Accidents happen

Thursday, November 18, 2004

In another army-related affair, Supreme Justice Edmund Levy, hearing a petition by several rights groups and some former pilots against the appointment of former air force commander Dan Halutz as deputy chief of staff, has ordered Halutz to explain remarks he made two years ago, after a top Hamas commander was killed by a one-ton bomb aimed at him, but dropped into a neighborhood of flimsy buildings in Gaza, killing at least 16 people, including many children. Halutz was asked at the time what a pilot feels after dropping a one-ton bomb into a populated area, and he said, obviously lightly, that all a pilot feels is a slight flutter of the plane – and that as far as he was concerned, the pilot on that mission ‘performed perfectly.’ Halutz, seen as a leading candidate for chief of staff, has a tendency to sound arrogant in the press. The justice said Halutz’s remarks gave him ‘an uncomfortable feeling -- and that is an understatement’ and ordered the major general to deliver, in 15 days, Halutz’s ‘opinion about the ideals at stake in the impression created by the general’s remarks.’ In other words, the justice is giving Halutz a chance to correct the insensitive impression he created at the time – or to once again put his foot in his mouth.

In another development, the leading Hamas figure in the West Bank, Sheikh Hassan Yusuf was released from an Israeli prison two years after he was arrested during Operation Defensive Shield. He had been suspected of helping to finance terror operations by Hamas in the West Bank but apparently no direct connection as found between him and terrorism. He said today in his hometown Ramallah, that he supports the roadmap and the Saudi peace proposal. He called for a cessation of violence by both sides. He called on Israel and the Palestinians to cease hostilities. ‘Let the brains talk,’ he said. According to Israel Radio, Yusuf’s stature in the Hamas rose considerably because of his time in prison – and because of the failure of the Gaza Hamas to come up with a leadership as charismatic as either Sheikh Ahmed Yassin or Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi, who were both assassinated by Israel.

usuf’s surprisingly moderate remarks seemed to dovetail with a Hamas statement made in Gaza this morning that the Hamas would ‘help’ PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in his efforts to ‘end the anarchy’ in the Palestinian territories. PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei’ has pledged to ‘do everything possible’ against internal violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but declared that ‘Israel must stop its operations in the territories so that we can restore order.’ PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas told Reuters yesterday that he was ordering a halt to the use of illegal weapons – meaning weapons not in the hands of the security services -- in Palestinian areas, ahead of the January 9 elections. ‘Steps will be taken to end the public display or show of arms. We have to move on to a new era,’ he said. But Hamas in Gaza today said that while it would cooperate with Abbas and Qurei’, the armed men under Hamas command would not give up their weapons – and said the ‘fawda’ (the Arabic word for chaos) in the territories was the result of conflicts and competition between the various Palestinian security services. Qurei’, who as PA premier was given control over all the security services, has promised he will unify the 12+ security groups into a three-force apparatus under a single command, a longstanding demand for reform by the West. But so far, there does not seem to be action on the ground in that direction.

In another development, the shakeup in the U.S. National Security Council and State Department as the second Bush administration prepares for the coming four years will apparently include a change of ambassador in Tel Aviv, from Daniel Kurtzer to Elliot Abrams – if Abrams can win Congressional approval, since he has long been tainted by his involvement in the Reagan-era Iran-contra affair. Abrams, one of the better known ‘neoconservatives’ has been holding the Israel portfolio in the NSC under Condoleezza Rice, who is moving to the State Department.

The prevailing wisdom in Jerusalem is that Rice’s move will be good for Israel, since she will be a Bush alter-ego, rather than a devil’s advocate (for moderation) as her predecessor Powell was. But that assumes that Bush will continue allowing Israel to do what it wants in its war against Palestinian terror and won’t apply any real pressure on Israel to take steps to ease conditions for the Palestinians or end settlement activity -- an assumption that has yet to be proven, especially in the post-Arafat era, when Bush finds Abbas, instead of Arafat, in the driver’s seat in the PA. One step already taken by the U.S. – to be announced next week when Powell pays a visit to Ramallah and Jerusalem – is the immediate allocation of at least $20 million to the PA to help pay for the upcoming elections. And significantly, say reports from Washington this morning, the money will not go through either a Congressional filter or international agencies on its way to the PA, but for the first time in years, will be granted directly to the PA treasury. That should come as no surprise, since Bush found a kindred spirit in PA Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, the former World Bank official (and University of Texas alumni). Unlike any Israeli official – including Sharon and his consigliore Dov Weisglass -- Fayyad apparently can talk University of Texas football with Bush.

Meanwhile, an Israel Radio poll this morning said that there is a neck and neck tie in the 2,700-member Likud Central Committee between Tzachi Hanegbi and Uzi Landau for the powerful chairmanship of the notorious party committee. Sharon is backing Hanegbi, and if the former Public Security Minister (now under investigation for criminal exploitation of his political power to hand out jobs to central committee members in exchange for their votes) beats Landau, Sharon is expected to move quickly to bring Labor into his government. But if Landau, a former minister ‘for strategic relations with the U.S.’ whom Sharon fired for voting in the Knesset against the disengagement from Gaza plan, beats Hanegbi, the prime minister can expect non-stop harassment from the Central Committee, which is firmly against bringing Labor into the government. Another poll, due to appear tomorrow in Haaretz, says that a solid 61 percent of the Israeli public continues to support the disengagement plan even after Arafat’s demise, and that only 29 percent believe that Israel should stop the disengagement plan. That kid of resonance for the plan in the broader public, however, has not stopped Education Minister Limor Livnat’s brother from collecting some 3,000 signatures to a petition by army reserve soldiers saying they will refuse to obey commands to evacuate settlers from their homes.