Note: The translations of articles from the Hebrew press are prepared by the Government Press Office as a service to foreign journalists in Israel. They express the views of the authors.
ATTACK OF DESPERATION
(Commentary by Ron Ben-Yishai, "Yediot Ahronot", Oct 20, 1998, p. A1)
Yesterday's grenade attack in Beersheba, and the series of murders and
shootings in recent weeks, are an expression of Hamas' desperate efforts
to derail any possible agreement at Wye Plantation.
This time, at issue is not only the ideological opposition to a political
agreement recognizing Israeli-Palestinian coexistence is at stake, but
real physical fear by the leaders of Islamic fundamentalism for their
organization if and when an American-Israeli-Palestinian agreement is
signed.
The source of this fear is the security memorandum according to which the
Palestinian Authority undertakes, under close American-Israeli
supervision, to act determinedly and systematically against the terrorist
infrastructure.
It is clear to Sheikh Yassin and his fellow leaders in the territories and
abroad that if an agreement is signed making an Israeli redeployment
conditional on the fulfillment of the articles of this security
memorandum, Arafat will have no choice. He will act against them, they
will be forced to defend themselves and a confrontation between them and
the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus will ensue.
In order to prevent this from happening, Hamas is now using the terrorist
lever in the hope that Israeli public opinion will do the work for it,
forcing Netanyahu to return home with empty hands.
However, Hamas is not currently free, and possibly is unable, to unleash
its full murderous potential. One reason is the continuous and intensive
anti-terrorism effort being made jointly by the GSS and the PA in recent
weeks, whose main objective is to prevent large-scale attacks. Locating
and eliminating the Awadallah brothers has directly and indirectly made
this effort exceptionally successful.
The second reason that the Hamas prefers large numbers of small and
primitive attacks is the understanding between Arafat and Sheikh Yassin,
according to which Hamas will not hinder Arafat from getting as much
territory in the West Bank as possible from Israel through negotiations.
Yassin knows that a large-scale bombing would mean violating this
understanding and a declaration of war against Arafat and Fatah.
Therefore, in its current situation, Hamas is employing low-level field
operatives using relatively primitive methods of attack, and Arafat can
claim to the Israelis and Americans that they are "local initiatives"
which the Palestinian security apparatuses -- just like Israel's security
forces -- cannot prevent even if they try very hard. This is Hamas' way of
holding the terrorist stick by both ends and sticking it into the wheels
of negotiations as well.