After Saddam Mixed Reaction After capture of Saddam, Israelis joyful, Arab world mixed. Arabs Ponder DAN BARON Jewish Telegraphic Agency The Arab leaders who still battle Israel were more circumspect. While Palestinian Authority President Yasser Ramat-Gan Arafat, a longtime Saddam ally, mulled fter surviving the Holocaust an official reaction to the news of the a nd five Middle East wars, capture in Tikrit, Hamas and Islamic Ze'ev is a hard man to Jihad cautioned the West not to rejoice mpress. But news of Saddam Hussein's cap- too soon. "The Americans need to be the lords ture managed to move the Israeli retiree of the world by eradicating all resist- to tears. "It is good to see Israel a little ance against them," said Adnan Asfour, bit safer," Ze'ev said in his hometown a Hamas leader in the West Bank. "I of Ramat-Gan as footage of the Iraqi tyrant-turned-prisoner played on televi- say to the Iraqi people: Observe what the Palestinian people do. Our leaders sion screens at roadside snack stands. are assassinated and arrested every day Ramat-Gan, where Iraqi Jewish emi- by the Israeli occupiers and that does res settled en masse in the 1950s, ironi- gres cally was a main target of Saddam's Scud not stop us from continuing our fight." In the Gaza Strip border town of missiles in the 1991 Persian GI ilf War Rafah, which sees almost daily fighting The capture of the only Arab leader between Palestinian gunrunners and to perpetrate an unanswered strike Israeli troops, a rally to mark the 16th against the Jewish state generated an anniversary of Hamas' funding quickly upbeat reaction in Israel, buoying the became a show of support for Saddam. Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and resonat- Children bore posters showing ing at the Defense Ministry. Saddam in better days: uniformed, "The capture of the Iraqi dictator is smiling, an unabashed patron of the additional proof that the policies of the free world, led by U.S. President George Palestinian cause. Israeli strategic experts agreed that W. Bush, are determined to bring to while a quick trial and sentencing for justice all terrorists responsible for Saddam might calm Iraq, it was unlike- killing, destruction and anarchy," ly to affect the Palestinian front. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz wrote in Terrorist attacks against Israel contin- a telegram to his American counterpart, ued even though Saddam's payments to Donald Rumsfeld. the families of Palestinian suicide On Dec. 14, Prime Minister Ariel bombers stopped after he was deposed Sharon also phoned Bush to offer con- in March. gratulations. And unlike Saddam, Arafat still enjoys the status of international states- man in most places except Washington. "What amazes me," said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, "is that Saddam can now sit in shackles for his support of terrorism, while archter- rorist Arafat remains free." Some experts warned of a surge in violence by pan-Arab nationalists keen to show they are not cowed by the loss of a major figurehead. "Those normal citizens who have taken up arms against the Americans in Iraq, and the Islamist extremists who have flocked to help them, might well put up a last fight," said Jacky Hugi, Arab affairs correspondent for Israel's daily Ma'ariv. . Suing Saddam Over Scuds Jerusalem/JTA — The daughter of the Israeli killed by Iraq's 1991 Scud missile strikes on Israel wants Saddam Hussein executed. "I will go anywhere necessary, includ- ing Iraq, in order to testify against him, and I will ask to join the team investi- gating this murderer," Smarlar Weinberg, a lawyer from Metulla, told Israel's Mdariv newspaper. "Until he is dead, the score will not be settled." Weinberg's father, Eitan Grondland, was killed when a Scud slammed into his home in Ramat-Gan in January 1991. Dozens of Israelis were hurt in 12/19 2003 22 the 39 Scud strikes during the Persian Gulf War, but Grondland was the only fatality. Israeli officials intend to file suit for damages from the missile attacks in any war-crimes trial against Saddam. Demographic Threat Against Israel Jerusalem/JTA — Benjamin Netanyahu said the natural growth of Israeli Arabs threatens the Jewish state. "If Israel's Arabs reach 40 percent, the Jewish state will be canceled out," the finance minister told a security confer- ence in Herzliya. He called for increased Rub It In The parallels between the Iraqi and Palestinian fronts resonated recently with revelations that Israel was export- ing its hard-learned counterterrorist tactics to U.S. forces operating in Iraq. At least one Israeli analyst said he did not approve of the broadcasting of the videotape of Saddam undergoing a medical inspection after his capture. "It's humiliating and inappropriate," said Moti Kedar of Bar-Ilan University. "You want to win over the Iraqis, not rub their faces in it." Palestinian Abdallah Abu-Hussein, a 40-year-old West Bank engineer, told Jewish immigration to counteract the trend. Representatives of the Israeli Arab community, which currently constitutes 18 percent of Israel's population, were outraged. Mohammed Barakeh of the Hadash Party called the remarks "lowly, ugly racism." Bush Brought Peace Closer Washington/JTA —Colin Powell says Bush administration efforts have "brought peace closer" between Israelis and Palestinians. Reuters, "I wish all Arab leaders would be hanged, but not by the Americans — by their own people, because they are dictators." Elsewhere in the Arab world, the news of the capture initially was greeted with disbelief. But as the news was con- firmed, many expressed joy that Saddam would never return to power in Iraq. Others seemed disappointed that he had not fought back against his American captors. "Saddam is a dicta- tor and the Iraqi people suffered under him, but on the other hand, it was U.S. forces "that caught him," Mohammed Horani, a member of the Palestinian Authority Parliament, said in the Gaza Strip, according to the Associated Press. "There will be a sense of confusion in the public." In Yemen, one man said he expected Saddam to fight back. "I expected him to resist or commit suicide before falling into American hands," said teacher Mohammed Abdel Qader Mohammadi, 50. "He disappointed a lot of us. He's a coward." Others celebrated. "Saddam should not be spared. He should get the death penalty, which is the least he deserves," the AP quoted Rasheed al-Osaimi, a 22-year-old Saudi student, as saying. In an article in the Foreign Affairs Jourruzh the U.S. secretary of state reacts to critics who say the Bush administra- tion didn't try hard enough to resolve the conflict during the president's first two years in office. "To many, more active meant spend- ing presidential and secretarial capital on state visits and photo opportunities, as if nearly a decade of such activity had not already been tried without managing to resolve the conflict," Powell wrote. "But diplomacy can take more appropriate forms." He noted the creation, together with international partners, of the road-map peace plan and the emergence of new Palestinian leadership under American pressure.