Saboteurs of peace

Jibril Zubeidi, the brother of Zacharia Zubeidi, the leader of the al Aksa
militia in Jenin, was arrested by Israeli security forces some weeks ago.
Now they have released information derived from his interrogation and that
of 12 other terrorists from the same cell. What was striking is that they
were led to a secret Kassam rocket factory in a sealed room inside a
metal-working factory in a village near Jenin. Of course, the IDF destroyed
this factory.
But, what is ominous about it is that it reveals the new strategy of Zubeidi
and his fellow terrorists on the West Bank. Seeing that their colleagues in
Gaza and southern Lebanon have been successful in launching rockets into
Israel, and given the difficulties imposed on them to get suicide bombers
into Israel due to the presence of the Security Barrier, they have decided
to launch rocket attacks on Israel from the West Bank. The IDF put the
situation into perspective by saying that the terrorists so far do not
represent a threat to Israel. However, Ben Gurion airport and densely
populated regions of Israel are within rocket range of many parts of the
West Bank. Any rocket attack there would be a major development and an
impediment to any peace process.
Pres. Abbas of the PA obtained strong international support at the recent
London Conference, that basically gave him carte blanche to do what he
wants, trusting that he really wants to democratize the PA. There are some
indications that he is on the right track.
For example, the former owner of the Palestine International Bank, Issam abu
Issa, has returned to the PA from Qatar, where he has been in hiding since
being expelled from the PA by Yasser Arafat in 1999. He is a Qatari citizen
and were it not for the intervention of the Qatari ruling family on his
behalf he would have been arrested and executed for supposed financial
crimes. Yasser Arafat actually stole his Bank and put it under his own
control. In a corrupt State the gangsters are in charge and don't bother
with Bank robberies, they simply steal the Bank. Today Issa has returned to
the PA and gave an interview to the Jerusalem Post, in which he said inter
alia "I tried to lobby by all means in favor of a democratic and free
economic environment. And that was of course contradictory to the existing
policy at that time, where dictatorship and gangsterism prevailed and was
supported unfortunately by those who thought that a corrupt PA would be in
the interest of Israel and of peace." Issa is now trying to get his
illegally seized Bank back and the m$100-500 missing from it.
Another minor but telling point, is that in describing the terrorists who
blew up the Israelis in Tel Aviv recently, Abbas used the Arabic word
meaning "saboteur." Apparently this is the term used by the Arabic
broadcasting services of Kol Israel to describe the terrorists, rather than
the actual translation of the word terrorist, that for Palestinians is used
as a word connoting sacrifice and honor. So when Abbas was the first
prominent Palestinian to use this term he was criticized by the Palestinian
media. But, he rejected the criticism and explained in a statement that
they are literally trying to sabotage his efforts to stop the violence and
bring about peace. The fact that he broke this linguistic barrier is also a
telling point.
Nevertheless, Abbas has been criticized by the Israeli and US governments
for not taking direct action against the terrorists and their
infrastructure. During this lull or supposed ceasefire, the terrorist
organizations are bolstering their ranks and preparing for future
confrontations with Israel, while Abbas is doing nothing to actually prevent
that happening. Talk is cheap.