Arafat Girds for Last Battle

[Gość: Yidele]

Arafat Girds for Last Battle
21 January: Since the Israeli army’s massive takeover of the Palestinian town
of Tulkarm on the West Bank before dawn Monday, Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat has, according to military sources, advanced the timetable for his
planned Waterloo, the battle he sees as his last heroic stand. Confined to
Ramallah since December 3, Arafat said to his intimates a few days ago words to
the effect that: We are all in rapid motion towards laying down our lives in
the sacred cause.
The expression he used was not contemporary; it came from the old Muslim Hadith
tradition. One feature of the Intifada Arafat embarked on 15 months ago is his
increasing resort to fundamentalist modes of speech and thought.
Our sources take his words to mean that he is ready for a final showdown with
Israel, barring only the time and venue. Once they are decided, he will order
the secret Palestinian arsenals opened up and the heavy weapons he has
stockpiled in the Gaza Strip and West Bank brought out for battle. He is known
to have hidden stores of Qasem-1 and Qasem-2 rockets, mortars and anti-tank and
anti-air missiles. They will be used for attacks on Israeli population centers
and setting Israeli tanks and helicopters on fire. Arafat will no doubt follow
Osama bin Laden’s example and instruct his men never to surrender but fight to
the death. It is far from sure that every last Palestinian will obey this
directive. Some may prefer to lay down arms and give themselves up.
The Israeli army command has developed responses to the various possible
Palestinian scenarios, which may include instructions from Arafat to a
Palestinian force to carry out a suicidal attempt to capture an Israeli town or
village, or a part of one. This force could scarcely hope to survive.
His last diplomatic act before all is lost is likely to be a dramatic last-hope
appeal from the battlefield to Arab, American and European rulers to intervene
to save the Palestinian people. If this comes off, the Palestinian leader will
have won the final victory of turning the conflict over to an international
authority.
Even if his European backers let him down, Saddam Hussein and the Hizballah may
ride to the rescue. They could fire their missiles against Israeli targets,
thereby opening a second front and expanding Arafat’s fight to an Arab war
proper.
Arafat’s last gamble has been decided, all except for the timing, location and
sequence. By using the word masha’ri - meaning rapid - he sends a strong signal
that he does not intend to let the grass grow under his feet.
There is no doubt that the stranglehold imposed on him by Ariel Sharon is
tightening. It is given an additional tug every time a Palestinian gunman goes
on a terror spree..
Monday, the large force of Israeli tanks, APCs, paratroops, infantry and
helicopters pushing into Tulkarem took over a whole Palestinian town for the
first time. It clamped down a curfew and moved from house to house to detain
suspects, facing very little resistance.
The terrorist who murdered 6 Israelis celebrating a Bat Mitzva in Hadera last
Thursday, January 17, was a member of the Tulkarm Tanzim, a militia run by
Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. The Tanzim has taken the lead in terror operations since
the capture of the Palestinian arms smuggling boat on January 3.
Since the Hadera outrage, warnings have proliferated of impending terrorist
strikes planned for Israeli population centers. Israel has reacted with
blockades of all four north West Bank Palestinian towns, Nablus, Jenin and
Qalqilya, as well as Tulkarm. It has also bombed the government building in
Tulkarm, dynamited the Voice of Palestinian building and tightened the military
grip on Ramallah. IDF tanks have moved to within 50 meters of the headquarters
in which Arafat has been confined since December 3, sparking some clashes and
demonstrations.
Arafat’s own people will not be able to ignore the snub administered their
leader by the former US president Bill Clinton, architect of the 1993 Oslo
peace framework accords, who welcomed Yasser Arafat to the White House and Camp
David. In Israel to receive an honorary doctorate from TelAvivUniversity,
Clinton will not be calling on Arafat and has publicly accused him of missing a
golden opportunity in 2000. He was referring to the Camp David meeting at which
Arafat turned down Ehud Barak’s proposals, the most magnanimous offer Israel
has ever made the Palestinians. Instead he prepared the Intifada.
Clinton might also accuse himself of not understanding the nature of terrorism.
The Washington Post has called his failure to do away with Osama bin Laden,
despite the opportunities to do so found by US intelligence, the most serious
lapse of his presidency.
Terrorism analysts note that Clinton, in the address he is taking round the
lecture circuit, admits he cannot understand why Muslims are so anti-American
when he, as president, went to war in Kosovo for the sake of the poverty-
stricken Muslim farmers of the Balkans. The result he seems to have missed: The
Muslim farmers are as poor as ever, but the Albanian mafia, al Qaeda’s
operational arm in the Balkans and Europe, has prospered.
In the same way, Arafat’s bloody career – and all the aid poured into his
regime – will not do the hundreds of thousands of needy Palestinians the
slightest bit of good, or compensate them for everything the Intifada has cost
them.
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