| 28/02/2005 | A different PA response
Danny Rubinstein
Since the beginning of the bloody clashes of the intifada about four and a half years ago, and perhaps even earlier, the Palestinians have not issued any denunciation or reservation as sharp as their statements yesterday, following the bombing at the entrance to the club on Tel Aviv's beachfront.
On the official level it was expected, of course, that the new chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and the new cabinet would denounce the attack roundly and promise to capture and punish the perpetrators. Yasser Arafat always used to denounce attacks on citizens, both Israelis and Palestinians, but his statements were seen as lip service.
Now things are certainly different. The first pertinent fact is that no official body wants to assume responsibility for the attack. In the past the organizations sometimes vied with each other to claim the attacks as theirs and took pride in them. This time, every political group tried to wash its hands of the attack and to hint that others were behind it.
First was Abu Mazen, who blamed a "third party," referring to Hezbollah. A Hezbollah spokesman in Beirut responded: "There is no need to comment on lies." The Hezbollah's television channel Al Manar reported that it was an Islamic Jihad activist.
The Jihad spokesman in Gaza, Nafez Azzam, hastened to release a firm denial, as did the Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu-Zahari. They had both announced by midnight Friday, less than an hour after the attack, that they were bound by their organization's commitment to "the calming down policy" they promised Abu Mazen.
The situation was more complicated with Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has no central leadership and consists of local groups that often do whatever they like. This organization released a statement saying that if any of its men is found to have anything to do with the attack "we shall no longer see him as a member."
Every Palestinian group's headquarters made it clear that it had control over its organization and that nobody could carry out such an attack without its approval.
All the sharp Palestinian denunciations and reservations must be seen in the context of the atmosphere among the Palestinian public, which wholeheartedly supports Abu Mazen's calming policy and the attempts to restore normalcy to life in the West Bank and Gaza.
In the streets of East Jerusalem, at least, the report of the suicide bombing came as a total surprise. While in the past one could see displays of satisfaction, even of joy following these attacks, this time the reactions were completely reversed. In the past people explained that the suicide bombings are a necessary result of the deprivation and despair caused by the occupation. Yesterday, a store owner on Sultan Suleiman Street said all his customers registered anger when they heard of the attack.
A money changer near the East Jerusalem bus stop said he did not believe a Palestinian would do such a thing now. In his opinion, it was carried out by settlers to prevent the pullout from Gaza, or an ultra-Orthodox Jew, who was angry because the club operated on the Sabbath.
When told this was nonsense because the suicide bomber's identity had been established and he was a young Arab from Tul Karm, he said, "So maybe somebody paid him."
These reactions, both official and unofficial, indicate clearly that the public has adopted the PA's calming policy. In other words, last night's attack was, for the Palestinian population, the exception that proves the rule, and the rule is the desire of the street and leadership of the territories for calm and for resorting to the political track.
Who is behind the attack? A clue to a possible answer is the village Dir al-Ghusun, the home of the suicide bomber Abdallah Badran, aged 21. The village is a few minutes' drive from the Israeli-Arab township Taibeh, the home of Qayis Obeid, that drug dealer who became a Hezbollah activist in Lebanon and initiated attacks from there. Obeid has excellent connections in Tul Karm and maybe he is behind the suicide bombing.
Haaretz (Israel)
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