The recent MER review of close cooperation between the
American CIA, the Israeli Shinbet, and the Arafat Palestinian intelligence
services (see: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/973-4l.htm) - came
before a recent Washington Post article on 3/24/97 which contained the
following telling quotes:
"Based on electronic intercepts of conversations among Hamas
leaders, according to U.S. and Israeli officials, the Islamic extremists
came away from the Arafat meetings with the impression...that Arafat would
not object to the resumption of suicide bombing attacks."
.
"Palestinian officials...argued in interviews and diplomatic
contacts that Arafat has sought -- at times with Israeli and American approval
-- to divide and co-opt Islamic extremists by freeing those who submit
to his authority and pledge to halt armed attacks on Israel."
.
"Arafat maintains his historical pattern...of attempting
to divide and conquer his Islamic rivals. Mahmoud Zohar, a Gaza-based Hamas
political leader and spokesman, received bone-breaking beatings in Arafat's
jail and the humiliation of having his head and beard forcibly shaved.
But Arafat paid a courtesy call after releasing Zohar last year, and he
brought another former Hamas spokesman, Emad Falouji, into his cabinet."
"The Clinton Administration...sent a series of sharp messages...
[Head of the CIA George] Tenet, according to sources, made name-by-name
demands (in a private meeting with Arafat) that Arafat re-arrest the worst
of the operatives."
The Palestinians are indeed paying a heavy price, Yasser
Arafat having been annointed by their long-time enemies -- Israel and the
U.S -- to "police" and "control" them in their separated "autonomy zones"
that more more resemble ghettos of the Jewish past.
.
In a sense the Israelis are paying back the Palestinians
for the Intifada by having brought in Arafat to less directly force them
into submission and to take on the dirty work the Israelis previously had
to do themselves.
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