ORDINARY ISRAELI AT THE END OF HIS TEATHER
Did something "snap" in the collective minds of Israelis on 3/21?
by DEBKAfile, 21 March 2002
"The Palestinian suicide bombing that shattered lives and storefronts in downtown Jerusalem on Thursday also made a shambles of any coherent Israeli and US policy toward Yasser Arafat. The aftershock of the attack would be even greater where it not for an Israeli courts gag order, issued at the urging of the prime ministers office, banning full DEBKAfilereporting on the atrocity.
What DEBKAfile can report is the account offered by the Jerusalem police:
A suicide bomber killed three people and wounded 87 others when he struck
Jerusalems central shopping district on an overcast afternoon, yards
from a dozen deadly terrorist atrocities in the past year. The horror was
unimaginable even in a city that has lost count of the atrocities visited
upon it by Palestinian terrorists. Severed heads rolled down the sidewalks
of King George Street, which was littered with limbs. Dozens of wounded writhed
in agony from the nails and screws that spewed from the bombers explosives
belt.
\
The attack spelled the failure of moves by US President George Bush, envoy
Anthony Zinni, vice president Dick Cheney and Israeli prime minister Ariel
Sharon to come to terms with Arafat. The failure was two-fold. As DEBKAfilehas
written many times, Arafat simply does not want peace. He also does not want
the ceasefire work plan drawn up by CIA director George Tenet, nor the truce-to-talks
blueprint charted by an international panel led by former US senator George
Mitchell. The Palestinian leader seeks the destruction of the state of Israel
and he will use any means or trick to achieve his goal.
Just five days ago, Arafat told the Americans and Israelis that his security
forces had arrested a potential suicide bomber, Mohammed Hashaika, in the
village of Taluza near the West Bank town of Nablus. Arafat, out to prove
to the Americans he was serious about fighting terror, asked them to press
Israel for permission to transfer the terrorist from Nablus to Ramallah so
that his security forces could keep a closer eye on him.
Israel assented but the young Palestinian didnt spend a single
hour in Ramallah prison. Instead, he was taken straight to the headquarters
of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades a force belonging to Arafats
Fatah faction where officers loyal to Colonel Tawfik Tirawi, chief
of the Preventive Security agency and the Palestinian intelligence officer
closest to Arafat, handed him an explosives belt. After showing Hashaika how
to use it, they sent him on his way to downtown Jerusalem to carry out the
attack.
The bombing marked the first time in his 40 years of waging terrorism that
Arafat has been caught red-handed. He personally arranged for the transfer
of the suicide terrorist to Ramallah and he knew exactly what for.
Arafat was following a familiar, bloodthirsty pattern. Israel and the United
States have always taken pains to conceal the fact that, back in 1985, he
had been in direct radio contact with Mahmoud Abbas after the Palestinian
terrorist hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean.
Every word Arafat said was recorded by Israeli and Egyptian intelligence.
Abbas chose one passenger, a wheelchair-bound elderly American Jew named Leon
Klinghoffer, as a hostage.
What should I do with him, Abbas asked Arafat.
Throw him into the sea, Arafat answered.
Abbas carried out his order and Klinghoffer died.
History is repeating itself now. Arafat, with Israeli help, pulled the wool
over the eyes of US leaders, such as President Clinton. Only now, he has trapped
the entire state of Israel in a wheelchair, which he is in the process of
dumping in the sea. He craftily exploited the god services of the current
US presidents personal ceasefire envoy to dispatch a suicide bomber
into the heart of Jerusalem, at a time when the president himself is engaged
in a global war on terror.
But the United States isnt the only gullible party. Meet the people
of Israel, who have been sitting quietly for 18 months, waiting to be slaughtered
at the hands of Palestinian terrorists in their homes, schools, stores and
markets.
Wave after wave of suicide attackers have struck and some Israeli voices still
call on the Israeli government and army to exercise restraint. The bombers
are not alien invaders from outer space, but part of a political entity sponsored
by the strongest democracy in the world and civilized European countries.
Sharon, the United States and Europe can take whatever action the want from
now on, but it wont matter. On Thursday, March 21, 2002, something snapped
and Israelis began to grasp for the first time they are being pitched unresisting
into the sea. This new awareness will have far-reaching consequences in Israel
and throughout the Middle East."