Monday-Friday mid-day reports from Israel by Robert Rosenberg
Images by Silvia Rosenberg (unless otherwise noted)
Shooting and talking II
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Fear the fear, painting by Silvia Rosenberg
Yesterday it was a shooting at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, killing two soldiers. Today it was a shooting at the Yitzhak Rabin border crossing between Jordan and Israel, not far from Eilat-Aqaba. Five Ecuadorian tourists were wounded, including one critically and one seriously before Israeli security officers on the scene fired back, killing the gunman. Jordan reported making some arrests and officers from both countries were to meet at the usually heavily guarded crossing later today.
Meanwhile, late last night, Palestinian security services said they had arrested a Gazan man, living in Bethlehem as a trooper in the National Security services, who they said was responsible for the Bethlehem shooting. According to the Palestinians, the man hijacked a Palestinian taxi to make his escape from the scene of the shooting yesterday morning, and apparently expecting to be killed in his attack, he made a videotape taking credit for the attack. So far, Israeli security services have not confirmed the Palestinian arrest, an Israel Radio report said.
The two incidents have done nothing to halt a gathering momentum toward a meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei’, s far apparently slated for next week.
In Italy, and speaking as ‘a senior source’ in his entourage, Sharon told reporters last night that Qurei’ is ‘no Arafat puppet nor rag doll, he’s an independent and serious fellow.’ No such compliments greeted Mahmoud Abbas, whom Sharon at one point referred to as ‘featherless chick.’ By Sharon standards the compliments were so effusive, that there were commentators this morning warning that it could backfire against Qurei’, since the last thing he needs as he works on a cease-fire deal with all the armed factions, is appearing to be a Sharon puppet.
Qurei’ was in Gaza today, meeting with Fateh and Hamas officials. One major problem he faces is that cells from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed Fateh wing created during the intifada, is saying that it won’t abide by any cease-fire. And even though Mohammed Dahlan, the interior minister in charge of security for the Abbas government is out of government, Qurei met with Dahlan this morning.
On the Hamas front, Qurei’ is hearing that while the Islamic movement is ready to consider a halt to attacks on Israeli civilians, completely ending its ‘military’ activities, would be contradictory to Palestinian interests, meaning attacks on soldiers would continue. Israel won’t accept that – though ‘sources close to the foreign minister’ reportedly said this morning that Israel would cease its assassinations of Hamas leaders if there is a complete halt to Hamas armed actions.
The real struggle between Qurei’ and Hamas – and Islamic Jihad – is over Qurei’s authority to present Sharon with a cease-fire, with the Islamic groups that are so much in opposition to the Palestinian Authority that they refused to take part in the elections in the mid-1990s and are still not saying if they will take part in the elections Qurei’ has decided will take place by June next year.
Another struggle underway is between Yossi Sarid, the Meretz MK, and Yuval Steinitz, the Likud chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, over information that Sarid wanted from Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. Sarid is claiming that he has information that the army lied about the munitions it used in an October missile attack in Nusseirat refugee camp that killed more than a dozen people and wounded more than 70. He asked Mofaz for the correct information and the defense minister said he would only give it to the subcommittee on the secret services.
Sarid, who has served on that subcommittee for may years, but in the current political constellation was kept off it, says he’s considering what to do with the information he has (apparently that the air force used a missile that disperses lethal shrapnel over a large distance and thus was likely to kill innocent people when the missile was aimed at a car carrying known terrorists) – and thus has been accused of threatening to leak the information.
The issue has become one of principle about what information an MK is entitled to have. Sarid claims that he needs the information to do his job as an MK responsible for providing accurate information to the public about when the army is deceiving it. Steinitz wants Sarid disciplined for threatening to leak the information.
Ironically, after 30 years of service in the Knesset, Sarid has never been accused of leaking any security information and even bitter crticis on the Right admit he is an expert on security affairs and treats security information responsibly. Steinitz, on the other hand, was accused of leaking information from the security committee in the past. Sarid will meet with Speaker Reuven Rivlin later today to resolve the issue. Rivlin told Israel Radio this morning that he is certain the issue can be resolved, ‘because after all, MK Sarid is truly a leading light on the issue of state security.’
On another front, a surprising 2.7 percent annualized growth in the economy recorded in the third quarter and announced yesterday was immediately pounced upon by Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to announce ‘the recession is over.’ But his critics charged that the growth was a direct result of the 50-day cease-fire ‘hudna’ in July and half of August, when Israelis resumed private consumption spending, and they said that only a political peace process would result in significant growth (noting that with the population growth at 2 percent, the 2.7 percent is barely real economic growth). Netanyahu today said that it will take another year for ordinary Israelis to feel the impact of his economic program, which he credited for the surprise growth and added that the economy ‘does not have time to wait for a political process.’
And the High Court of Justice overturned a decision by the Israel Broadcasting
Authority and the Second Broadcasting Authority to ban commercials promoting unofficial peace plans.
The three-justice panel, headed by Supreme Court President Aharon Barak heard the
petitions filed by the brokers of the People's Voice, an Israeli-Palestinian
civil initiative established by Ami Ayalon and Sari Nusseibeh, and the initiators of the Geneva
Accords. Both were denied advertising slots they were ready to pay for on the three main TV channels and state-owned commercial radio.
They will now be able to run their ads. The Geneva accords were distributed this week to some two million mailboxes in the country.
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There have been very few people in the last decade -- and perhaps longer -- who
managed to be heroic for all or almost all Israelis, religious, secular, Right,
Left, Jewish, Arab, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, new immigrant or fifth generation.
Too many issues divide too many people here. But Ilan Ramon, the somewhat baby-faced
air force colonel selected as the first Israeli to go into space on board the
American shuttle craft, was one of those heroes whose deed fired the imagination
of Israelis across every spectrum. Even the most cynical and skeptical had to admire
not only his ascension to that vaunted gallery of people who had the 'right stuff' to
go into space, but the grace with which he did so, the alomost childlike joy he
so generously gave of himself during those live broadcasts from space on board the shuttle,
and the faith in science and humanity that he expressed during his broadcasts.
And then the shuttle crashed, and with it, another hero was gone.
So much hope was pinned on Ramon's trip and in a way, the shuttle disaster tragedy
was more than the loss of an Israeli hero, but like the Rabin assassination,
the loss of the hope for heroes. Get the book. It's short, concise, informative and moving. (RBR)
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