The more things change...

At the same time as many foreign dignitaries are visiting Israel to
participate in the ceremonies for the tenth anniversary of the assassination
of Yitzhak Rabin, the terrorist war against Israel continues in the West
Bank and Gaza.
Today is the official date in the Jewish calendar for the murder and the
State ceremony took place today in Jerusalem, with many participants
including former Pres. Clinton, Senator Hilary Clinton, Secty. of State
Rice, PM Sharon, and many Israeli leaders. In my personal opinion the fuss
being made over the tenth anniversary is overdone, and Rabin, who in life
was no saint, and certainly no genius, is being mythologized. Maybe this
happens with all slain leaders, including Pres. Kennedy. Everyone involved,
notably Clinton and Peres, have over-emphasized the need for following
Rabin's path to peace. Of course, generally that's what we have been trying
to do, but the terrorism has not stopped.
Two terrorists were killed approaching the Gaza perimeter fence. They were
apparently trying to set up a mortar to fire into Israel. They were
detected by an Israeli patrol and a gun fight ensued. The IDF also fired
tank shells into the area of Gaza from where recent rockets have come. Now
there are fewer of them than there were, but they are still being fired, and
recently in an ominous development some mortar rounds were fired into Israel
from the northern West Bank.
IDF troops last night killed a Hamas leader in Nablus, Amjad Hinawi, 34,
during a gun battle which erupted when soldiers attempted to arrest him. He
was the Head of Hamas for the northern West Bank (Samaria). During the
night, numerous troops operated in Nablus against the city's terrorist
infrastructure after intelligence information indicated that Hamas had been
stepping up efforts to establish a bomb factory and store explosives. After
being spotted by troops, Hinawi opened fire. In the ensuing gun battle,
Hinawi was shot dead. A Kalashnikov rifle, a handgun and two magazines were
found on his body. Thirteen other gunman were captured. Needless to say,
during his funeral procession in Nablus today there were calls by Hamas
leaders for revenge against Israel.
In his speech in Rabin Square the other night before a huge crowd of over
100,000 Israelis, Pres. Clinton talked about his "chaver" (friend) Yitzhak
Rabin. There is a certain amount of hypocrisy in this, since Clinton's
chief advisor at the time, Dennis Ross, has admitted that they pressured
Israel to make concessions to Arafat, event though they knew he was breaking
his agreements, and had no intention of keeping any agreements. They also
continued paying him tens of millions of dollars, even though they knew he
was stashing it away in private accounts and using some of it to pay for
terrorist activities.
Condoleeza Rice in her speech at the Saban Conference admitted that the US
realizes that progress towards democracy will be slow in the Middle East.
This is not surprising since the US was just handed a defeat when the
'Conference on Democratization in the Arab World' that she had just come
from in Bahrain, could not agree on a final communiqué and the main
objective of allowing support for opposition parties was rejected by Egypt.
Nevertheless, as usual she called on Israel to make concessions to the
Palestinians, in allowing greater freedom of travel (and then there will be
more Israeli deaths due to terrorism) and stopping all building in the
territories (while the Palestinians have no such restrictions). She also
said that the Bush Administration had paid m$130 to the PA for
infrastructure development (including improved security forces, that are
more likely to fight Israel than the terrorists).
The only positive aspect is that there may be an agreement in the works
regarding the opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, with
Egyptian Guards on the Egyptian side, PA guards on the Gaza side, EU
monitors checking some things and Israeli TV cameras. How this will stop
the smuggling of arms is unclear. It has already been established that huge
quantities of arms have been smuggled into Gaza since Israel left, but so
far they have not appeared on the West Bank.
Meanwhile Amir Peretz, who claims that he will continue Rabin's peace path,
i.e. back to Oslo, made an elementary political mistake when he announced
that Labor will leave the Sharon coalition Government without first meeting
with the Labor Ministers in that Government. Belatedly he forced them to
sign resignation letters and he also gave Sharon an ultimatum, to meet with
him before the vote of confidence on Wednesday at which the Government could
be defeated and forced to resign, rather than resign by agreement. Sharon
does not like ultimatums, and put Peretz off until Thursday. Hopefully they
will decide things then rather than be forced into a run-off.
So things go on as usual, the US puts pressure on Israel to empower the PA
leader, while giving him money. The liberal-left claims they will fulfill
Rabin's dream of peace, and the terrorists continue as before. Political
squabbles continue in Israel. In the Middle East nothing much really
changes.