Review 22.5
11 April - 24 April, 1997

GREEN LIGHT, RED LIGHT:

Did Arafat give a green light to terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians last week? Israel says yes, the Palestinian Authority says no, the US privately agrees Arafat was to blame but publicly isn't sure. According to Israeli intelligence, on the evening of March 9 Arafat met secretly with Hamas, Islamic Salvation Front, PFLP and DFLP representatives. The meeting, which went all night, culminated in Arafat giving the green light to those present to recommence terrorist operations and violent protests against Israel. The next day, against the advice of his advisers, Arafat released from prison Ibrahim Maqadma, leader of Hamas's secret military arm and hundreds of his followers. The bombings, student riots, stabbings, and Molotov cocktail attacks began soon after. The day after the suicide bombing at the Apropo Cafe in Tel Aviv, Maqadma addressed a public gathering in Gaza during which he announced "suicide attacks would be launched in every conceivable place until Netanyahu will curse the day his mother gave birth to him".

Following the March 9 meeting, the Israelis became so concerned at the prospect of renewed terrorist attacks that Netanyahu repeatedly tried to telephone Arafat. Arafat refused to take the calls. Next, US mediator Dennis Ross was asked to call Arafat to warn him off. Arafat wouldn't speak to Ross either, hopping instead on his private plane to Islamabad where he stayed for the next week while his handiwork took effect at home.

Details of the March 9 meeting were forwarded by Israel the following day to US intelligence. The US considered Israel's interpretation of the exchanges between Arafat and Hamas figures as "verging on the hysterical" and dismissed Israeli predictions that this signalled a recurrence of the violent terror operations of the past. Twelve days later a suicide bomber struck in Tel Aviv. Three similar bombing attempts have since failed. Two were targeted at Israeli school busses that escaped tragedy because they were running later than scheduled.

EYES AND EARS:

Despite protestations to the contrary Arafat has effective control over 97% of the population of the West Bank. US intelligence officers claim no action can today be taken on the West Bank or Gaza without his express knowledge and consent. Arafat's security personnel are less delicate than their Israeli counterparts and have repeatedly shown their preparedness to act thoroughly and aggressively to enforce this. According to Israeli intelligence, after Peres's ultimatum to Arafat to stop terrorist activities on the eve of the last election, all plans for suicide attacks were immediately shelved, terrorists arrested and incidents suddenly stopped - on instruction from Arafat himself.

But the peace accords have left Israeli intelligence in an uncharacteristically vulnerable quandary over territory now controlled by Arafat. Whereas in the past Israel's domestic intelligence agency - Shin Bet - had built up a formidable network of agents and informers in the Palestinian towns in the West Bank and Gaza, the 1994 Oslo accords stipulated that Israel now had to rely on Arafat's Security Service for all intelligence information including that on terrorist activities. Morale in Israeli security circles slumped as agents were forced to abandon the network of contacts they had acquired among the Palestinians. The policy went disastrously wrong when Israeli intelligence found themselves relying on information and advance warnings of attempted terrorist attacks from Jibril Rajoub, Arafat's security chief and Mohammed Dahlan, Arafat's counterintelligence commander - neither of whom have been particularly forthcoming.

Israeli military intelligence chief Moshe Ya'alon claimed last week that not only did "Arafat give the green light for suicide bombing attacks" but his security chief Jibril Rajoub had incited and organised some of the rioting in Hebron and Palestinian cities. Apparently, when Palestinian police were sent in to restore order during last week's riots many were surprised to find their off-duty colleagues in the front line hurling rocks and urging on Palestinian youths to acts of heroism.

AND THESE ARE THE COPS:

If that didn't have Israeli military forces tearing their hair out, a report that Israeli intelligence provided to the Netanyahu Government last week has them almost catatonic. The report contains a list of 12 names of Hamas terrorists who have just been appointed to Jibril Rajoub's Palestinian intelligence service and a further seven Hamas terrorists appointed to the Palestinian Police.

The list names Atef Abd a- Wahab Yusuf Hamdan, a West Bank resident who was trained in Iran and has been involved in the kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldiers; Musa Muhammad Isa Kilab, who killed two Israeli soldiers in a bomb blast at Erez junction in May 1994; Iad Musa Ibrahim Fiad who killed two Israeli civilians in Khan Yunis in October 1993; Bassam Subhi Shaaban Issa, a Gaza resident who served as Hamas bombmaker Yihya Ayyash's assistant. He is also a suspect in the murder of three Israeli soldiers in Gaza, the lethal attack at Nahalat Shiva in Jerusalem in October 1994 and in the Tel Aviv suicide bombing in December 1994; as well as Imad Akel, another assistant to the bomber Yihya Ayyash. Joining the ranks of the Palestinian Police are among others: Osama Suleiman Shukri Abu Taha who killed an Israeli officer in July 1994 and has planned various suicide bombing attacks; Yusuf Mahmud Abdel Aziz Malahi, who is wanted for the murder of two Israeli civilians in Ramle in August 1994 and Yasser Yusuf Mustafa Hussein, a Gaza resident suspected in the murder of an Israeli truck driver in 1995.

At least 16 of the 19 names on the list had been in jail until late last year for various terrorist activities. Arafat personally approved their release last year together with a further 150 Islamic extremists that Israel had requested not be freed. Included in the group is Adnan Ghol, who joined Arafat's General intelligence service in Gaza last November. But in January this year Mr Ghol blew off his fingers when C4 plastic explosives he had in his possession accidentally blew up in his apartment.

The Clinton administration became alarmed at the release of hardened terrorists and sent a series of messages to Arafat, first via Edward Abington, US Consul General in Jerusalem and then personally when President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright raised the matter with Arafat during meetings on March 3. Deputy CIA Director George Tenet presented Arafat with the list of 19 'worst' Hamas activists demanding their rearrest. Instead, Arafat returned to Gaza and released Ibrahim Maqadma, the Hamas military wing leader. The death toll has climbed steadily since.