Details emerge of plans to `re-invade' Palestinian areas

By Dara MacNeil

Nine days before two suicide bombs exploded in a Jerusalem market, killing 13 civilians, it was revealed that the Israeli military had drawn up plans to invade the West Bank.

The `re-invasion' plans had matured to the point where Israeli forces held a simulated `war-game' in which the object was to re-take the chief population centres in the West Bank under Palestinian control. The war games were held in June.

The planned re-invasion was said by the Israeli military to be technically feasible, with a cost in lives they estimated to be in the hundreds. The exercises were observed by what press reports described as ``several leading politicians,'' including aides to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

However, it was eventually concluded that the re-invasion plan was not a realistic option but, according to the same reports, the army is ominously said ``to be devising alternative strategies for the eventuality of a full-scale Israeli-Palestinian confrontation.''

The fact that Israel's military-political establishment was thinking along these lines well before the 30 July explosions serves as a chilling reminder of the level of commitment, in senior Israeli circles, to the actual peace process. And the 30 July bombs - criminal acts which deliberately targetted innocent civilians - will now be used by those same figures to provide retrospective justification for their antipathy to a just settlement with the Palestinians.

In the aftermath of the bombs Israel's Netanyahu predictably laid the blame fully on the shoulders of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

In addition, he revived the tried, trusted and very worn strategy of criminalising the entire Palestinian nation.

Thus, Israel halted the monthly transfer to the Palestinian Authority of some $40 million in tax revenue (money which belongs to the Authority), and imposed a closure order on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while simultaneously blockading Palestinian-controlled cities. Israel also jammed the Voice of Palestine Radio and TV broadcasts.

The effect is to deprive the Authority of the funds it requires to function on a daily basis, while preventing Palestinians from getting to their jobs in Israel. Consequently, an already impoverished region is further immiserated.

And should Israel contemplate taking further action, including a military offensive of sorts, they will be assured of support from people in high places. In the wake of the 30 July bombs loudmouthed US politician, Newt Gingrich, inflamed an already tense situation by calling for a military escalation by Israel. On US TV, the armchair warmonger said Israel had every right to ``go after Hamas.'' He added that if this included ``raids into Palestinian territory,'' or ``whatever steps have to be taken,'' then so be it.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives appears to enjoy toying with the lives of others, from the comfort of Washington of course.

And surprise surprise, it is now virtually certain that the two suicide bombers who entered the Jerusalem market on 30 July did not originate from any of the territory under Palestinian Authority control, and may not even have been Palestinian.

Indeed, all the evidence now suggests that the suicide bombers had arrived in Israel from abroad. Should their country of origin be determined, what is the response of the Israeli authorities and warmongers like Newt Gingrich likely to be?

Will financial penalties be imposed by Israel on another sovereign country?

Will travel restrictions and blockades be announced? Will Israel set about the jamming of that country's TV and radio transmissions? Will the Israeli military stage simulated invasions?

And will Newt Gingrich cheerfully propose ``raids'' into that country's territory? Don't hold your breath.

 

More evidence of Mexican army's drugs links

In Mexico evidence of the links between drug barons and the military continues to emerge. At the end of July an ex-beauty queen was murdered by unknown gunmen in the northern Mexican town of Guadalajara.

Forty four year old Irma Lizette Ibarra Naveja had been shot six times. Prior to her murder, Ibarra had been named as a key witness in an investigation into links between drug traffickers and high-ranking members of the Mexican military. Ibarra, who had occupied key positions in the regional structures of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, was known to be close to General Vinicio Santoyo, the former commander of Mexico's Military Zone 15. The General was known to be involved in the drugs trade.

Before her murder, Ibarra had told journalists that she had been followed for a number of days by men ``of military appearance.''

After her death, friends of Ibarra said she possessed information detailing connections between drug dealers and senior military commanders. It was also stated that Ibarra had information linking the former head of the country's National Institute to Combat Drugs, to the traffickers. Ibarra was the third witness in this case to be murdered.

Third Havana bomb blamed on right wing exiles

More evidence has emerged of an escalation in the dirty war against Cuba. On Monday 4 August, a bomb exploded in the lobby of Havana's prestigious Melia Cohiba hotel.

The explosion was said to be small and to have caused only minor damage to furnishings. It does not appear that any warning was given. The explosion comes three weeks after similar bombs exploded in the lobbies of two other prestigious Havana hotels, the Capri and the Nacional. The latter was built and run by the US Mafia, before the overthrow of the Batista regime necessitated their hasty departure from Cuba. Three people were said to be slightly wounded by the two previous bombs and, again, warnings do not appear to have been given. The hotels in question play a crucial role in Cuba's tourist economy, which has provided the country with an important means of ameliorating at least some of the effects of the US blockade of the island. Last year the number of tourists visiting Cuba rose by 15.3% and the tourism industry is Cuba's biggest earner of foreign capital. New hotels are being built in the main tourist centres - last year an extra 2,500 beds were provided in new hotels. And given the importance of the tourist industry, one wonders who stands to benefit should the bombs force a decline in the number of overseas visitors to the island?

Raul Castro, brother of Fidel and head of the Cuban Army, blamed the attacks on right-wing Cuban exiles living in the United States. He said the Cuban government had evidence that these groups were involved in trying to sabotage the Cuban tourist industry.