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.
THE PALESTINIAN VERSION: HARD TO BELIEVE
(Commentary by Oded Granot, "Ma'ariv", Apr 7, 1998, p. A5)
The claim that Muhi a-Din Sharif was murdered by his Hamas colleagues sounds so imaginative that there is only one claim that, on the face of it, sounds even more refutable: that that he was murdered by his senior partner in Hamas terrorism, Adel Awadallah.
The reason: no information on violent internal struggles within Hamas' military arm has been uncovered until today. There is not even a crumb of information about seeming rivalries among the organization's top leadership, or about apparent attempts by Hamas personnel to capture leadership positions for themselves by force. Hamas does not have a history of mutual eliminations.
How much more so when one is talking about someone such as Muhi a-din Sharif, who has won only praise within his organization for the chain of attacks against Israelis which have been linked to his name. It is difficult to conceive that someone inside Hamas would try to attack this man, and even more difficult to conceive that the assailant would be Adel Awadallah, an ideological and practical partner, and a senior murderer in his own right.
A lot of time is likely to pass until the truth about the identity of those who murdered the "Engineer #2" is known, but it is certainly possible to understand the Palestinian Authority's motives in stitching together such a story and casting the responsibility for his death at Hamas members themselves:
First, in order to prove to the Americans that they are vigorously fighting terrorism and not hesitating to deal with Hamas properly. Second, and much more important to the PA, if Hamas should succeed in carrying out a suicide attack under its nose, the Palestinian security services can now claim that, for their part, they have made all the arrests necessary to foil such an attack.
Moreover, and this is just speculation, pointing an accusing finger at Muhi a-Din Sharif's cohorts is designed to help the Palestinian Authority distance itself from suspicions that it was itself involved in the murder. Abd al-Aziz Rantisi's remarks should be recalled in this context; he claimed that Muhi a-Din Sharif was severely tortured before he was shot.
Israel has no reason to regret either the tensions created in PA-Hamas relations in the wake of Muhi a-Din Sharif's demise, or the recent arrests of Iz a-Din al- Kassam members. However, it must be recalled that this was not the elimination of Hamas' infrastructure, nor is it a giant manhunt after gangs in the organization's military arm. Arafat has still not made this decision, despite the fact that he would very much like to convince Washington that he is fulfilling his part of the agreement with Israel to the end.