Berries 'n Bon Bons
ATTENTION: PARENTS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS!
Send a survival kit full of
love and noshes from home.
Jewelers Ltd.
• Certified Gemologist
• American Gem Society
HARVARD ROW MALL
— ALL OCCASION GIFT BASKETS & TRAYS
21711 West 10 Mile
Suite 122
Southfield, MI 48075
George
Ohrenstein
—
LOCAL & NATIONWIDE DELIVERY
351-4362
SUGAR FREE & KOSHER UPON REQUEST
Lahser & 11 Mile Rd.
353-3146
DEDICATED TO
°° ■ • ct* 01- KNOWLEDGE, ETHICS
AND CONSUMER PROTECTION.
►
-.... i.4. t,- :4. ,..,;.:',
.)......
....4
,#:-..
:.
...
.g
#
:41 *4
.
•
.
,b ,trA.
A HAPPY 40th TO ISRAEL
from the tens of thousands of people
who are helping her to build toward
a brighter future by their investments
in Israel's economic development
STATE OF ISRAEL BONDS
DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION FOR ISRAEL
Over 8.7 Billion Since 1951
David B. Hermelin
International Chairman
D. Dan Kahn
Douglas A. Schubot
Detroit Executive Board Chairman
Detroit General Chairman
Barbara Stollman
Detroit Women's Division Chairman
14
FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1988
Abu Jihad
Continued from Page 5
a group of Palestinians seized
an Israeli bus traveling be-
tween the northern port city
of Haifa and Tel Aviv. The bus
was eventually stopped and
stormed by Israeli soldiers,
but not before 35 passengers
were killed.
It was also Abu Jihad who,
most recently, claimed re-
sponsibility for the hijacking
of a bus traveling between the
towns of Dimona and Beer-
sheba last month. This time,
three Israeli civilian passen-
gers were killed in the shoot-
out.
While Fatah's military
wing, al-Asafiya, is generally
responsible for perpetrating
acts of terrorism throughout
the world, Abu Jihad made
himself personally responsi-
ble for the Western Sector, a
branch which plans and ex-
ecutes all Fatah's terror
operations within Israel and
the occupied territories.
Through his hands-on con-
trol of the Western Sector,
Abu Jihad played a key role
in guiding the Palestinian
uprising over the past four
months.
"It's impossible to exag-
gerate his importance," says
Dr. Ariel Merari, a specialist
in terrorism at Tel Aviv
University's Center for
Strategic Studies. "Opera-
tionally, I think his death is
a severe blow to Fatah's ac-
tivities.
"Not that they will stop, but
I think it will take a long
time to find someone of his
caliber. He was personally in-
volved in the planning and
coordination of many spec-
tacular terrorist activities
and he was certainly the most
important single figure
behind the operations.
"It was Abu Jihad's in-
fluence on his people — his
personal touch, his ex-
perience, his terrorist talents
that resulted in so many
deadly operations."
Ideologically, Abu Jihad
recognized the value of the
political option while pursu-
ing a program of violence:
"The military struggle and
the political struggle are two
wings which are attached to
each other and cannot be
separated," he told the Saudi
Arabian newspaper Al-
Majalla in 1985.
His abrupt departure from
the scene leaves a large gap
in both Fatah and the PLO.
Most notably, it leaves open
the question of who will suc-
ceed Yasser Arafat. The two
leading contenders are Salah
Khalaf (Abu Iyad), the PLO's
head of intelligence, and
Farouk Khaddumi, the organ-
ization's "foreign minister."
Both men hold hard-line, un-
compromising positions, and
the selection of either is like-
ly to severely limit Arafat's
room for maneuver.
Other questions are also
left open: How will the new
vacuum affect future PLO
operations generally and the
Palestinian "intifada" in par-
ticular? The immediate re-
sponse to the assassination
was the bloodiest day of
violence in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip since the start
of the uprising, but will this
intensification continue?
The Israeli government has
refused to comment, but Ezer
Weizman, an Israel's minister
without portfolio, apparently
hinting that the assassina-
tion was an Israeli operation,
said that the killing would
undermine any possible
moves toward peace, and "has
only minuses for Israel. "It
will certainly not silence ter-
rorism," he told the New York
Times, "and will possibly lead
to more extreme feelings and
even doings." Those who sub-
scribe to the theory that the
killing was an Israeli opera-
tion note that Israel had a
longstanding score to settle
with Abu Jihad and that the
assassination — while produc-
ing an immediate rise in the
level of violence — might, in
the long run, serve to upset
the momentum of the
uprising.
"It is my speculative
assumption," one knowledge-
able source in Jerusalem told
me this week, "that Israel
carried out the operation. If
there is any logic, it would be
in picking the individual who
is most directly connected
with the uprising and who
has much Jewish blood on his
hands."
According to Dr. Yossi
Olmert, a Middle East spec-
ialist at Tel Aviv University,
the assassination will have
th.‘ ,.profound psychological ef-
fect of making the top PLO
leaders feel very vulnerable.
"If they believe that Israel
was indeed responsible Sand
decide on massive retalia-
tion," he told me, "they will
have to take into account the
possibility that Israel will
strike back, even as far away
as Tunis."
Ultimately, there may
never be conclusive proof:
none of the major suspects
has any interest in stepping
forward.
What matters more,
though, is the perception in
the Palestinian mind of who
killed Abu Jihad. And the
Palestinians in the occupied
territories are in no doubt
that Israel was responsible.
The consequences of that
perception, accurate or not,
will become clear in the corn-
ing days and weeks.