Prison Break

Yesterday the Israelis laid siege to a Palestinian prison in Jericho at the suggestion that the incoming government might pardon a hero of both Intifadas, Ahmed Saadat. Saadat has been jailed by the Palestinians since 2002 for arranging for the murder of the Israeli tourism minister. Saadat was the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at the time. Going on four years without parole, it seems as though the Palestinian justice system was doing a pretty good job. By comparison, how much time do Israeli soldiers get for killing Palestinians in the Occupied Territories or for shooting Western peace workers?

At the risk of rambling on about the hypocrisy of the Holy Land, it should be said that the Israelis got their man and intact. Ahmed Saadat is now a guest of the Israeli state joining his fellow hero of the Intifadas, Marwan Barghouti behind bars. One wonders if all the entire Palestinian leadership will wind up dead or in Israeli jails before long.

Three points annoy me about this Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) version of Prison Break:

1) The fact that British and American prison observers withdrew just before the IDF attack demonstrates a deep level of collusion between these three states. George Bush and Tony Blair just blame the Palestinians for the attack but lasting damage has been done. For the Palestinians I just have one comment: What did you expect trusting the British and the Americans? Next time ask Brazil, India or China to send observers. Why choose America, Israel's biggest supporter?

2) What's going to happen to all the criminals released by the Israelis on that day? These men (probably no women but I'm not sure) have committed crimes and were serving sentences for these crimes. Where will they go? Unlike the United States, the Palestinians do not always have room in their dwindling budgets for more prisons. I expect that after passing through the Israeli screens around the prison these men were merely let go--ready to return to their lives of crime. If this is the case Israel should be condemned for contributing to lawlessness in the West Bank.

3) What's going to happen to the jail they destroyed? Tanks and bulldozers blasted and leveled this prison much like they did to Yasser Arafat's compound in 2002. Will the IDF tip into its bountiful coffers to cover the costs of rebuilding this prison? Don't bet on it.

Imagine that Canada invaded New York State and laid siege to a prison in Buffalo and partly destroyed it; then they seized a prisoner serving time there and returned to Canada with him. This is essentially what happened here--one state invaded another. Naturally the Americans would be livid with us. They would probably reduce our cities to ashes through a nuclear holocaust. The Palestinians have no such atomic means at their disposal but expect a bus explosion soon (that's asymmetrical warfare by the way). I can picture Ehud Olmert licking his chops at the prospect of a Hamas suicide attack as just the pretense to claim more of the West Bank.

Finally, a word on the tourism minister, Rahavam Zeevi apparently murdered on the orders of Saadat. This was a truly repulsive human being. He was famous for his plans to deport all the Palestinians from Israel and the Occupied Territories. "Let the Arabs go back to Mecca" was his familiar refrain and he often referred to the Palestinians as "lice" and "cancer". He was also never without his precious uzi submachine gun, a must for a tourism minister in the Holy Land. Dominating and threatening Palestinians was his specialty. Saadat, the man who ordered his assassination is declared a terrorist rightly; is it not fitting to apply the terrorist label to Zeevi as well.