Mitchell report. Similarly, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat charged that Israel was trying to destroy the cease-fire through its assassination of three Islamic Jihad activists on Sunday.

The officers told Ha'aretz that the PA continues to insist that it is fulfilling its obligations under the cease-fire accord, completely ignoring the fact that attacks on Israeli targets are continuing. Monday was the worst day of violence in a month, with two Israelis killed - one in Sussya and one in Baka al-Garbiyeh - and 27 shooting and bombing incidents, most of them in the West Bank. Also noteworthy was the resumption of shooting attacks from Area A, under full Palestinian control (at Psagot from El Bireh and at Mount Ebal from Nablus). Yesterday, however, was relatively quiet.

Intelligence officers also told the kitchen cabinet yesterday that Arafat had given a "green light" both for the recent attacks and for future attacks, for instance, by telling his men that "this is a long-term war." According to security sources, Arafat's Fatah movement has become increasingly involved in attacks over the last few days.

Undersecretary of State William Burns is due to come to the region next week in an effort to rescue the cease-fire. But Israeli officials said they were disappointed with the most recent American effort in this direction, at the three-way security meeting in Tel Aviv Monday night. No agreements were achieved, and participants said the most of meeting consisted of mutual recriminations by the Israeli and Palestinian delegates.

Security sources said that CIA officials - the American representatives at the security meetings - seem unable to cope with the wide gap between Israeli and Palestinian versions of events, though they seem to give somewhat more credence to the Israeli version. Israel is also concerned by the fact that the Americans have been downplaying the PA's failure to arrest terrorists - an issue to which Israel attaches great importance.

On another issue, Sharon and Ben-Eliezer agreed yesterday to speed up implementation of a plan to beef up security along the seam line between Israel and the West Bank. The diplomatic-security cabinet will meet to discuss the plan today.

One issue that has still not been resolved is which body will be responsible for carrying out the plan: Sharon favors putting the border police in charge, while Ben-Eliezer favors dividing the responsibility, with the IDF handling security east of the seam and the border police west of it.

But work is slated to start soon on one element of the plan: erecting fences along those sections of the seam line where the towns on either side are in close proximity.

Ben-Eliezer also met on Monday with leaders of the settlement movement to discuss the evacuation of several illegal outposts. Security sources said it appears that the settlers will agree to evacuate some outposts on their own, but the Yesha Council of settlements denied that any such agreement had been reached.

Government sources expressed disappointment yesterday that Monday's meeting between President Moshe Katsav and Palestinian journalists was virtually ignored by the Palestinian press: Only one paper covered it. They said the journalists who participated told the Israeli organizers that they were heavily pressured not to write about it. In addition, a motion was submitted to the Palestinian journalists' union recommending their expulsion from the organization.

[Ha'aretz Service - 4 July 2001 - 12:32 Israel time] In an assassination attempt in the West Bank city of Hebron Wednesday, gunmen wounded wanted Fatah activist Hazem Natcheh, 22, at close range, Israel Radio reported.

The incident, in which Natcheh was shot in the abdomen and back, occurred shortly after the security cabinet met to discuss its policy of "active defense," anchored by targeted killings of wanted Palestinians. His wounds were initially described as not life-threatening.

The shooting was carried out close to Israeli territory in Hebron's Policeman Square. The radio said it was not immediately known if the gunmen were Israeli undercover troops or Palestinians settling internal scores.