Police spokesmen say that a gag order has been placed on the investigation of this past Thursday\'s murder of the three Tamizi family members outside their Arab village of Idna. Some details have come to light, however, that cast doubt on the media\'s immediate identification of the murderers as Jews. For one thing, the family was known to have had connections with Israeli security sources; in fact one of the family members was killed in the past by Arab terrorists in the middle of Hevron, and another also had run-ins with them. So wrote Atty. Elyakim Ha\'etzni in yesterday\'s Yediot Acharonot. Palestinian murderers have killed at least eight informants for Israel in the past few months. In addition, Itim News Agency reports that although bullet casings were not found on the scene when the police first arrived, two or three hours later local Palestinians \"found\" some casings and gave them to the police.
Ha\'etzni writes that if Jews are guilty of the crime, their act was immoral, criminal, and beneficial to Arafat\'s cause. However, he reminds his readers of a story published by the former Romanian Intelligence Chief that occurred during the time of the dictator Ceausescu:
\"Ceausescu, a friend of Arafat, one day said to Arafat, \'What do you think about making believe that you have abandoned the path of terrorism? The West will love that.\' Arafat said OK… Later, Arafat\'s aide Al-Hassan related that Arafat in fact had one of his own Fatah men in London killed in order to acquire a new \"moderate\" image:
\"Al-Hassan said, \'I told the Romanians that the killers were not [terrorist] Abu Nidal\'s men, but rather our own.\' The Romanians were stunned: \'Why would you kill your own men?\' Answer: \'In every revolution some people die. Arafat gave me the names of some of our men abroad whom we could live without… We wanted to have some large-scale operations against the PLO, so that it would look like extremist organizations are blaming Arafat for becoming too moderate and soft…\' In fact, in 1985, Time Magazine mentioned that Abu Nidal had left Fatah because it had become too moderate for him…\"
Could it be, concluded Ha\'etzni, that those who committed the murders last week did so in order to attribute it to the \"settlers\" and thus gain support for the call for international observers?
In the meantime, Palestinian sources accuse Israeli government ministers Ze\'evi and Lieberman, as well as IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, of \"having met with the killers two days before the slaughter.\" The PA\'s official Al Hayat al-Jadida reports this item in the name of PA Intelligence Chief Amin Al-Hindi.
Ha\'etzni writes that if Jews are guilty of the crime, their act was immoral, criminal, and beneficial to Arafat\'s cause. However, he reminds his readers of a story published by the former Romanian Intelligence Chief that occurred during the time of the dictator Ceausescu:
\"Ceausescu, a friend of Arafat, one day said to Arafat, \'What do you think about making believe that you have abandoned the path of terrorism? The West will love that.\' Arafat said OK… Later, Arafat\'s aide Al-Hassan related that Arafat in fact had one of his own Fatah men in London killed in order to acquire a new \"moderate\" image:
\"Al-Hassan said, \'I told the Romanians that the killers were not [terrorist] Abu Nidal\'s men, but rather our own.\' The Romanians were stunned: \'Why would you kill your own men?\' Answer: \'In every revolution some people die. Arafat gave me the names of some of our men abroad whom we could live without… We wanted to have some large-scale operations against the PLO, so that it would look like extremist organizations are blaming Arafat for becoming too moderate and soft…\' In fact, in 1985, Time Magazine mentioned that Abu Nidal had left Fatah because it had become too moderate for him…\"
Could it be, concluded Ha\'etzni, that those who committed the murders last week did so in order to attribute it to the \"settlers\" and thus gain support for the call for international observers?
In the meantime, Palestinian sources accuse Israeli government ministers Ze\'evi and Lieberman, as well as IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, of \"having met with the killers two days before the slaughter.\" The PA\'s official Al Hayat al-Jadida reports this item in the name of PA Intelligence Chief Amin Al-Hindi.