from The Guardian

[barbara100 at jps.net]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,636887,00.html

Israel's official account of the Palestinian Authority's connections with a ship found loaded with weapons makes little sense, writes Brian Whitaker 

Monday January 21, 2002 

At a select gathering in London last week, Israeli intelligence officers briefed journalists on the strange affair of Karine A, the ship seized by Israeli commandos with 50 tonnes of weapons on board. 

I know it was a select gathering because I was one of those selected by the Israeli embassy NOT to attend - on the grounds that they disliked what I had written about the affair in the Guardian (including a World dispatch from last Monday).

That, along with several abusive emails in response to last week's article, encourages me to return to the subject this week. Although most of the Arab world dismisses the story as an Israeli fabrication from beginning to end, the basic outline of what happened is, so far as I know, true: the Karine A, captained by a man with connections to the Palestinian Authority, and laden with a variety of weapons including rockets and mortars, sailed from the Gulf to the Red sea, where the Israelis intercepted it. 

But the official version, as told by Israeli spokesmen and spoon-fed to selected journalists, makes little sense when it moves on to the questions of who did it and why.

The ship and its voyage Israel has so far failed to substantiate its crucial claim that the Karine A belongs to the Palestinian Authority. If true, that would provide a direct link to the Palestinian Authority's leadership, including Yasser Arafat.

It is now clear that when Israel made this claim its intelligence service had not checked the ship's ownership with the registration authorities - a relatively simple matter - and was relying on something said by the ship's Palestinian captain, Omar Akawi, under interrogation.

The original army press release on January 4 said that "preliminary investigation of the team members arrested revealed that the Karine A ship was purchased by Adel Mughrabi in Lebanon." Its document described Mr Mughrabi as "a major buyer in the Palestinian weapons purchasing system".

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The Israelis say the Karine A loaded its weapons in the Gulf on the night of December 11-12. Its interception by commandos in the Red Sea, 300 miles south of Eilat, was not until January 3 - almost three weeks later.

That is an extraordinarily long gap, which has not yet been fully explained. According to the army, the ship "had to divert to Hodeida port in Yemen due to technical problems". 

The role of the Palestinian Authority Apart from claiming that the ship belongs to the Palestinian Authority, Israel says that "senior figures" in the PA were involved in the smuggling, and that the weapons were intended for use by the authority.

Given the stringency of Israeli security measures, this is the part that many people find most unconvincing. Would the Palestinian Authority really be so stupid as to imagine that it could successfully import the weapons in this way?

Assuming the ship had not been stopped in the Red sea and had passed through the Suez canal without being caught by the Egyptians, the problem would be how to sneak its weapons into Gaza without the Israelis noticing. At current levels of surveillance, the chances of that happening are almost nil.

Moving the 62 large rockets within Gaza would also be extremely difficult because of Israeli checkpoints. The rockets' range is only 12 miles, so in order to attack Tel Aviv and most major Israeli cities, they would have to be moved out of Gaza and into the West Bank - which is well nigh impossible.

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The role of Hizbullah shortly after the smuggling operation came to light, American officials suggested that the weapons were intended for Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shi'ite organisation, rather than the Palestinians.

Israel initially dismissed the idea, but defence sources later told Ha'aretz newspaper it was "certainly possible that some of the arms were earmarked for Hizbullah," - though they insisted that most "were clearly bound for the Palestinian Authority".

Either way, both Israel and the US agree that there was some level of Hizbullah involvement - for example when the weapons were loaded on to the ship. Hizbullah already has a well-established route for acquiring weapons from Iran: they are sent by air through Syria.

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What does it all mean? The only thing we can say with confidence is that when the full picture emerges it will be a lot more complex than the current official version.

There are still many pieces in this jigsaw that don't fit, but Israeli politicians have already decided what the finished picture should look like and tailored it to reinforce Israeli policies.

The Karine A affair has already been invoked as grounds for the overthrow of Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, and for not resuming the peace process.

Binyamin Netanyahu, former Israeli prime minister and probably a future contender for power, said last week that it means there cannot be a Palestinian state ... ever.

"With its own independent port, such a state would receive shiploads of arms, day and night, and we would find ourselves facing a terrorist state, armed to the teeth," he said.

Meanwhile, the Hizbullah connection can be used to push Hizbullah - and, by extension, Lebanon and Syria - to the top of America's anti-terrorism list.

And the Iranian connection, even if it does not really involve the Iranian state, can be used to stymie hopes of a rapprochement between Tehran and the west.

None of these goals will contribute anything to peace and stability in the Middle East. But you can be sure that Israeli embassies around the world will be working hard to promote them at select gatherings of diplomats and journalists. 




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