The already stalled Israeli-Palestinian ties are going to dark
tunnel after Israeli forces raided on the Palestinian prison in the
West Bank town of Jerichoon Tuesday and arrested the chief leader
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Ahmed
Saadat.
Israel said the raid came after Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas said earlier that he would release Saadat who was accused by
Israel of ordering the murder of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam
Zeevi in 2001, has been held in a Palestinian prison in
Jericho.
According to an agreement reached between the Palestinian
National Authority (PNA) and Israel four years ago, the people held
in the Jericho jail are not seen as prisoners but reserved people
under supervision of unarmed American and British monitors.
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The Jericho incident totally shattered the Palestinians' confidence
in US and Britain, the two key brokers in the Palestinian
negotiations with Israel who folded their arms in Tuesday's Jericho
incident.
For a long time, Palestinians' trust put on the US and Britain
plays a very important role in the Middle East's peace process. But
now most of the Palestinians feel strongly that there was a
coordination among the US, Britain and Israel over the Jericho
incident.
Although Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has tried to avoid
accusation against the US and Britain, it is very hard for him to
slide over the role played by the US and Britain in Jericho
incident.
This because the prison, which under the supervision of monitors
from the two countries, were raided by Israeli forces only 10
minutes after the monitors withdrew from the prison at 9:20 AM
(07:20 GMT).
"The observers left at 9:20 and Israeli operation began at
9:30,so what did that mean?" Abbas questioned when visiting the
destroyed prison in Jericho on Wednesday.
"We are informed that the US and British observers will leave
the prison, but they didn't said when," Abbas said, adding that
"the aim of this operation just to insulting the Palestinians for
Israeli election consideration."
Political analysts said the incident took place as Israel has
vowed to cut all ties with the Palestinian government once the
Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which won the January
legislative elections, assumes power.
The Tuesday arrest operation was seen as an Israeli effort to
thwart the forming of the next Hamas-led coalition Palestinian
government, as the PFLP was the most close ally to Hamas in the
negotiations to form the new cabinet, said the analysts.
Whatever the aim of the Israeli military operation was, it shows
that Israel is moving on the same road, which also adopted by the
ailing Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon who insisted there is no
Palestinian partner to talk with, they added.
Terming the raid on Jericho prison as "unforgivable crime", the
PNA has asked Israel to return back Saadat and his fellows.
However, the PNA's demand was doomed to be refused, which would
mean a negative effect on the political process in the region. The
negative effect will continue for a long time and the political
darkness brought by Tuesday's operation will spread more and more,
said Palestinian observers.
Moreover, it would be more difficult for Hamas to form a new
government or move the government forward after the Jericho
incident, they added.
"Either detaining or killing Ahmed Saadat would lead to a third
Intifada against Israel in the Palestinian territories," warned
Ashraf el-Ajrami, a Palestinian analyst.
(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2006)
