An Israeli army tank heads toward the West Bank town of Beit Jalla early Tuesday morning.
Toward The Abyss
As Palestinian violence continues, Israel heightens its retaliation.
DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
A
s the Palestinian intifada (uprising)
entered its 12th month this week with a
new and ominous surge in the level of
violence, Israelis are beginning to won-
der if the smell of war is in the air.
Attention focused this week on several escala-
tions: Israel's incursion into the Christian town of
Beit Jalla in response to sustained firing on the
Jerusalem suburb of Gilo; an incursion into the
Gaza Strip in response to Palestinian attacks; and
the killing of Mustafa Zabri, secretary-general of
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
who died in a pinpoint Israeli missile strike
Monday on his office in Ramallah.
Leader of a hard-line FLO faction that continues
to reject a negotiated settlement with Israel, Zabri
— better known as Abu Ali Mustafa — was the
highest-ranking figure yet killed in Israel's policy
of targeting terrorist leaders.
Zabri's political standing sets him apart from the
other victims of Israel's assassinations, and led
Israeli pundits to dissect Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's strategy.
While some questioned the wisdom of the move,
others noted that Sharon had sent a message to the
Palestinians that anyone who masterminds terror
attacks on Israel is not safe from the Israel Defense
Force.
"Too many people have become used to a situa-
tion in which the senior Palestinian statesmen of
terror sit safely in their offices while those whom
they dispatch kill and are killed," the Israeli daily
Yediot Achronot wrote in an editorial. "These
statesmen of terror see themselves as immune from
any Israeli retaliation and punishment. The IDF's
action yesterday made it clear to them that this is
not the case."
In the Jerusalem Post, former IDF Gen. Oren
Shachor wrote that taking out terrorist leaders of
Zabri's stature "is a crucial, not just a desired, tack
to take."
Taking Beit Jalla
The remnants of the Israeli peace camp, however,
harshly attacked the move.
Labor Party politician Yossi Beilin called Sharon
"a Nero burning himself and Rome while he plays
the fiddle," telling the Israeli daily Ha aretz that
"Sharon is escalating the conflict with no strategy
to end it." Beilin called on Labor to levee the
unity government.
Saleh Tarif, the first Arab to serve as an Israeli
Cabinet minister, said that "the distance from the
assassination of [Zabri] to the assassination of
[Palestinian Authority leader Yasser] Arafat is very
small." Sharon sought to stop such specula ion in
its tracks, however, as his Inner Security Cabinet
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2001
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