Text by Robert Rosenberg
Photo of the Day by BauBau
Paintings by Silvia Rosenberg

Today's Situation

Ya'alon, Dirani, Arbel

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

hief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon was surprisingly and uncharacteristically optimistic this morning after briefing President Moshe Katsav on the prisoner exchange deal with the Hezbollah. According to Ya’alon, the ‘second stage’ of the prisoner deal, in which the Hezbollah, presumably with help from Syria and Iran, will provide information about missing aviator Ron Arad, and three missing soldiers from a 1982 battle at Sultan Yaqub in Lebanon as well as a soldier who went missing on the Golan several years ago, is based on ‘information,’ and not ‘hope,’ as the Israel Radio reporter put it.

According to the deal mediated by the Germans, after this Thursday’s anticipated exchange on German soil and at the Rosh Hanikra Israel-Lebanon border crossing on the Mediterranean, the Hezbollah will provide solid information about the navigator missing for the last 17 years, in exchange for the release of convicted murderer-terrorist Samir Kuntar. And, added Deputy Minister Gideon Ezra added this morning in an interview with Israel Radio, if that information proves true, Israel will have no alternative but to free more prisoners in later phases of the deal if it wants to get Arad back, whether he’s dead or alive. While officially, Israel has always argued that until proven otherwise it assumes Arad is alive – and some government officials have indicated they have information that hints at him being alive, possibly in an Iranian jail – Israel’s military reporters have lately been saying that it is highly doubtful the aviator is alive.

In any case, Mustafa Dirani, kidnapped seven year ago by Israel in south Lebanon, in the hope of using him as a bargaining card to win back Arad, told reporters today that he did not ‘sell’ Arad to the Iranians, as Israel has claimed, and that during Arad’s stay under Dirani’s guard, Arad was not tortured.

It was the first time Dirani ever was allowed to speak directly with Israeli reporters, and it took place on his way into Tel Aviv District Court, where he is suing Israel for NIS 6 million in damages, charging he was tortured after his capture, including assaults by someone called ‘George’ who allegedly used a baseball bat like club to sodomize him.

Dirani’s Israeli lawyer, Zvi Riche, has found a former intelligence officer ready to testify that indeed there was an officer dubbed George who used illegitimate methods of interrogation –last night, Channel Ten news played a tape recording of that witness describing some of ‘George’s’ methods. ‘At one point, I would just leave the room,’ said the unnamed former officer, explaining he wanted nothing to do with George’s tactics.

The state is saying that Dirani’s claims of being tortured and sodomized are an alibi, proven false by a Military Police investigation. The state is arguing that no pressure was applied to Dirani to get him to provide information to Israeli intelligence, and that the entire suit is meant to ‘provide him with an insurance policy’ to protect him on his return to Lebanon, when, said a prosecutor, Dirani will be asked why he provided information to the Israelis.

The prisoner deal, which was expected to turn Hezbollah and its leader Nasrallah, into heroes in the eyes of the Palestinians, might have boomeranged on that front, claimed Israel Radio this morning. The reporter said Palestinian prisoners are accusing Nasrallah of giving into Israeli demands that the released prisoners all be ‘small fry.’ Fateh reportedly was delivering the message that the Hezbollah’s prisoner exchange was ‘purely public relations’ and did little to rescue prisoners ‘who are old, ailing, women, or in prison for many years.’

n another legal front, State Prosecutor Edna Arbel said last night that public servants who are indicted must be suspended from their position. Sharon and his close associates have indicated he has no intention of quitting even if indicted and that he would take advantage of a lacuna in the Basic Law for the government that allows an indicted prime minister to remain in office until a final court verdict is given.

Sharon media advisor Eyal Arad came out from behind the scenes last night to say that ‘President Clinton did not resign when he was indicted by the Senate,’ either a deliberate misreading or a lack of understanding of the presidential impeachment process in the U.S. – but clearly an attempt on Sharon’s part to start testing public reactions to the possibility of an indictment, something that until now, Sharon’s people have been claiming will never happen. Arbel stressed that Supreme Court rulings in the past made clear that crimes involving political corruption leave no option other than an indictment. Careful not to specifically refer to Sharon's ongoing investigation, she did say that ‘even senior figures can commit offences, and a distinction should not be made between public figures and the rest of the public.’

In any case, it won’t be up to Arbel but to new Attorney General Menachem ‘Menny’ Mazuz to decide on an indictment or not. A longtime civil servant who has remained largely out of the public eye, Mazuz is being described in the press as principled, disinterested in proximity to money and power, and one of his first decisions is to stay away from cabinet meetings, unless absolutely necessary. Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Likud MK Yuval Steinitz called on Arbel to resign, charging she is trying to force Mazuz to indict Sharon.

On the Palestinian front, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, were meeting with Yasser Arafat and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei’ in the Muqata today, discussing a new hudna. Coincidentally or not, ‘security sources’ told Israel Radio this morning that at least 30 wanted terrorists are holed up in the Palestinian government headquarters in Ramallah. Hamas has raised the possibility of a 10-year hudna – but Israel is loathe to having any direct dealings with the armed Islamic fundamentalist group, which refuses to recognize Israel and wants to impose an Islamic government over all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

One bit of good news: Lake Kinneret rose another 13 cm in the last 24 hours and is now 1.28 meters below the level at which hydrologists start releasing water from the lake into the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.

Previously

Going places acrylics on paper, 50x70 by Silvia Rosenberg

Recommended articles

January 15, 2004 A Palestinian refusenik writes an open letter to the Jewish people by Palestinian-American Ray Hanania, who mourns the loss of sense of humor on both sides of the conflict.

January 6, 2004 Death of a Road Map : Ex-Mossad chief Efraim Halevy has finally said what has long been obvious - the Quartet Roadmap for peace is all but dead. Actually, Ariel Sharon said the same thing in his speech to the Likud party convention, though it may have sounded as though he was saying the opposite.

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[an error occurred while processing this directive] in Frosties, the anthology of quotations

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