Jericho jail capture

The action by the IDF in capturing the jail in Jericho, and taking captive the
five prisoners who were incarcerated there for the murder of Israeli Tourism
Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, was highly justified. It was also very timely,
because with the election of the new Hamas Government of the PA, the prison
came under their control. As a result, the monitors from Britain and the US,
who were there as part of a signed agreement from 2002 with the PA
and Israel, felt that their lives were in danger, and the day before the
attack they abandoned their posts. As a result it was clear that the
prisoners would be imminently released, as stated by both Hamas leader
Walid Mashaal in Europe and by Pres. Mahmud Abbas of the PA. In order
to forestall their release and to ensure their future imprisonment, Israel
took the drastic action of sending in the IDF to capture them.
The killers and the planners of the assassination of Ze'evi in a Jerusalem
Hotel in 2001 were originally being protected by Arafat in his compound in
Ramallah. Israel threatened to go in and capture them there unless they were
put on trial and incarcerated. They included Ahmed Sa'adat, Head of the PFLP,
four other conspirators and a sixth man Fuad Shubaki, who was responsible for
trying to smuggle a boatload of heavy weapons from Iran into Gaza aboard the
Karin A. The agreement to hold them in Jericho was because the PA refused to
hand them over to Israeli justice, as required by the Oslo Accords agreements
that Yasir Arafat signed for the PA. Therefore, they were "tried" in the PA,
but Israel insisted that there be Western monitors to ensure that they actually
stayed in jail rather than be allowed to leave according to the "revolving
door" policy that Arafat had used in relation to other Palestinian prisoners.
Both London and Washington had warned the PA that some action must be
taken if their monitors were to be able to perform their duties safely. While
in jail in Jericho, a relatively quiet location, it is known that Sa'adat
continued to run the PFLP from his prison "office". The PFLP is reported to
be one of the parties that might join a coalition with Hamas to form the newly
anticipated PA Government.
Now that the murderers have been captured they will be put on trial in Israel
and be subjected to Israeli justice. Of course, they will receive a fair
trial according to Israel's independent judicial system. A serious crime such
as the assassination of a Minister of the Government cannot be allowed to
go unpunished. Their Israeli lawyers, who have all along claimed they are
innocent, have been making outrageous statements about Israeli breaking
international law, and Abbas has called the attack and capture of the Jericho
jail "a serious crime." But, Israel is on firm legal ground, since the signed
agreement was abrogated once the PA refused to provide the international
monitors with sufficient security and they left their posts. There is also
going to be an inquiry in the PA as to why it was so easy for the IDF to
capture the jail, which they began to systematically destroy until the armed
fugitives gave themselves up. Note that even though they were prisoners,
they were fully armed. The IDF captured another 120 prisoners from the jail,
all of whom were taken for interrogation, and some will be released today.
Note also that the IDF preferred to capture the terrorists rather than kill
them, both for humanitarian and intelligence purposes. So it is untrue, as
claimed by some supposed humanitarian pro-Palestinian groups, that the IDF
deliberately kills all captives, on the contrary! Now hopefully Israel will
learn more about the intentions and actions of their organizations from this
trove of captured terrorists.
________________________
For previous blogs go to: www.commentfromisraelblog.blogspot.com