MIDEAST-US: No US Censure of Israel over Assassination Attempt

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 1997 (IPS) - The U.S. administration, in its first public statement on the bungled Israeli attempt to assassinate a a Hamas leader in Jordan, declined Monday to condemn Israel’s action and insisted that Washington will not “second-guess” the Jewish state on security matters.

“The Israelis have the obligation to defend their people from terrorist acts,” said State Department spokesman James Rubin. “We are not in the habit of second-guessing Israel when it comes to her security.”

He added that the United States believed that “Israel must take into account the repercussions and consequences of any actions it takes in its fight against terror.” It is illegal for U.S. covert agents to carry out assassinations abroad “and therefore we’re opposed to assassinations by other governmentsas well,” Runin said.

The U.S. reaction was denounced by Mideast peace activists, who expressed shock at the attempt against exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal on Amman. Some also said Washington should use this latest fiasco, which has prompted calls in Israel for Netanyahu to step down, to press him harder towards key concessions.

A new poll released by the Los Angeles Times Monday showed that Clinton would get overwhelming support from U.S. Jews for a tougher line with Netanyahu. Four in five Jews questioned by the survey said they agreed with Washington’s call, rejected by Netanyahu, for a moratorium on new settlement activity.

“I don’t understand the State Department’s statement,” said Gail Pressberg, director of the largely Jewish “Americans for Peace Now.” The bungled operation, she added, “should be an opportunity to put more pressure on (Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin) Netanyahu.”

“The State Department seems to be saying Israel can do anything it pleases if it’s related to security, but not anything that embarrasses the U.S. or Israel,” noted Rashid Khalidi, who teaches Middle East politics at the University of Chicago. “You couldn’t get away with that kind of stuff even in Israel,” he added.

Most observers linked Washington’s refusal to condemn the attack to its fear that Netanyahu could rally Jewish opinion against it.

“This administration doesn’t want to be seen as fighting with the Israelis,” said Judith Kipper, co-director of Middle East studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).” That’s what would be required here.”

The assassination attempt – and the intense diplomacy and prisoner exchanges that have followed – came at a key moment in U.S. efforts to get the Palestinian-Israeli peace process back on track. Low-level negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians were scheduled to get underway Monday after a six-month freeze prompted by Netanyahu’s decision to begin building a Jewish housing project in Arab East Jerusalem and several suicide bombings committed by suspected Hamas militants.

Resumption of the talks, with the active mediation of chief U.S. envoy Dennis Ross, was the one tangible concession Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was able to coax out of Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat in her first visit to the region last month.

Washington, said Kipper, “wants Netanyahu to get with the programme, and that’s one reason they don’t want to comment (on the assassination attempt) right now.”

The brazenness of the Sep 25 attack, which was carried out by two Mossad agents carrying forged Canadian passports, shocked observers, who said it dealt yet another blow to the Israeli- Palestinian peace process and further damaged Arafat’s authority on the West Bank and Gaza.

The two Mossad agents apparently injected a lethal poison into Meshaal before his bodyguard and Jordanian police captured them. Jordan’s King Hussein, enraged by the incident, immediately demanded that Netanyahu provide an antidote to the poison and release Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, as well as other Palestinian and Jordanians in Israeli custody. At the same time, he dispatched his brother, Crown Prince Hassan, to Washington for high-level discussions here.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen once peace was signed between Jordan and Israel,” noted Pressberg.

Israel complied with the king’s demands, flying the antidote and Yassin to Amman.

Yassin, an invalid who was visited by both Hussein and Arafat in a hospital room over the weekend, flew to Gaza Monday to the delight of thousands of Hamas followers. Israel reportedly has released at least 19 other prisoners and is preparing to release as many as 50 more, according to Israeli media, in exchange for the two Mossad agents.

“Netanyahu’s action is appalling,” Pressberg told IPS. “It weakens his and Arafat’s ability to deal with terrorism, and it only strengthens Hamas,” she said. Other experts noted that freeing Yassin and dozens of other Hamas militants undermined Israel’s credibility in its demands that Arafat crack down hard against the Islamic group.

The State Department’s Rubin denounced Hamas and insisted that “they have repeatedly shown that they do not support the peace process and use terrorism to destroy it.” He added that Hamas members who support its military wing “ought to be arrested and stay in jail.”

Ironically, Yassin himself offered unexpected conciliatory words in an interview on Israeli television after his release. “We are prepared,” he said, “to live with the Jews, the best life, in brotherhood and cooperation and coexistence on condition they do not gobble up our rights.”

Kipper called Yassin’s remarks “very positive,” saying they could “be used as a way for Hamas to join the peace process if played right” by Netanyahu, Arafat, and Washington.