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MK Zahava Gal-On: Slight scent of elections
Photo: Eli Elgarat

Leftists: Jericho raid - Kadima campaign ad

Left-wingers: Jericho operation motivated by political considerations ahead of elections

Although former Minister Rehavam Zeevi's killers are "disgusting murderers who should stay behind bars," the IDF operation to arrest them in Jericho "has the slight scent of elections," Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On (Meretz-Yachad) said Tuesday.

 

Gal-On went on to question the government decision to go ahead with a military operation, instead of engaging in talks on the matter with the Palestinian Authority.

 

"What (Meretz Chairman) Yossi Beilin did - talking to (PA leader) Mahmoud Abbas – should have been done by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. If we're going to be in the next government we'll make sure the government will not plunge into the holes it digs for itself," Gal-On said.

 

The Gush Shalom group issued a more scathing attack, saying that the operation meant to attract right-wing voters to Kadima.

 

"The biggest Kadima campaign ad is taking place right now in Jericho, with hundreds of IDF soldiers and Palestinian extras. In cooperation with the U.S. and the UK, Olmert and Mofaz perform an aggressive provocation like a herd of elephants in a china shop, adding more fuel to the fire of conflict and hatred. They will be fully responsible for the consequences," the group said.

 

Meanwhile, Arab-Israeli Knesset Member Azmi Bishara also slammed the IDF operation.

 

"It's like gang activity and a wanted-dead-or-alive style of operation," he said. "The only meaning of this is that if the Palestinian people will not defend themselves, their institutions, and their leaders, Israel will do as it sees fit", he commented.

 

However, Kadima's Shimon Peres blamed Hamas for the operation.

 

"Hamas is responsible for the events in Jericho because it decided to breach the agreements on the subject of Zeevi's killers and release them", Peres said.

 

Former Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer, who was in office at the time of Zeevi's murder, said he does not think the Jericho operation was motivated by political considerations.

 

"What's more serious is the fact that the British and Americans left (the Jericho prison)…so there was no choice. No one in the international community can criticize us," Ben Eliezer said.

 

Right-wing figures, meanwhile, also leveled their own criticism, despite their approval of the Jericho siege.

  

Defense and Foreign Affairs committee Chairman Yuval Steinitz (Likud) praised the operation in Jericho but still criticized Olmert's policy toward the PA.

 

"Capturing Zeevi's killers was necessary but it's unfortunate to see the zigzagging government policy toward Hamas," Steinitz remarked.

 

Nationa Jewish Front leader Baruch Marzel said that instead of the IDF operation, the prison in Jericho should have been bombed.

 

"They should have bombed the prison and not risk soldiers' lives with this operation. Better to have a thousand dead foes than one dead soldier," Marzel stated.

 

Roee Nahmias, Ilan Marciano, and Efrat Weiss contributed to the report

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.14.06, 20:46
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