Why, exactly, was this man taken from his Jericho prison and brought to Israel? You wouldn’t know if you read only this AP article. Oh, you’d know it’s because he’s wanted for the assassination of an Israeli minister — but it sure looks like Israel just swooped in and stole this man out of prison for no apparent reason.
Ahmed Saadat and four of his alleged accomplices in the 2001 assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister were seized in an Israeli army swoop on Jericho prison, action that triggered reprisal attacks from angered Palestinians.
At his brief court appearance Monday, Saadat refused to recognize the military tribunal’s authority to try him and the judge, in turn, refused to hear his bail application. When he was led into court, Sadat raised his hands in a gesture of defiance and shouted in Arabic, “I am fighting occupation! ” before he was silenced by guards.
The Israeli army stormed the prison on March 14, two weeks before Israel’s general election. The raid boosted acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s image as a tough-minded leader. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, a member of Olmert’s centrist Kadima Party, dismissed allegations that the operation, which involved some 1,000 troops, was timed to win over hardline voters.
But the raid angered Palestinians, who staged protests strikes the day after, and embarrassed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who labeled it an “unforgivable crime” and “an insult to the Palestinian people.”
The raid triggered unprecedented Palestinian reprisals against foreigners, because British wardens – who along with American monitors had supervised the Jericho prisoners under an unusual 2002 arrangement – left their posts just before Israeli troops arrived.
Notice how they make sure to blame Israel for the palestinian “reprisals,” and yet, not once did they mention that the pals were about to release Saadat and his henchman. It was done, obviously, as an election ploy.
The kindest thing I can say about this is that the AP sucks eggs. Rotten ones.
Again, Meryl, I ride to the interpretive rescue. I’ll detail this further in the future, but for the moment I’ll just observe that the AP has done nothing wrong; it is simply following the Bensky Bifurcated Theory of Middle East Analysis.
Briefly: on the one hand, if Arabs are still smoldering over the Crusades, which started a thousand years ago, that just shows their authenticity.
On the other hand the Arab-Israel conflict bega this morning and mentioning anything that happened before that is unnecessary and in fact only contributes to the cycle of violence.
I have to disagree, they definitely tell you why the raid took place.
The Israeli army stormed the prison on March 14, two weeks before Israel’s general election. The raid boosted acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s image as a tough-minded leader.
Geez, you people in the Zionist lobby sure are touchy.