|
The Lessons of Operation Defensive Shield
by Neil Lazarus
(may 23, 2002)
Introduction
With a temporary lull in the level of violence between Israel and
the Palestinians, this special feature of Behind the Headlines is
dedicated to understanding the lessons of Operation Defensive Shield.
In this article we shall consider the lessons of Defensive Shield
and how it has affected the Palestinian Authority and the standing
of Yasser Arafat.
The Decline of Arafat
A recent cartoon in Newsweek Magazine depicted Ariel Sharon wearing
a T-shirt' with "Yasser Arafat... you can't shoot him and you
can't live with him" written across it. This cartoon aptly
described the Sharon government's policy of marginalizing the leader
of the Palestinian Authority.
The Oslo Accords, beginning in 1993, introduced Arafat into to
mainstream world politics.
- Operation Defensive Shield enabled Arafat to be relegated in
his ranking in world opinion.
- However, as we shall see, one of the most serious outcomes
of Operation Defensive Shield may be the opening of an Arab (Egypt,
Saudi and Jordanian) diplomatic channel in mainstream world politics.
It may equally be said that Defensive Shield allowed the Palestinians
to show unity and enhance a personality cult around Arafat, but
these must be weighed against the other outcomes, which are further
reaching.
The Operation's Implications for Terror
The Sharon government has claimed that Arafat did not want peace
and was sponsoring terrorism. They had also been demanding the arrest
of terrorists and that the Palestinian Authority act to prevent
suicide bombers.
A clear outcome of the operation was Israel's seizure of documents
proving Arafat's personal knowledge and authorization of terror
activities. From the files seized it was apparent and substantiated:
the PA was financing, protecting and directing militias engaged
in the murder of Israeli civilians, rather than incarcerating those
involved in terror.
More embarrassing for Arafat still, was the discovery of the assassins
of the Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi in his Ramallah compound.
He had claimed these men were in jail.
For a full report of Arafat's sponsorship of terrorism see:
http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/actual/zeevi.html
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0lom0
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?pmoU03jq0
The Weakening of Arafat and the Palestinian
Authority
"The Palestinian Authority leadership is not the kind of
leadership that can lead to the kind of Palestinian state we need...
The Palestinian leadership must be democratic, transparent and non-corrupt…
what we ask of every government in the world. And we are going to
start demanding [that] of the Palestinian leadership."
United States National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice
Reform has become a buzzword for many officials in the Palestinian
Authority after the humiliating defeat of Operation Defensive Shield.
While many international observers welcomed the Palestinian "glasnost",
the Palestinian themselves admit that the changes only have one
purpose: "to help the ability of the Palestinian people to
resist and reject Israel."
The sudden growth of Palestinian calls for reform is a direct outcome
of Operation Defensive Shield. Dissatisfaction with the leadership
swelled when Palestinians realized that their leaders had failed
to come up with any creative responses to the Israeli military offensive.
The events highlighted the corruption in public institutions and
the leadership, which often failed to serve the needs of ordinary
Palestinians.
In the past, the Palestinians have resisted such calls to reform,
but over the last month, they discovered that their security organizations
could not provide them with adequate protection in face of even
a brief Israeli reoccupation. Defensive Shield also left some of
the organizations with shattered resources.
Bypassing Arafat
Perhaps one of the most interesting developments of Operation Defensive
Shield has been the initial successful attempt to set up an alternative
diplomatic track that circumvents Yasser Arafat. This new track
is sponsored by Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
It should be noted that world and regional hostility to the Palestinian
Authority increased when Arafat accepted military aid from the Iranians.
Egypt and Jordan feared that Arafat had Iranian intervention and
how this would impact on them regionally and in terms of the US
anti-terror initiative.
Palestinian Authority
Use of the Big Lie.
An important lesson of Operation Defensive Shield has been in the
field of propaganda. Palestinian propagandists used every technique
possible. Accusations of massacre were common, the most blatant
being Jenin.
- Jibril Rajoub (March 30, on MAHAD TV, a local television station
in Ramallah) accused Israel of carrying out a "massacre",
executing 30 Palestinians in Ramallah. The announcement was also
broadcast on Al Jazeera and other stations.
The reality, of course, is different: in battles, which took place
on that day in Ramallah, 9 Palestinians were killed - all of them
armed.
- Palestinian television reported on April 2, on the basis of
an official announcement by the Palestinian leadership, that a
priest named Jacques Amathis had been killed and dozens of monks
wounded in an IDF action in Bethlehem. The announcement was published
prominently in the Italian and French media and prompted a storm
of protest. The following day the "late" priest was
interviewed by the MINSA news agency and confirmed that he and
the monks in the monastery were safe and well.
- Arafat, in an interview to Al Jazeera television on April 3,
claimed that Israel had "burned the mosque" opposite
Santa Maria Church in Bethlehem and "destroyed many churches
and mosques". He called upon the Christian and Muslim world
to take action. MAHAD TV reported that a fire had broken out in
the Omar el-Hatib Mosque in Bethlehem and that the IDF was preventing
the fire brigade from reaching the site to extinguish the flames.
None of these charges has any factual basis.
- The WAFA (Palestinian News Agency) Internet site reported on
April 2 that the IDF had shelled the new mosque in Tulkarm after
the muezzin called people to noon prayers.
This was a complete fiction.
- Jibril Rajoub claimed, in an interview with Syrian television
network ANN on March 30, that the only people in the compound
of the preventive Security Services in Betouniya were people working
for the service, women and civilians, and that there were no wanted
terrorists there.
The truth, of course, is somewhat different. On April 2, a number
of wanted terrorists were captured in the building, including
senior members of Hamas involved in many terrorist activities.
Allegations about delay of medical service
- On April 2nd the WAFA Internet site reported the Palestinian
Minister of Health, Riyad Al Zanoun saying that the IDF had taken
control of five Palestinian ambulances in Ramallah; forced their
medical teams to strip; and taken them to an unknown site, in
order to prevent them from treating the wounded.
In reality, ever since an explosive belt was discovered in a Palestinian
ambulance underneath a stretcher on which a small child was lying
(end of March, at the A-Ram check post), the IDF has been forced
to act with extreme caution.
- A similar charge, incidentally, was made on April 5 by Al Kuds
newspaper, which reported that a Red Crescent ambulance was seized
in El Bireh, and that IDF soldiers attacked its driver and the
paramedics traveling with him.
No such incident ever took place.
- The Al Kuds newspaper reported on April 4 that the IDF refused
to permit a patient to be transferred by ambulance from the clinic
in the Greek Orthodox Monastery in Beit Sahour to hospital in
Beit Jala. In fact, no such incident took place.
- In an interview with Abu Dhabi television on March 29, Arafat
claimed that "there was also that incident in Hebron, that
insolent and criminal incident; they even attacked and killed
in the Hebron area three members of the international force: two
from Turkey and one of the nurses from Switzerland."
In fact, the murder of the TIPH (Temporary International Force
in Hebron) observers on the evening of 26 March was committed
by the Palestinians. International bodies working with TIPH also
acknowledged the Palestinian responsibility for that murder.
A TIPH vehicle traveling near Halhul was ambushed by an armed
Palestinian, even though the passengers identified themselves
as members of TIPH and their vehicle was clearly marked as a TIPH
vehicle. The Palestinian terrorist murdered two observers and
lightly wounded another. The testimony of the wounded observer
revealed that the Palestinian terrorist wore a Palestinian Police
Uniform and was equipped with an AK-47 Kalashnikov weapon. The
Palestinian terrorist fired three magazines at close range. The
IDF expressed its sorrow and shock for the cold-blooded murder
of innocent people.
- The WAFA agency reported on April 5 that the IDF shelled the
Um Nasser neighborhood, the Al Udeh towers and the residential
areas near the Salah a Din road in the Northern Gaza Strip.
Arafat consistently claimed in press interviews that Palestinian
collaborators working with Israel committed the murder of Israeli
Government Minister Rehavam Zeevi. On 19 February, Arafat was
still making this claim in an interview to the French newspaper
"l'Humanit?": "The murderers of Zeevi are collaborators
with Israel and we arrested their brothers. They admitted to us
that their whole family works for Israel".
On 21 February, the day the French newspaper published the interview,
the murderers were arrested and interrogated by security organs
of the Palestinian Authority, following heavy pressure from Israel.
The transcripts of the interrogation were captured by the IDF
in Arafat's Ramallah compound, and they clearly do not show any
connection to Israel.
The murder of Minister Zeevi was committed by members of the "Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)" in October
of 2001. That information was transmitted by Israel to the PA
immediately after the murder. Arafat knew for some months who
committed the Zeevi murder. The Dolphinarium terrorist act (June
2000) was committed by terrorists from the Hamas infrastructure
in Judea and Samaria.
- Allegations that Israel is committing terrorist acts against
her own civilians are not accidental or new to Arafat. In that
same interview to the French newspaper, Arafat claims: "In
the terrorist attack in the Tel Aviv club (the Dolphinarium),
the terrorist was transported by a man who arrived from Jordan
with a visa from the Israeli embassy and is now under Israeli
protection... Israeli Prime Minister Rabin himself was murdered
by a man who worked for the Israeli General Security Service and
who fled to the U.S."
Assessment of Operation Defensive Shield
Operation Defensive Shield was incomplete. For a shield to be complete
Israel needs to strengthen its defense and preemptive capability.
- The West Bank operation strengthened the preventive capabilities
of Israel but not its defensive ability. There is no protected
border there are no buffer zones or closed security areas.
- Between Israel and the Gaza Strip, there is a defensive ability
(such as a security fence and other protection), but no preventive
measures against terrorist sites. Although delayed, an attack
on Gaza is a necessity if Defensive Shield is to be successful.
- Any entry into Gaza would mark a new and deadly phase of the
Intifada. The original plan to do, shelved as Israel encountered
international criticism for Stage 1 of Defensive Storm, was brought
up for renewed discussion after the first bomber killed 15 in
a Rishon Lezion night club on May 7th.
- However, the lapse between the original plan and the Cabinet
decision that Israel ought to act in the Gaza Strip was critical:
it became evident that terrorist cells had had plenty of notice
to conceal arms, find hiding places for themselves and plant abundant
booby traps to maximize Israeli losses - to the point where ideas
had to be revised. Any action therefore looks likely to be limited
to certain targets, rather than generalized, as Israel does not
want to risk accidental casualties in a densely populated area,
nor high losses among IDF forces.
As Moshe Katsav said:
"The State of Israel is locked in a bloody struggle with
the Palestinians. The struggle is fateful and will determine the
security and future of the state. The struggle is with brutal enemies
who, motivated by terrifyingly dark and satanic forces, shot a five-year-old
girl in the head in her own bedroom, used rocks to smash the skulls
of young boys, and perpetrated massacres at discotheques, restaurants
and on holy Passover Eve."
Sources:
A Reform, Palestinian Style, Miriam Shaviv and Mohammed
Najib, Jerusalem Pos,t May 9 2002
Arafat's Reality, Barry Rubin, Jerusalem Post, May 8 2002
www.jpost.com
On the Same Page, Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, May 9 2002
www.jpost.com
IDF website http://www.idf.il/
Excerpt from Lies and Disinformation as a Palestinian Weapon,
State of Israel - Media Center, April 10th, 2002
Israel Government Press Office Press briefing, 2/5/2002
|
|
|