'No News Is Good News': Illusion of Palestinian Compliance

Illusion of Palestinian Compliance ‘No News is Good News’ Eli E. Hertz May 29, 2005 In the wake of four and a half years of suicide bombers, a barrage of 70 mortars and two Qassam rockets on Israeli settlers in Gaza within 36 hours or the apprehension of a suicide bomber, a 15 year-olds armed with pipe bombs on the West Bank, incidents that both ended without loss of life (not counting a horse), are not news in the foreign press. Under such a news blackout an illusion of Palestinian compliance has gained a foothold in western perceptions, and calls for a return to the negotiating table ‘now that normalcy has returned,’ are already being voiced from politicians to media pundits and scholars in think tanks. The threshold for ‘what is news’ has always been driven by a healthy appetite for drama – the source of the slogan ‘if it bleeds, it leads.’ Since not one bus or pizzeria has been blown to smithereens since the late February bombing of a karaoke nightclub in Tel Aviv that killed five persons, Israel has dropped off the radar screens of major western papers. Peruse the Washington Post or the London Guardian, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times or the London Times in the month of April. There hasn’t been a major story in weeks. A hot line between Jerusalem and Ankara and the death of Ezer Weizmann were the hottest story on tap, relegated to short item on the inside pages. News coverage of the conflict sympathetically focuses on ‘reform’ under the Palestinian Authority since the PA declared a February 8 ‘cease fire’ … institutional change that ranges from empty promises from Abu Mazen to use an “iron fist” against militants who refuse to disarm, to the forced retirement of Arafat cronies from security forces and co-option of young local thugs from Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in their stead.[1] Coverage of Israel has been dwarfed not only by the deaths of 140 Iraqis outside a health clinic in Hilla in March, or 50 persons in the bombing of a police recruitment center in the Kurdish city of Irbil in April – one of 135 car bombs in April,[2] and some 500 deaths in terrorist attacks in Iraq between April 28 and May 19 alone.[3] Four-and-a-half years of suicide bombers and other horrific terrorist attacks have raised the bar for Israel. Anything short of a dozen bodies – a slain Israeli soldier purposefully run over by a Palestinian vehicle at a checkpoint near Hebron,[4] for instance, doesn’t even warrant mention. The result is a de facto news blackout or ‘block out’ if you wish, that warps reality and leaves a false impression of a return to normalcy. Judging from the newspapers, Palestinians have called off their onslaught against Israel, the Hamas’ self-proclaimed hudna or temporary cease-fire is holding and Palestinians are pouring all their efforts into long-overdue reform rather than killing Israelis. It’s important to set the record straight before a chorus gathers in high places in Washington, Paris or Berlin to announce that now that Palestinians have abandoned violence it’s time to get back to the negotiating table. Some in fact, have already ‘jumped the gun’ – no pun intended. The hard facts are, Palestinians still have a long way to go. The i**llusion of ‘quiet’ hinges heavily on the ineffectiveness of Palestinian intentions and the effectiveness of Israeli counter-measures – a fragile false impression of tranquility that’s great for tourism, but at any moment could be snuffed out in a flash, along with the lives of an unknown number of hapless victims. Some examples of events during the past several months of ‘quiet’ are illuminating to drive home what most foreign readers have missed: ● There were 405 terrorist attacks in January 2005, 116 in February and 128 in March[5] that wounded 124 Israelis. There were 150 warnings of other operations in the offing in the first three months of 2005; Mobilization of older men, women, disabled persons and teenagers has risen and roles have shifted from courier to combatants; among the attacks foiled by Israel in April were three 15 year-olds with pipe bombs – two apprehended together on April 4,[6] and another with five pipe bombs on April 11[7] – before they were able to use them against Israeli soldiers at checkpoints outside Nablus. On May 12 another youth was caught with a gun in a sack of cucumbers.[8] On May 22, a second 15-year old would-be suicide bomber sent by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades was apprehended with a suicide belt around his waist near Nablus before he could complete his mission – the 14th teenager since the ‘cease-fire’ caught trying to detonate bombs or smuggle arms or explosives on the West Bank.[9] On May 27th an older Palestinian trying to exit Nablus was caught with a 2-kilogram suicide belt hidden in his bag.[10] ● In February the Popular Front mastermind of a spectacular dual-suicide bombing plus car bomb to a busy tourist site on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway did not make the headlines because the mastermind, Yousef George Daoud, was apprehended along with two cohorts by IDF special forces before he could carry out this operation, and other terrorist attacks Daoud was organizing.[11] In March, eight members of the Islamic Jihad were arrested by IDF special forces in Jenin building and testing Qassam rockets, which the leader of the group had learned to make in Gaza, ‘importing’ the technology to the West Bank when he was allowed to return to his home town in late February as a gesture of Israeli good will and a ‘confidence-building move.’[12] In April a senior Fatah-Tanzim ‘handler’ with a number of suicide bombing operations in the last stages of preparation, Firas Tanbour, was apprehended in Nablus by IDF special forces while in the last stages of preparation.[13] Read the names. There isn’t one Palestinian terrorist organization that has suspended its operations. But no news is good news – and tomorrow pressure will mount in the U.S. and Europe to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians and roll back IDF roadblocks. ● The only objective sign of optimism is Sderot, optimism being a relative commodity. The Israeli town less than a kilometer from the Gaza Strip gained a ‘breather’: It was the target of only one rocket from the Gaza Strip on April 7,[14] and another two on April 27[15] that all landed outside the town, unlike previous rockets in June 2004 and January 2005 that took the lives of a 3½ year-old and his grandfather on the way to kindergarten,[16] then a 17 year-old teen.[17] In the first two weeks of May 2005, the quite was broken only once by another three Qassam rockets in the evening – one hitting a residential building but causing no injuries.[18] Gush Katif, was targeted by ‘only’ 10 mortars in March; the Jewish settlement bloc on the southern edge of Gaza witnessed a sharp rise in artillery attacks in April however, including over 70 mortars and two Qassam rockets that landed in the Gush Katif settlements in one 36 hour period between April 9-10[19] damaging houses and killing a mare in a petting zoo.[20] During another 24-hour period in mid-May Palestinians again shelled Gush Katif with 70 mortars and several Qassam rockets.[21] The next day, 6 anti-tank rockets were fired from an UNRWA school and daycare center complex at one of the Gush Katif settlements.[22] Two more Qassams fell on Sderot at midnight between the 28-29th of May before IDF forces were able to destroy others ready for launching.[23] In early May, the IDF’s Intelligence Branch assessed that after the disengagement from Gaza, shelling from Gaza would continue and the range of Palestinian mortars and rockets, improved under cover of the ‘cease-fire’ using the Mediterranean as a down range testing ground, would have the capability to target 44 Israeli communities ‘inside the Green Line,’ not just Sderot.’[24] In late May the Commander of the Central Command Major General Yair Naveh said that there had been a “tremendous rise” in smuggling of arms into the West Bank of late and one could expect attacks from PA-held territory to increase after the disengagement.[25] But no news is good news – and pressure will continue on Israel to turn over the buildings in the shelled Gush Katif settlement bloc to Palestinians “as a sign of good will” rather than raze them to the ground, if the Jews who have lived there for three generations will be forced by their government to abandon their homes in the unilateral ‘disengagement’ scheduled for August 2005. ● In the first 3½ months of ‘quietude’ in 2005 there were 40 attempts to infiltrate Israel from Gaza that were foiled; the number of attacks on Israelis in Gaza in early April in one week – 25, were a three fold increase over levels in preceding weeks.[26] Among the incidents was the April 11th discovery of two 35-kg. explosive devices in Rafah designed to kill Israeli soldiers whose presence in Rafah is to try and prevent the smuggling of arms into Gaza, most important ‘industrial strength’ explosives and Katyusha rockets capable of shelling the city of Ashkelon.[27] In mid-May Israeli Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz reported there had been 400 violations of the cease-fire since its declaration – including 207 attacks from Gaza that endangered lives.[28] But no news is good news – and surely there will be new protests of the improved and impervious security barrier Israel plans to construct around Gaza, if funding can be found. ● On April 18th three Palestinians from the Popular Front, the group responsible for the murder of Israeli cabinet minister Rachavam Zeevi in 2001, were apprehended while planning the murder of the former Safardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef – one of the conspirators being a former employee of a Jewish green grocer who delivered fruit and vegetables to the spiritual leader’s Jerusalem domicile. But no news is good news – and tomorrow the EU will increase its pressure on Israelis to employ more Palestinians to rehabilitate their economy. (President Bush expressed these sentiments after meeting with Abu-Abbas in mid-May.) ● On April 23, Passover eve there was no bloody massacre such as the one at the Park Hotel in the spring of 2002 that murdered 30, and wounded 140, including babies, grandmothers and six married couples[29]; This time there was only a massive four-hour midnight traffic jam in central Israel as countless families were returning from the seder whilepolice frantically searched for a suicide bomber on the loose. But no news is good news – and tomorrow pressure will mount to allow more Palestinians to enter Israel to seek work. ● On May 1 Israeli special forces collared an 18-year old member of the Islamic Jihad, Mohammed Shalhoub, in Tulkarem – a Palestinian town (population 50,000) just over the security fence, who had already been videotaped for posterity in preparation to infiltrate Israel and carry out a suicide operation. On March 21 Israel returned Tulkarem to Palestinian control. On April 22, two members of the Islamic Jihad, Shafiq Abdel Ghani and Ahmed Zaki, taken into custody by Palestinian security forces on suspicion of being the architects of the February 2005 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, ‘manage’ to walk out of the Palestinian security forces’ lockup in Tulkarem and ‘disappear into the woodwork,’[30] signally a renewal of Arafat’s ‘revolving door’ crackdown on and prosecution of terrorists under his successor – Mahmoud Abbas. Ten days later, on May 2nd Israeli soldiers were forced to go in to apprehend the two organizers who were in Ghani’s home village Saida, a hamlet on the outskirts of Tulkarem. In the ensuing gun battle an Israeli paratrooper and Ghani were killed. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas branded the IDF incursion into PA-controlled territory unacceptable “Israeli aggression."[31] In one ‘typical’ five day period (May 15-19) in addition to 87 mortars aimed at Gush Katif and a Qassam on a kibbutz in the Western Negev; two explosive devices weighting 40 and 35 kg. were detonated, and a Palestinian was killed in a ‘work accident’ with another explosive device; four Palestinians were apprehended on the roads, near Nablus, Bethlehem and Ramallah, three with firebombs, one – a taxi driver – with an improvised rifle and ammo; and in two separate incidents a man and a women were detained after threatening soldiers at checkpoints with knives.[32] But no news is good news – and tomorrow pressure will continue to mount for Israel to expand Palestinian self-rule to ‘reduce friction’ and to bolster the ‘new’ Palestinian leadership’s falling prestige and limping reform, ignoring that Tulkarem and other Palestinian cities are again becoming ‘cities of refuge’ for terrorists. The European Union, true to character, has been the first to jump on the bandwagon. In a meeting in London “On Supporting the Palestinian Authority,” the EU’s most senior diplomat, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, was already praising the new Palestinian Chairman’s “priority of security and concrete measures on the ground” rushing to declare that “as the PA implements its obligations in the security areas, Israel has to dramatically alter the system of closures that restrict the movement of peoples and goods”[33] – this, five days after the February suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. On April 26, Solana said that “the roadmap … is clear in a second phase”[34] [E.H. designed to establish a Palestinian State prior to final status negotiations], calling for an international conference to take this endeavor forward – that is, Palestinians had already fulfilled the first stage of stopping the violence and reforming their institutions. But, Solana is not alone: Three days later (April 29, 2005) in an article in the Baltimore Sun,[35] Washington Institute scholar David Makovsky suggested compliance was a bygone fact, writing that all one needed to do was “consolidate the cease-fire” declaring that “the good news is that the last few months have witnessed a sharp decrease in the terrorism and violence that have gripped these two peoples over the last 4 ½ years” and labeling attacks that did take place – such as ”mortar rounds for a few days” as “localized unrest,” ignoring terrorist activity that were foiled. Israeli officials are far less optimistic, expecting hostilities to resume after the disengagement. They say there has been a 54% increase in terrorist attacks between March and April, with 205 attacks in April, compared to ‘only’ 133 in March. There has been a corresponding rise in security warnings.[36] In April there were 30 different occasions where Palestinians in Gaza opened fire on Israeli forces, wounding three Israelis.[37] Neither these, nor any other terrorist acts or activities in March and April cited above were reported in the London Guardian; instead, the paper claimed in an April 21 report entitled “Guns of Gaza stay loaded but silent as talks go on” that “Palestinian militants keep the ceasefire as they await peace deal”[38] … Perhaps ‘peace in our time’? “What’s happening now isn’t considered a calm. It’s merely a warrior’s rest,” Abu Musab, a senior member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade declared frankly a month earlier in a March 29th interview in Yidiot Aharonot. “When the confrontation renews, we’ll be back with methods and tools never before seen.” You’d better believe it. [1] Joshua Brilliant, “Military: Mixed Picture with Palestinians,” UPI, May 11, 2005, at http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050510-053900-1372r.htm An Israeli security officer told Brilliant that “a third of the 400 people on the “wanted list” are now “on hold” having received jobs with the Palestinian security forces. Another third are negotiating an arrangement and the rest are waiting to see developments.” [2] U.S. fights uniformed insurgents by border, CNN, May 11, 2005, at http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/05/10/iraq.main/ [3] Following appointment of a Shiite-led Iraqi government on April 28th. See Paul Garwood, “Official: Al-Zarqawi Ordered Iraq Attacks,” Washington Post, May 19, 2005, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/18/AR2005051800414.html [4] Amos Harel, “Israeli killed when hit by Palestinian vehicle near Hebron,” Haaretz, April 26, 2005, at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/568875.html [5] “Counter-terrorism, January-March 2005, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, A[pril 4, 2005, at http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+and+Islamic+Fundamentalism-/Counter-terrorism+Jan-Mar+2005.htm?DisplayMode=print [6] Efrat Weiss, “Shin-Bet foils Museum attack,” Yidiot Aharonot, April 4, 2005, at http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3067959,00.html [7] AP, “IDF arrests 15-year-old boy carrying five pipe,” Haaretz, April 12, 2005, at www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/564145.html [8] “Palestinian boy caught with gun at Hawara checkpt. Jerusalem Post, May 13, 2005, at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115867639624&p=1078397702269 [9] “IDF soldiers arrest teenage suicide bomber at Nablus checkpoint,” Haaretz, May 22, 2005, at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/578988.html [10] “Terrorist attack thwarted when soldiers uncovered an explosive belt at the Beit Iba crossing,” IDF Spokesman, May 276, 2005, at http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?sl=EN&id=7&clr=1&docid=40582.EN [11] Efrat Weiss, Ibid. [12] “Eight Jihad activists arrested in Jenin,” Jerusalem Post, March 29, 2005, at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1112066442142&p=1078397702269 [13] “Elite unit nabs suspected ’ticking-bomb’,” Jerusalem Post, April 11, 2005, at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1113186247854&p=1078027574097 [14] AP, “Mofaz calls rocket attack on Sderot “very serious” but does nothing,” April 8, 2005, at http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Briefs/5296.htm [15] “Significant increase in terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 27, 2005, at http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+and+Islamic+Fundamentalism-/Significant+increase+in+terrorist+activity+in+the+Gaza+Strip+27-Apr-2005.htm?DisplayMode=print [16] “Sderot: Sharon waited too long to act,” jnewswire, June 28, 2004, at http://www.jnewswire.com/library/article.php?articleid=259 [17] Margot Dudkevich, “Kassam lands near Sderot,” Jerusalem Post, April 8, 2005. [18] “Weissglas to Erekat: Stop Gaza attacks immediately,” Haaretz, May 19, 20-05, at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/577319.html [19] Amos Harel, “In face of mortars, Israel grits its teeth,” Haaretz, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=563239&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0 [20] Margot Dudkevitch and Arieh O’Sullivan, “Mortars fall again in Gush Katif, Jerusalem Post, April 10, 2005, at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1113025482014 [21] “Weissglas to Erekat: Stop Gaza attacks immediately,” Haaretz, May 19, 20-05, at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/577319.html [22] “Attack on Kfar Darom,” IDF Spokesman’s Office, May 22, 2005, at http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?sl=EN&id=7&docid=40291.EN [23] “Israeli air force struck Palestinian missile launchers at northern Gaza Strip’s Beit Hanoun Sunday night after two Qassams fired against Sderot,” Debka file, May 29, 2005, at www.debka.co.il [24] Itzhak Saban and Yossi Yehoshua, “Firing of Qassams will continue after the disengagement”, Yidiot Aharonot, May 5, 2005. [25] Debka File (in Hebrew), May 29, 2005, at www.debka.org.il. [26] Hanan Greenberg, “Terror Returns to Gaza, Yidiot Aharonot, April 17, 2005, at http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3073883,00.html [27] “IDF arrests 15-year-old boy carrying five pipe bombs,” ibid. [28] Herb Keinon, “Mofaz paints dim picture of PA security,” Jerusalem Post, May 16, 2005, at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1116123544084. [29] Joel Leyden, “Israel remembers Passover terrorism,” Israerl News Agency, April 4, 2004, at http://www.israelnewsagency.com/israelpassoverterrorism122151.html [30] “Palestinian Bomber Suspects Escape,” CBC News, April 22, 2005, at http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/04/22/palestinian-militant050422.html [31] Amnon Regular and Yuval Azoulay, “Soldier killed in shoot-out near Tul Karm,” Haaretz, May 3, 2005 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571462.html [32] “Summary of Last Week’s Events in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip,” IDF Spokesman’s Office, Sunday May 22, 2005, at http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?sl=EN&id=7&docid=40289.EN [33] “Summary of remarks by Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the CFSP, at the Meeting on Supporting the Palestinian Authority,” EU press release, March 1, 2005, at http://www.eu-delegation.org.eg/en/News/100.asp [34] “EU’s Solana seeks international Mideast conference but cautious about date,” EU Business, April 28, 2005, at http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/050428170252.g2qhzmjc. [35] David Makovsky, “Bridge the Gaps in Peace Process,”, Baltimore Sun, April 29, 2005, at http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=822. [36] “Terror attacks increase 54% from March to April,” Jerusalem Post, May 3, 2005, at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115086695010&p=1078397702269. [37] “Significant increase in terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip, “Significant increase in terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip,” ibid. [38] Conal Urquhart, “Guns of Gaza Stay Loaded but Silent as talks go on,” Guardian, April 21, 2005, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1464649,00.html. The only mention of terrorist activity after the February 2005 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, was a brief April 8 report of one Qassam rocket targeting Sderot that “landed harmlessly in a field.”

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