2006-03-15-Jericho Jailhouse Raid |
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jewishsightseeing.com, March 15, 2006 |
By Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM—It could not have
been better for Ehud Olmert. The Palestinians were clearly at
fault. Commentators from several points on the political spectrum
concluded that they had violated an agreement, whereby the killers
of Israeli Tourist Minister Rehavam Zeevi would be incarcerated in
Jericho. Americans and British jailers were meant to guarantee the
deal, but they signaled that they would be leaving because the
Palestinians were not living up to their end of it. Palestinian
officials had said the men would be released. Twenty minutes after
the Americans and British left, the Israeli army surrounded the
prison, and announced to the prisoners that they could surrender
or be killed. The process took some 9 hours to play itself out,
and concluded on prime time news. The bad guys who said they would
fight to the death surrendered when army bulldozers began to knock
down the walls of their compound.
All this two weeks before the election. It showed
that Olmert can insist on keeping agreements, and the good
fortune that the army could do its part with a minimum
of Palestinian bloodshed, and no Israelis wounded. Arabs protested
that it was illegal. The mobs of Gaza protested by burning the
British Council Library and kidnapping a number of foreigners who
had come to provide them with humanitarian aid. One of those
kidnapped, and then released, was an American teacher of English
who said that he understood and sympathized with the Palestinians.
Americans do not know how the Palestinians suffer, he said, from
the daily killings by Israeli forces. At this point the CNN anchor
accused him of exaggerating. The teacher insisted that the
Palestinians were suffering. His students told him so.
The leadership of the Meretz party said that a
diplomatic solution would have been better. The head of the
European Union expressed his "worry" about the action.
Europeans said they would have to repair the damage done by
Israeli forces. The British Foreign Minister told parliament that
the Palestinians had proved themselves to be unreliable. Some
critics said it was insulting to force the Palestinian jailers and
other prisoners to march out of the facility wearing only their
underpants. That is the drill when the object of concern might be
wearing an explosive belt. Presumably those freed will recognize
that they have gotten away with their lives, even at the cost of
some embarrassment. The leaders of Israeli political parties
who stood to lose what Olmert's party won said that it was the
only decision possible, and was timed not for the Israeli election
but to counter the likelihood that Palestinians would free a group
of killers.
Mahmoud Abbas was in Vienna when it happened. The
leaders of Hamas are still trying to put together a government.
Olmert's opponents to the left are saying, "It
can't be the case that there is no one to talk to! How are you
going to make peace?"
Yesterday's situation indicates that there is no
one to talk to. Olmert cannot make peace with a Palestinian
partner. He will have to go it alone. Now it seems that he knows
how to do it. Peace may not be in the cards. There is a limit to
the opportunities that an Israeli leader can create.
Sharkansky is an emeritus member of the political science department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem |
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