Today's Situation

A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS ARREST, May 24, 2007

After a quiet Shavuot holiday, there was another escalation in the crisis that the Israel media has started calling the Qassam War late Wednesday night.

Despite a drastic drop in the number of Qassam rockets fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, the IDF made good on its promise to target not only those launching the rockets, but those funding and commanding the operations as well.

According to Israel Radio, Israeli air force planes targeted two premises in Gaza City which it claims were used to transfer millions of dollars from Iran, Syria and Lebanon to terror organizations in Gaza, as well a car carrying Hamas operatives. Palestinian sources report that several people were wounded in the attacks. Hamas responded by firing the Qassams into the western Negev. No one was injured and there was no damage.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met in another attempt to restore the ceasefire, with Israel.

The two leaders were meeting for the first time since the outbreak of fighting between Hamas and Fateh some two weeks ago. More than 50 Palestinians have been killed in the violence, and Israeli commentators widely assume that the massive Qassam barrage against Sderot is at east partly designed to divert attention away from the internecine clashes.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Hamas and Fateh reached a truce over the weekend, but tensions remain high because of a dispute over control of the security forces. The paper also reports that gunmen opened fired from a passing car late Wednesday night on the Gaza City home of a prominent Fateh official Maher Miqdad, injuring at least two of his bodyguards. Miqdad, who was away from his home at the time, blamed Hamas for the attack.

Abbas arrived in Gaza on Tuesday night under unprecedented security precautions. He held talks Wednesday night with Egyptian mediators before meeting with Haniyeh later in the day. After the meeting, an aide to Haniyeh said any renewed ceasefire would have to be comprehensive and include the West Bank in addition to Gaza.

In what could be construed as Israel's response to this demand, however, IDF troops carried out an extensive arrest operation in the West Bank city of Nablus in the early hours of Thursday, arrest 33 officials, including a minister, the mayor and deputy mayor and at least three Hamas lawmakers.

According to Palestinian sources, troops entered Nablus before dawn and took Education Minister Nasser Al-Shaer into custody. Army Radio quotes a military spokesman as confirming that the IDF had carried out an arrest operation but adding, "At this point, I cannot elaborate who was arrested." This is the second arrest for al-Shaer; he was picked up previously after Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas last June.

Arutz 7 reports that a top army officer warned that they plan to haul in more of Hamas' political leaders as soon as clearance is received from the Israeli court system. "Any member of the organization whose goals are terrorist acts, is on our list and they will all be judged severely," the officer said.

The Jerusalem Post also reports that Israel's threat to target senior Hamas leaders in response to the Qassam attacks has prompted the group to agree to a unilateral cease-fire with Israel. The paper quotes an unnamed Palestinian Authority official as saying that 'Hamas wants to stop the Qassam rockets. They are especially worried about reports that Israel may assassinate Haniyeh and Mish'al.'

In response to the comment, a senior government official told the paper that Israel will continue to target the Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza as it has been targeting the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank for years.

At the same time, Israel continues to try and bolster the more moderate Abbas. Haaretz reports in its lead story that Israel has agreed to let Abbas' presidential force undertake extensive training exercises in the Jordan Valley, near Jericho. In so doing, Israel appears to have bent to U.S. pressure to allow the training to go ahead. However, the paper reports, Israel did not agree to an additional request to allow the transfer of thousands of large caliber weapons, such as heavy machine guns, to the Palestinian forces.

On the domestic front, the battle between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Russian billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak also escalated over the holiday. Given the perceived lack of government help for residents of Sderot, Gaydamak has offered to pay for bomb shelters in the town, to evacuate the residents to holiday resorts and, in the latest venture, to built a massive tent city for 'refugees' in a Tel Aviv park.

The Prime Minister's Office, furious at what it calls Gaydamak's cynical manipulation, managed to persuade the mayor of Jerusalem to refuse Gaydamak permission to build his camp in the capital, but by Thursday morning, preparations were well underway for the camp to take in around 1,000 Sderot residents who were due to arrive later in the day.

According to Israel Radio, three deputy mayors opposed the move. Pe'er Visner, Yael Dayan and Aharon Giladi accused Gaydamak of taking cynical advantage of the plight of Sderot residents.

Finally, with just four days left before the Labor Party elects a new leader - or reelects current chairman Amir Peretz - a new poll shows that Ami Ayalon leads former prime minister Ehud Barak by a slim margin. According to the poll, which was conducted for Israel Radio, Ayalon receives 37.8 percent, and Barak 36 percent; this means that both candidates are nearing the 40 percent required to avoid a second round run-off election between the two. The poll shows the leading two candidates increasing their lead over the other three - including Peretz - who are not considered to have a realistic chance of winning.

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