 Israel and the Palestinians Your report on the Israeli military action in Jericho ("Israelis besiege a Palestinian prison," March 15) was disappointing. By failing to present key facts early in the story, readers were given only partial information about the rationale for the Israeli operation. It was not until the 10th paragraph that reference was made to the key Palestinian target, Ahmed Saadat, a leader of the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was "at the top of Israel's wanted list." Moreover, only in the article's 13th paragraph was it noted that "Israel asserts that Saadat and four of the other wanted men were behind the killing in 2001" of an Israeli Cabinet minister. Buried still deeper in the article were two other salient facts that should have been presented earlier to help readers understand the Israeli motivation. First, a Hamas spokseman said that once the group takes control of the Palestinian government, it would release the prisoners - in flagrant violation of a deal involving the Palestinians, Israelis, Americans and British. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, indicated he would not object. Second, a U.S. government spokesman explicitly stated: "The Palestinian Authority had not been meeting its obligations." In other words, Israel, having entrusted convicted Palestinian murderers to the Palestinian penal system, learned that its trust was misplaced and signed agreements weren't worth a whole lot, hence the decision to take matters into its own hands. David A. Harris, New York Executive Director, American Jewish Committee |
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