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NEWS
News Analysis
Official Palestinian Terror
by A. Yitzchaki
The discovery that the terrorist who placed the bomb in bus
no. 51 in Tel Aviv two weeks ago was sent by the Palestinian
Authority doesn't surprise anyone. The attempt to draw a
line between Palestinian terror elements and official people
of the Palestinian Authority, has long ago proven futile.
The Palestinian Authority is a full fledged terror
organization. All of its top ranking members are terrorists,
and it functions like all of the terrorist organizations
throughout the world. There is no difference between the
Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the Tanzim or the Fatah. All of
them or agents of Dahlan, Rajoub and of course Yasser
Arafat.
This week this was again thrown in our face with the arrest
of "soldiers" of Force 17 for participation in a number of
shooting incidents, including the murder of Binyamin Kahane
and his wife. Force 17 is an elite unit that is under the
direct command of Arafat, and no one else.
In Arafat's eyes, terror is a primary weapon in the war
against Israel. Already in the days of Rabin's government,
after the signing of the first agreements, Arafat made use
of the terror organizations for squeezing concessions from
Israel. On the one hand, he negotiated with the State of
Israel, and on the other hand he overlooked the activity of
the terror organizations. Officially, he was repelled by
terror, but it was clear to all that if he wanted, he could
reduce the terrorist attacks to a minimum. Since the Oslo
agreement, there have been only very brief periods in which
Arafat took substantial measures against the terror
organizations, and even then he exerted caution, in order
not to totally eliminate the terror option.
However during that time, at least outwardly, Arafat was
careful not to be identified with terror. He knew that the
Israeli government has a red line on this issue, according
to which one does not negotiate with a terror organization.
Arafat's fear of the reaction of the United States, which as
is known uses strict means including rigorous sanctions,
against terrorist states such as Libya, Iraq and Syria,
caused him to dissociate himself from terrorist attacks,
even though it was obvious that he derived benefit from
them.
However this red line has been totally violated during the
past few months Arafat uses terror in an official and
declarative manner in his struggle against Israel. His men
don't distinguish between the two sides of the green line,
and as far as they are concerned, wherever there are Jews,
preferably women and children, is a good place for a
terrorist attack.
Arafat's fears of a sharp Israeli reaction have already been
stashed away. The Israeli government continues negotiations
as if there was no terror. Its top ranking officials don't
dream of stopping the deliberations or of freezing their far-
fetched promises until the terror ceases. Even the American
government totally ignores the role Palestinian Authority in
the organizing of terrorist attacks against civilians.
Clinton thinks that if the Israeli government doesn't see
that as a reason for stopping the negotiations, than why
should he? The fact that the United States is struggling
against governments that are havens for terror, did not
bother Clinton from receiving Arafat as an honored guest in
his office, without sternly and unequivocally demanding that
he stop the terror. He doesn't have to be any more firm than
Israel, the main victim of the terror. If it doesn't bother
the government of Israel, why should it bother Clinton?
Now we have to see what the new president will do.
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