Ha'aretz

IDF unconvinced by `small fry' arrests

By Amos Harel

There has been no "strategic change" in PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's attitude to terror, despite the arrests made over the last few days, senior Israel Defense Force officers said yesterday. The PA has arrested 120 people, but a senior IDF source said most are "small fry."

Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said most of those being held are "low-level terrorists" and only a handful are senior wanted men. Israel Defense Forces sources said about five senior terrorists were arrested.

One of these, Mohammed "Nurasi" Tawalbe, the head of Islamic Jihad's military wing in Jenin, was smuggled out of Nablus jail for fear Israel would bomb it and is now under house arrest in a "safe house" run by one of the PA security services.

Israel stopped its aerial assault on the territories Tuesday night to see if the heavy American and Israeli pressure was having any effect on Arafat. The defense establishment is now debating whether the air attacks should be resumed, or whether Arafat should be given more time, but the prevailing assumption is that Israel would have trouble resuming the bombing if a lull in fatal terrorist attacks continues.

The most optimistic assessment being heard in the defense establishment is that a combination of American diplomatic pressure and Israeli military pressure will cause Arafat to halt the violence for about three months.

"But a three-month lull isn't a strategic change," said the senior IDF source. "We don't see any such change in the Palestinian side now, and if such a change did take place, it would take them months to put it into effect."

The IDF sources said the PA is now mainly putting on a media show to satisfy world opinion, rather than confronting terrorist organizations head-on.

Defense sources said the PA has had particular trouble making arrests in Gaza, where support for Hamas is strong.

It has had better success in the West Bank. But they said it also seems that Arafat has not yet directly ordered some of the Palestinian Authority's security services to make arrests.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2001