Zeevi killing and Jericho raid

CHARGES are being heard that the March 14 raid of a Palestinian National Authority (PNA) prison in Jericho was aimed at suppressing the behind-the-scene role Israeli security agents played in the 2001 murder of Rehavam Zeevi, an Israeli cabinet minister. The murder itself was part of a broader conspiracy linked to the survival of the Israeli coalition government in power at that time, according to those levelling the charge.
It was speculated that the raid, during which all prisoners in the jail were snatched and moved to an Israeli prison, was designed to give a boost to the chances of Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party in the March 28 elections. The operation was also seen as pre-empting a possible release by Hamas of five prisoners who were found to have been involved in the Zeevi killing. It was also deemed to be aimed at satisfying the Israeli demand that the five be tried by an Israeli court.
The five were kept in the PNA prison in a multi-party deal under which American and British observers were posted there to ensure that the PNA did not release them. Very conveniently, the observers abandoned their posts citing "security" concerns shortly before an Israeli army team arrived at the site and stormed the jail and took away the prisoners.
It was argued that Hamas, which was poised to take over the PNA after winning the Jan.25 elections, would have released the prisoners as resistance heroes, and hence the move to take them into Israeli custody.
Israel has vowed to put the five, headed by Ahmed Sadaat, an activist of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), on trial.
In public statements, Israel says that the prison was raided in order to prevent a Hamas-run PNA from freeing Sadaat.
"But, it may just as well have been to prevent Sadaat from disclosing any collusion with the Israelis in the elimination of the pesky and outspoken Zeevi," who objected to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's move to evacuate occupied Palestinian territory, says a report appearing on www.conspiracyarchive.com written by Barry Chamish, an Israeli journalist.
Chamish, author of several books, including Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin, Israel Betrayed, The Last Days Of Israel and Save Israel!, says that in early October 2001, Zeevi objected to Shimon Peres, who was then foreign minister in the Sharon cabinet, engaging in secret diplomacy with Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader. (Arafat himself said in a television interview after the killing that Israeli security agents had played a major role in the Zeevi murder.)
Chamish claims that Peres was working on a plan for Israel to withdraw to the 1948 lines — the borders of Israel as defined in the UN Security Council resolution which partitioned Palestine.
The plan had the support of a group of American strategists including former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk as well as the Vatican, which, according to Chamish, was promised control of Jerusalem in the overall post-withdrawal scenario.
Hard-liners like Zeevi saw such proposals as disastrous for Israel and "disintegration" of the Jewish state.
Sharon was aware of the secret contacts — which were launched in the late-90s — and Zeevi confronted the prime minister over the issue, according to Chamish.
Zeevi "threatened Sharon," says Chamish. "If Peres did not stop his secret diplomacy, he would publicly reveal what it involved. Sharon acquiesced and had a letter drawn promising that he would order Peres to cancel a planned meeting with Arafat in Greece. A week before his murder, Zeevi displayed the letter at a party caucus meeting."
"Sharon's appeasement did not succeed for long. On Oct. 13, 2001 Zeevi handed Sharon his final ultimatum: Peres is removed from the cabinet or he will resign from the government and take two parties with him; Yisrael B'aliyah and the National Party. Sharon was given a choice between Peres and suicidal withdrawal, or his coalition.
"Sharon went with Peres and withdrawal. On Oct. 17, 2001, four hours before Zeevi was to give his resignation speech to the Knesset, explaining who Peres was and why he couldn't sit in the same government as him, he was shot dead outside his hotel room in Jerusalem. Arabs may have been the triggermen, but the order came from within the Israeli government."
Chamish says that Israeli security forces had put Zeevi in an insecure hotel location and withdrawn his guards so the attackers could get to him.
Zeevi was shot dead in the hotel corridor by a lone gunman, who jumped out of a balcony and fled and the scene on a motor bike. While having food at the hotel restaurant shortly before he was shot, Zeevi had noticed that someone was keeping a watch on him and he had mentioned it to his wife.
Chamish is questioning why Zeevi's official bodyguards did not escort him back to the room and did not post an armed guard in the corridor.
As long as he remained a minister, Zeevi had no say in his own security affairs, meaning that he could not have ordered that the guards leave him alone.
A close reading between the lines of what Chamish says would lead to the theory that Israeli agents had infiltrated PFLP ranks and they helped Sadaat plot and carry out the Zeevi killing without the PFLP man being aware that he was being used as a tool to serve Israeli political purposes.
Chamish argues that those behind the storming of the Jericho jail feared that a free Sadaat and his associates could talk about the killing and expose that Israeli security had not only been deliberately lapse in order to allow the murder to be carried out but also been a party involved in plotting it.
In any event, the "revelations" by Chamish are yet another affirmation of Israel's false-flag operations. It would not be the first or last time either.