The assassination of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s No. 2 man, Khalil al-Wazir, will have dire consequences for Israel, whether or not Israel did the deed.
That is the opinion of several experts on terrorism, according to Avi Benayahu, writing in Al Hamishmar on Monday. They believe the Palestinian unrest in the administered territories will escalate in the absence of a guiding hand from PLO headquarters.
Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad (father of war), headed Al Fatah, the PLO’s military branch. Israelis considered him the mastermind of the Palestinian uprising.
According to the experts cited by Benayahu, if his death results in weakening the PLO’s links with the territories, local nationalist leaders will consider themselves “freed” from whatever restraints the PLO might have imposed — such as the prohibition of the use of firearms.
In addition, the new situation could give rise to a local leadership that is much more extreme than the PLO and more hostile to both Israel and Jordan, Benayahu wrote. There is also no guarantee that the PLO will be less brutal without Abu Jihad, he added.
REPLACEMENTS PICKED
Al Hamishmar quoted Palestinian sources as saying that PLO chief Yasir Arafat will assign responsibility for the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Abu Ali Shahin, who will be in charge of military affairs, and Mahmoud Abbas, who will oversee political matters.
Dr. Yossi Olmert of Tel Aviv University’s Dayan Center for Strategic Studies said in an interview in Hadashot on Monday that since the PLO is convinced Israel was responsible for the assassination, Abu Jihad’s death “will restore a bit of balance to Israel-PLO relations.”
According to Olmert, until now, the PLO had a sense of euphoria over Israel’s perceived weakness in suppressing the uprising in the territories. “The PLO without Abu Jihad will be more fearful and perhaps more realistic as well,” he said.
Olmert does not believe the assassination will have any effect on the peace process because “Abu Jihad was not a potential participant” and “his elimination, therefore, does not substantively change anything.”
While Israel has neither confirmed nor denied it had a hand in the assassination, the chief of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amnon Shahak, believes Abu Jihad was a legitimate target.
“I believe that anyone directing terrorism is a proper target for elimination. Anyone who works against us through terrorism must be a target,” Shahak wrote in the Israel Defense Force weekly Bamahane. His article appeared last week, before Abu Jihad was gunned down.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
