This is a follow-up to five previous dispatches on this list earlier this month on the Gaza withdrawal. It should be read in conjunction with today’s other dispatch, titled Ariel Sharon should get the Nobel Prize, says Italian MP.
CONTENTS
1. No Jews left in Gaza
2. Legless Cohen children carried from their homes
3. Palestinians to rename settlements after suicide bombers
4. Hamas and Islamic Jihad will not be disarmed
5. United Nations bankrolls Palestinian propaganda
6. Kidnapped French journalist released by Palestinian gunmen
7. Two Katyusha rocket attack aimed at American vessels
8. “Palestinians may rename settlements after Arafat, Yassin” (Jer. Post, Aug.24, 2005)
9. “Hamas claims evacuation is victory for suicide bombers” (S. Telegraph, Aug. 21, 2005)
10. “The Gaza pullout: The dispossessed” (Elie Wiesel, New York Times, Aug. 22, 2005)
NO JEWS LEFT IN GAZA
The evacuation of Israeli citizens from 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank has now been completed. The disengagement plan was implemented in six days (not including the Sabbath) and did not result in any deaths or serious injuries in Gaza.
The Israeli military expects that it will be completely out of Gaza by mid-September following the demolition of 1,700 homes (at the request of the Palestinian Authority), the dismantling of army bases and the removal of troops. Graves and Jewish cemeteries will also be moved from Gaza for fear of defilement by Palestinian extremists.
The Center for Israeli Maps has already erased Gaza from official Israeli maps.
The Tel Aviv stock market felt an upward trend throughout the Gaza pullout. This is credited to the ease with which the relative withdrawal was carried out.
LEGLESS COHEN CHILDREN CARRIED FROM GAZA
The sympathetic angle with which the Israeli press has covered the Gaza withdrawal has led to many heart wrenching scenes in Israeli newspapers and on television.
Among the pictures were those of the children of Ophir and Noga Cohen being evacuated from the Gaza settlement of Kfar Darom. In November 2000, a powerful bomb was detonated by Fatah terrorists alongside the Gaza school bus. As outlined by a dispatch on this email list at the time, three young children from the Cohen family were among those seriously injured in that attack. Tehila Cohen lost both her legs, Orit lost her right foot, and Yisrael lost his right leg below the knee.
Mohammad Dahlan was responsible for ordering the attack on the Cohen children. Dahlan is presently the Palestinian Authority’s minister of state for security in Mahmoud Abbas’s cabinet and is often wrongly described as a “moderate” by many mainstream American and European papers.
PALESTINIANS PROPOSE RENAMING SETTLEMENTS AFTER ARAFAT & YASSIN
The Palestinian Authority has announced that it plans to rename all the former Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. (The now demolished Israeli settlements were built on either empty land or land where Jewish communities resided in the period before the creation of modern Israel and hence do not have former Arabic names.)
According to Agence France Presse, the PA have proposed to name Neveh Dekalim after Yasser Arafat, and are considering naming another settlement after slain Hamas terror leader Ahmed Yassin. There is also support among many Palestinians to name other former Jewish settlements after some of the more “successful” suicide bombers who murdered hundreds of innocent Israelis (and others) over the last five years.
THINLY VEILED THREATS OF CONTINUING VIOLENCE
In recent days, Palestinian Authority spokespeople have taken to the airwaves to remind the world that in their view Israel remains the occupying force in Gaza as long as it controls the border crossings into the strip, as well as the air space and ocean-front. Many Palestinian spokespeople have issued thinly-veiled threats on international news channels of continuing violence unless Israel ends its control of these crossings.
HAMAS AND ISLAMIC JIHAD WILL NOT BE DISARMED
On Monday, it was announced that Hamas and Islamic Jihad would not be disarmed, in blatant violation of the first article of the so-called Road Map for Peace. Following a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei in Damascus, Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas leader in Syria, said: “The weapons of the resistance were founded to defend the Palestinian people and resist the occupation. The Gaza victory was achieved with the weapons of the resistance, which is the only strategy to drive Israel out of the rest of our lands.” Other Hamas leaders have made clear in recent days that they continue to regard all of Israel as “occupied territory.”
It has also been reported that Hamas is spending tens of thousands of dollars to improve the range and capabilities of its missiles. The improved missiles could be launched at Israeli cities from the northern West Bank and hit strategic targets, such as civilian planes at Ben Gurion International airport.
UNITED NATIONS BANKROLLS PALESTINIAN PROPAGANDA
It has been revealed that the United Nations bankrolled thousands of banners, mugs and T-shirts with the slogan “Today Gaza and Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem,” through the United Nations Development Program.
America’s new ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said: “Funding this kind of activity is inappropriate and unacceptable. We plan to raise the issue with UNDP and with others.” The slogan has been uttered by many Hamas officials in the past few weeks.
Bolton also wanted to know why some of the Arafat T-shirts produced last week had the UNDP logo on them.
FRENCH JOURNALIST RELEASED BY PALESTINIAN GUNMEN
Mohammad Ouathi, a soundman for France 3 Television, was kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza on August 15, 2005. He was released six days later. Even though the abduction led some foreign TV crews to leave the area in fear for their lives last week, it was barely reported in the mainstream western press. Similar stories of kidnapped French journalists in Iraq were front-page news earlier this year. (One newspaper that did mention the Gaza kidnapping was the Sunday Telegraph, in the article below, but it was only mentioned in passing towards the end of the article.) The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades condemned their fellow gunmen, issuing a statement calling it “an act which contradicts the good relationship between the Palestinians and the French people.”
TWO KATYUSHA ROCKET ATTACKS AIMED AT AMERICAN VESSELS
Jordan has arrested suspects who carried out Katyusha rocket attacks that nearly hit two American vessels in the Aqaba harbor last Friday. Credit for the attack was taken by a group aligned with Al-Qaeda, which warned that it planned to “shock them in Tel Aviv” soon. One Katyusha killed a Jordanian soldier, the other fell near the airport in Eilat (Israel), lightly injuring an Israeli taxi driver. The group also took credit for the bombing of an Egyptian hotel in the Sinai last October and for the attacks in Sharm A-Sheikh last month. A total of 98 people died in those attacks.
I attach three articles, with summaries of two of them.
-- Tom Gross
SUMMARIES
PALESTINIANS MAY RENAME SETTLEMENTS AFTER ARAFAT, YASSIN
[This is the full article]
Palestinians may rename settlements after Arafat, Yassin
By Khaled Abu Toameh,
The Jerusalem Post,
August 24, 2005
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1124763678500
Palestinians are planning to rename the settlements in the Gaza Strip “to erase any memory” of Israel’s presence in the area. In recent weeks, the PA received many requests from Palestinians asking that the settlements be given Arab names.
Most of the requests have come from families of Palestinians who were killed since the second intifada broke out in September 2000. The families want to honor their sons by calling some of the settlements after them. Others have demanded that some settlements be named after Palestinian leaders.
The UAE announced last month that it would donate $100 million to build a new city for some 30,000 Palestinians on the rubble of Morag. Earlier this week, the PA approved the request. The city, which will consist of 3,000 housing units, will be named after UAE ruler Khalifa Bin Zayed.
According to Agence France Press, some Palestinians have proposed to name Neveh Dekalim, the largest settlement in Gush Katif, after Yasser Arafat.
The agency said other proposals called for naming Atzmona after a Palestinian “martyr” and Netzarim or Kfar Darom after slain Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin.
Rafah governor Majid al-Agha said most of the areas would be named after countries or leaders who would help establish cities in the settlements.
PA officials in Ramallah said it was premature to talk about new names for the settlement areas. “There are many proposals and we are studying them,” said one. “We haven’t yet reached a decision about the names. But what’s certain is that at least one settlement will be called after Yasser Arafat.”
“WE WILL CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE UNTIL WE HAVE RECLAIMED ALL THE LAND OF PALESTINE”
“Hamas claims evacuation is victory for the suicide bombers” (By Con Coughlin, The Sunday Telegraph, August 21, 2005)
All week long, as Israeli soldiers and settlers fought running battles in the soon-to-be-dismantled Jewish settlements, their Palestinian neighbours could hardly contain their delight.
In the teeming slums of Gaza, Palestinian officials marked the end of 38 years of Israeli occupation by organising poetry and painting competitions, which summed up the Palestinians’ view of Israel’s unilateral decision to forcibly remove 9,000 settlers from their homes...
In Palestinian-controlled Gaza last week, virtually everyone The Sunday Telegraph spoke to said that Israel’s indihar, or retreat, had been forced by the scores of young suicide bombers who have killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians in the five-year-long intifada, or uprising.
“The Israelis are leaving Gaza because they can no longer tolerate the bloodshed we have inflicted on them,” said Mohammed Khatif, a local shop owner. “We will continue the struggle until we have reclaimed all the land of Palestine.”
Five founding Hamas members made a rare group appearance in a Gaza restaurant to assert their right to continue the armed campaign. “Our land, including Jerusalem, is still occupied, the refugees are still deported, the wall and the settlements are still eating more of our land,” said one leader, Ismail Haniya...
THE DISPOSSESSED
“The Gaza pullout: The dispossessed” (By Elie Wiesel, The New York Times, August 22, 2005)
(Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. This article was translated from French.)
In 1991, when Saddam Hussein’s Scud missiles fell in a deafening din on Tel Aviv, some Palestinians danced in the streets and on the roofs of their houses. I saw them. I was in Jerusalem, and I could see what was happening in the Arab quarter of the Old City.
It happened again later, each time a suicide terrorist set off a bomb on a bus or in a restaurant. I evoke these scenes with sadness, and for a reason: We have just seen them repeated in Gaza...
And here I am obliged to take a step back. In the tradition I claim, the Jew is ordered by King Solomon “not to rejoice when the enemy falls.” I don’t know whether the Koran suggests the same.
I know only that in my opinion, what is missing from the chapter now closing is a collective gesture that ought to be made, but that hasn’t been made, by the Palestinians.
Let’s imagine it, if you will. Let’s imagine that, faced with the tears and suffering of the evacuees, the Palestinians had chosen to silence their joy and their pride, rather than to organize military parades with masked fighters, machine guns in hand, shooting in the air as though celebrating a great battlefield victory.
Yes, imagine that President Mahmoud Abbas and his colleagues, in advising their followers, extolled moderation, restraint, respect and a little understanding for the Jews who felt themselves struck by an unhappy fate. They would have won general admiration...
“WE WILL CONTINUE THE STRUGGLE UNTIL WE HAVE RECLAIMED ALL THE LAND OF PALESTINE”
Hamas claims evacuation is victory for the suicide bombers
By Con Coughlin
The Sunday Telegraph
August 21, 2005
All week long, as Israeli soldiers and settlers fought running battles in the soon-to-be-dismantled Jewish settlements, their Palestinian neighbours could hardly contain their delight.
In the teeming slums of Gaza, Palestinian officials marked the end of 38 years of Israeli occupation by organising poetry and painting competitions, which summed up the Palestinians’ view of Israel’s unilateral decision to forcibly remove 9,000 settlers from their homes.
One entrant, Rasha Salim painted a large picture of a shining sun as a symbol of hope after the withdrawal.
“The shining of the sun symbolises the defeat of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip,” said the artist, proudly displaying her work.
In the poetry category, an entry by Ibtisam Mustafa was singled out for particular praise. “O brigades, be prepared, Gaza has been restored. Start preparing to liberate the rest of the land. Drive the Zionists out. O Hamas, let’s liberate Jerusalem with the help of your soldiers and glorious rockets.”
While Ariel Sharon, Israel’s prime minister, tries to argue that the Gaza withdrawal is an important step towards reviving the dormant Middle East peace talks, Palestinian militants apparently have little interest in achieving their goals through peaceful dialogue.
In Palestinian-controlled Gaza last week, virtually everyone The Sunday Telegraph spoke to said that Israel’s indihar, or retreat, had been forced by the scores of young suicide bombers who have killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians in the five-year-long intifada, or uprising.
“The Israelis are leaving Gaza because they can no longer tolerate the bloodshed we have inflicted on them,” said Mohammed Khatif, a local shop owner.
“We will continue the struggle until we have reclaimed all the land of Palestine.”
Five founding Hamas members made a rare group appearance in a Gaza restaurant to assert their right to continue the armed campaign.
“Our land, including Jerusalem, is still occupied, the refugees are still deported, the wall and the settlements are still eating more of our land,” said one leader, Ismail Haniya.
In Beirut, a Hamas spokesman, Khaled Mashaal, was defiant. “The resistance and the steadfastness of our people forced the Zionists to withdraw,” he declared last week. “The armed struggle is the only strategy that Hamas possesses. As long as Palestinian lands remain under occupation, Hamas won’t lay down its weapons.”
To counter the threat posed by Hamas militants, Tony Blair has authorised a team of MI6 counter-terrorism experts to be deployed to Gaza on a secret mission to persuade Hamas to observe a ceasefire.
British intelligence officers believe that such a lull would allow Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian leader, to resume discussions with Israel over the “road map”, the blueprint for a peace deal backed by President George W Bush and Mr Blair.
Mr Bush and Mr Blair have committed themselves to a two-state solution for the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict, but the Israelis are refusing to enter detailed discussions with the Palestinians until the latter unequivocally renounce terrorism.
Mr Blair, in particular, has invested much political capital in trying to negotiate a deal to create an independent Palestinian state, which he believes would eliminate one of the root causes of Islamic terrorism.
The secret Gaza mission is being led by Alistair Crooke, a former MI6 officer who received an MBE for his work negotiating a Hamas ceasefire during the early stages of the intifada.
Mr Crooke has been heavily criticised by the Israeli government for arguing that Hamas should be treated as a serious negotiating partner in the peace talks.
The Israeli foreign ministry formally asked Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, to withdraw the MI6 team during his visit to Jerusalem in June.
While Mr Straw told the Israelis that he would scale down the operation, security officials in Gaza confirmed last week that the MI6 operation is continuing.
MI6 has a long history of entering into negotiations with outlawed terror groups, notably with the IRA in the 1980s. That dialogue ultimately resulted in Sinn Fein’s leaders giving up the armed struggle for political negotiation.
Whether MI6 can replicate that success in Gaza is another matter entirely. As most world attention focused on the emotional scenes unfolding at the Jewish settlements last week, the security situation in Gaza took a serious turn for the worse.
The United Nations was forced to withdraw all its foreign staff from Gaza indefinitely after Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two of its workers and held them hostage for several days. The hostages were eventually released after a gun battle.
Last week a French journalist was abducted in Gaza by masked gunmen. His whereabouts are unknown.
Security officials in Gaza believe that the abductions are the work of rival factions of the Fatah movement, the dominant political force in the Palestinian Authority, aimed at undermining Mr Abbas.
He is keen to use the Gaza withdrawal as a basis for negotiating the removal of Israeli settlements from the occupied West Bank. Concerned that militant groups will launch terror attacks in an attempt to sabotage any talks with Israel - Fatah hardliners oppose “road map” negotiations - he has ordered a crackdown.
Such is the overall chaos within the Palestinian Authority that another team of MI6 officials is advising its security forces on setting up a command and control infrastructure to instil a measure of discipline. Unlike the Hamas operation, it has Israeli approval.
During the Gaza withdrawal, there were no reports of serious clashes between Israelis and Palestinians. Yet despite the relative calm of recent weeks, Israeli security officials fear that once the dust has settled on disengagement, Palestinian militants will seek to launch a new wave of terror attacks. While Mr Abbas focuses on negotiations with Israel, support for Hamas is growing in Gaza and the West Bank. Tens of thousands of Palestinians turned out for a Hamas-sponsored rally in Gaza last week; only a few hundred for a rally in support of Mr Abbas.
With many Palestinians genuinely believing that the intifada forced Israel’s withdrawal in Gaza, there is widespread support for using similar terror tactics to prompt the Israelis to withdraw from the West Bank.
“We feel that this is the lull before the storm,” said a senior Israeli security official. “If that is how the Palestinians see the Gaza withdrawal, we don’t hold out much hope that they will commit themselves to political dialogue.
“But if they think they can drive us out of the West Bank they had better think again. There will be no tolerance from Israel for Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank.”
THE DISPOSSESSED
The Gaza pullout: The dispossessed
By Elie Wiesel
The New York Times
August 22, 2005
www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/21/opinion/edwiesel.php
In 1991, when Saddam Hussein’s Scud missiles fell in a deafening din on Tel Aviv, some Palestinians danced in the streets and on the roofs of their houses. I saw them. I was in Jerusalem, and I could see what was happening in the Arab quarter of the Old City.
It happened again later, each time a suicide terrorist set off a bomb on a bus or in a restaurant. I evoke these scenes with sadness, and for a reason: We have just seen them repeated in Gaza.
The images of the evacuation itself are heart-rending. Some of them are unbearable. Angry men, crying women. Children, led away on foot or in the arms of soldiers who are sobbing themselves.
Let’s not forget: These men and women lived in Gaza for 38 years.
Successive governments, from the left and the right, encouraged them to settle there. In the eyes of their families, they were pioneers, whose idealism was to be celebrated.
And here they are, obliged to uproot themselves, to take their holy and precious belongings, their memories and their prayers, their dreams and their dead, to go off in search of a bed to sleep in, a table to eat on, a new home, a future among strangers.
From far away, we watch them on television screens and in the pages of newspapers.
Some have behaved in an offensive and undignified manner. They insulted and wounded soldiers; they spat on officers - including some who are decorated heroes, all of them ready to give their lives for their country.
But the majority have responded in a dignified way: with tears. As though united in the same despair, soldiers and evacuees cried together, even to such an extent that certain commentators have reproached them, saying: Our warriors of yesterday and tomorrow shouldn’t give way to easy emotion.
On a strictly military level, the operation is a success. For that, and for his brave decision to pursue future peace even at present political cost, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon deserves praise. But starting now, Israelis and Palestinians must face the question: What next?
And here I am obliged to take a step back. In the tradition I claim, the Jew is ordered by King Solomon “not to rejoice when the enemy falls.” I don’t know whether the Koran suggests the same.
I know only that in my opinion, what is missing from the chapter now closing is a collective gesture that ought to be made, but that hasn’t been made, by the Palestinians.
Let’s imagine it, if you will. Let’s imagine that, faced with the tears and suffering of the evacuees, the Palestinians had chosen to silence their joy and their pride, rather than to organize military parades with masked fighters, machine guns in hand, shooting in the air as though celebrating a great battlefield victory.
Yes, imagine that President Mahmoud Abbas and his colleagues, in advising their followers, extolled moderation, restraint, respect and a little understanding for the Jews who felt themselves struck by an unhappy fate. They would have won general admiration. I will perhaps be told that when the Palestinians cried at the loss of their homes, few Israelis were moved. That’s possible. But how many Israelis rejoiced?
And now, where are we?
A lull is imperative. The tears must be allowed to dry and the wounds to heal. Haste, in this delicate moment, is dangerous. Any pressure from outside risks being counterproductive.
Why these words of warning? Because last May, at an official dinner offered by King Abdullah II of Jordan, I spoke with the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei. When I asked him what he thought of Sharon’s courageous decision regarding Gaza, it was with a wave of the hand that he objected, adding with disdain: “All that is worth nothing, means nothing. If Sharon doesn’t begin right away to negotiate definitive borders, a great catastrophe will be the result.” He repeated those words: “right away” and “a great catastrophe.”
The optimist in me wants very much to believe that those were just words. Gaza, after all, is but one chapter in a book that must ultimately be about peace.