A case of Extasy

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

he Drug Enforcement Agency’s extradition request for Israeli underworld kingpin Ze’ev Rosenstein, whose ability to evade prosecution had turned him into a minor celebrity in the gossip pages, overshadowed everything else today: the imbroglio in Paris at Arafat’s bedside; the coalition’s dissolution as the NRP quits; the anticipation of Netanyahu’s somewhat pathetic withdrawal of his ultimatum to quit the government (ostensibly over Sharon’s refusal to hold a referendum); and the odd case of Israeli radar not spotting an Iranian-made and operated unmanned airborne vehicle that flew undetected over northern Israel for a few minutes this week.

Rosenstein is owner of legitimate casinos, mostly in Eastern Europe, but is suspected of running illegal gambling, prostitution, money laundering, and other crimes in Israel. He was not known to be directly involved in drug peddling, but a three-year DEA investigation reached a climax last night with the simultaneous announcement in Miami and Tel Aviv that Rosenstein headed what might be the largest Extasy drug ring in the world. It is known that Israelis have dominated the international Extasy market for years, but Belgians, Dutch, French and other nationalities are involved. The police in Israel in any case have been terribly frustrated and embarrassed over the past few years as underworld gang warfare has spilled into the ‘civilian’ sector, killing and wounding not only criminals but innocent passersby in the streets of Israeli towns and cities. Thus, even if it means he will spend his time in an American prison instead of an Israeli one (after a presumably lengthy extradition process), their arrest of Rosenstein was reason for the police to pull out the champagne, which is exactly what they were seen doing last night on Channel 1. After all, the last time they were able to arrest the man they suspect of organizing underworld assassinations, it was for possession of a jackknife in his car after a search – and he successfully argued he used the knife for peeling fruit.

The Israeli tabloid press this morning was carried away by the telenovella (soap opera) in Paris. Headlines like ‘the blonde fury’ and ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ adorned the tabloids, as they carried the strange story of Suha Arafat trying to turn the Palestinian people against the emerging leadership only to see it boomerang and turn Palestinians against her. The four-man delegation by the top ranking Palestinian officials after Arafat – Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmed Qurie’, Rouhiu Fathi and Nabil Shaath – was in Paris this morning, lobbying top tier French officials to grant them access to Arafat, or at least his doctors. A key reason for the plethora of rumors, speculation, and outright disinformation about Arafat’s condition since he fell ill at the end of October, has been Mrs. Arafat’s refusal to allow any information out. She has quarreled with everyone – including apparently the doctors at the French army’s Percy Hospital where Arafat is being treated. In Yedioth, this morning, Mohammed Rashid, the long-time financial advisor to Yasser Arafat said that ‘the Palestinian people do not need an Evita,’ and indeed, it seemed that was exactly what Suha was trying to become. But her hysterical comments to Al Jezeera on Monday have completely soured her quest to become a player in the Palestinian (or in her case, Parisian) political and diplomatic circles. According to Israeli reports, she was offered a guarantee that her financial arrangements negotiated by Rashid would remain in effect but apparently wanted more.

Just before noon today, the AP was reporting that the French government overruled Mrs. Arafat and gave the delegation, which saw French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, permission to see Arafat and his French doctors. After that presumably grim session, the delegation presumably will see French President Jacques Chirac. So far, the official Palestinian line, drawn from the opaque official statements made by doctors, is that Arafat is alive, so there is no official public talk about the funeral and burial. There has been plenty of behind closed doors talk of course, with the Palestinians obviously wanting him buried in Jerusalem, the Israelis preferring Gaza, and supposedly, the French and Egyptians, with help from the Americans mediating between the two sides. In any case, someone will have to decide if and when to pull the plug on the life support machinery keeping Arafat alive. By French law that is Mrs. Arafat. But the Palestinian government officials, who were praised last night by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell for their orderly handling of the transfers of powers – and efforts to reach a cease fire – apparently have persuaded French officials that Yasser Arafat is no ordinary patient and the unified leadership should have as much to say about the rais’ treatment as his estranged wife. Thus, expectations in Israel this morning were for the Suha affair to be over by evening – even if the mystery of the whereabouts of the alleged Arafat millions (or billions) remains unsolved.

lso this evening, Binyamin Netanyahu was expected to announce that he was withdrawing his ultimatum to resign over Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s refusal to hold a national referendum on the disengagement plan. Netanyahu’s excuses are likely to be a Likud faction vote calling on him not to quit; a Likud faction vote sending recommendations for a referendum law to be made part of Basic Law (even though with Sharon against a referendum on disengagement, there is no majority for it in the Knesset; and what is being called ‘the new situation’ in the Palestinian arena. He’ll no doubt also say he needs to shepherd his capital market reforms through the legislative process. If Netanyahu surprises everyone and announces he will indeed quit, he immediately becomes leader of the Right and the Likud heads into a fight that will break it up. Elections could then come as soon as the spring – before disengagement.

The National Religious Party did quit Sharon’s government, meaning the coalition is now less than 55 seats. Sharon faces a complex timetable. He must bring in Labor to the coalition, but his Likud’s central committee is opposed to that. On November 23, the central committee will vote for a new president of the committee, and Sharon is backing Tzachi Hanegbi against anti-disengagement leader Uzi Landau. Therefore, he can’t do anything to alienate the central committee between now and November 23, but every day that goes by without bringing in Labor is a risk. Yesterday afternoon, for example, Labor and Yahad saved the government from losing a no confidence motion presented by Shas, since many of the Likud ‘rebels’ simply did not show up for the vote. Labor’s Shimon Peres, who still believes in joining Sharon to make sure disengagement is pushed forward by a stable government, is also up against an end of November deadline when his party’s central committee votes on when to hold primaries elections to choose a party leader. The tendency right now in the party is for those internal elections to be held as soon as possible, probably in February or March. But if he joins Sharon before that central committee vote, it would preclude the primaries.

Thus, the two old men of Israeli politics, Peres and Sharon, are dependent on each other and face a very tight deadline. November, it seems, will be the cruelest month, if only in the way it draws everyone’s nerves to the limits. That the Palestinians meanwhile seem to be nearly systematically implementing the demands for security reforms, a ceasefire (if not the dismantling of the ‘terrorist infrastructure’) and other governmental reforms, will only add to the rising tension, for there is no doubt in Israel that without Arafat to blame, everyone from the Americans to the Egyptians, the EU to the Russians will be demanding that Sharon adjust his unilateral disengagement from Gaza and the northern West Bank into a fully coordinated handover to the Palestinians as part of a broader implementation of the internationally sponsored roadmap to the two-state solution.