'We Will Repay'

Changing the Rules

Possible Expansion of the Conflict

Steps of Escalation

From Volume 1, Issue Number 40 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Dec. 9, 2002

Kenya Terror: Where Will Sharon Retaliate?

by Dean Andromidas

Following the twin attacks targetting Israeli tourists and an Israeli airliner in Kenya on Nov. 28, calls for retaliation using "options that up until now have been unacceptable to public opinion," are being made by leading members of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. According to well-informed sources in Israel, backed up by years of its record of covert assassinations, the calls for "vengeance" reported below mean one thing—extra-territorial assassinations, anywhere, anytime, against any nationality by Israeli secret hit teams.

But something that should disturb every citizen of any nation is that, this time, the Likudniks of Sharon's war machine are not just rogue elements, acting as outlaws. They are pointing to their alliance with the United States as the justification under international law for the retaliatory murders they are planning to commit. Recall that on Nov. 5, Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense in the United States, and leading Likudnik mole in the American government, went on CNN television to announce that the United States had adopted the assassination policy perfected by Sharon's security forces over the last two years, known as "preemptive assassinations" of terrorists. Wolfowitz's public confession, in effect, forced through the illegal doctrine against strong opposition within the intelligence community of the United States, and among some in President Bush's national security team. As EIR warned on Nov. 22 ("Did Wolfowitz Blow CIA Secret To Set Up the President?"), the public revelation—in fact, a boast—gave license for further assassinations. Now, in the wake of the Kenya attacks, the gates of hell have been opened to such international operations.

'We Will Repay'

On Nov. 28, a car-bomb struck an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and missiles were fired at an Israeli airliner departing from the Mombasa airport. Fifteen people, including three Israelis, were killed, and up to 100 injured in the hotel bombing. The airplane, a Boeing 757 with 261 passengers and crew, was undamaged.

An unknown group calling itself the Army of Palestine, in a faxed message, claimed responsibility, saying it had sent two teams to "make the world hear once again the voice of Palestinian refugees, and cast light on Zionist terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza." The authenticity of the statement has not been confirmed.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz promised vengeance. "Our hand will reach them," he said. "If anyone doubted that the citizens of the state of Israel cannot stand up to the killers of children, this will be removed. Vengeance is ours. We will repay."

Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the press, "This shows that terror organizations and the regimes behind them are able to arm themselves with weapons which can cause mass casualties anywhere and everywhere. Today, they're firing the missiles at Israeli planes, tomorrow they'll fire missiles at American planes, British planes, and every country's aircraft. This shows there can be no compromise with terror."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the new chief of the Mossad intelligence service, Meir Dagan, to take charge of the investigation of the attack. The order has been compared to that relayed by the late Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir, who ordered the hit teams run by operative Rafi Eytan, called "Terror Against Terror," to hunt down and kill "those responsible" for the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. More than one innocent person was killed in this way. As to Dagan himself, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he ran "Operation Caesarea," whereby, in Gaza and Lebanon, his 40-man hit squad of IDF commandos frequently disguised themselves as Palestinians and assassinated Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leaders. (Often, the targets of these assassinations were moderate Palestinians, who were more open than most others, to peace talks.)

Although unsuccessful, the attempt to down the Israeli airliner in Kenya is being seen by Sharon as a "mega-terror" attack. EIR has warned that Sharon has been looking for such an attack, as a pretext to launch a new Mideast war. This danger looms larger, now that the Iraq war drive has been slowed in the United Nations. It is not only the war party in Washington that wants this war; so does their ally, Ariel Sharon, and perhaps even more so. This gang's intentions were spelled out by his "security team," in speeches given to the National Security Conference held at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center in Israel on Dec. 2-4.

Changing the Rules

Ephraim Halevy, chairman of Israel's National Security Council and former head of the Mossad, warned that a "mega" terror attack on Israel will "change the rules" of how Israel will react. The Kenya attempt against the Israeli airliner was "a major escalation that cannot be ignored.... The working assumption is that if a mega-terrorist incident succeeds, it will at once change a long series of rules of behavior. The essence of the threat is essentially genocide, the destruction of the state.... Against such a threat, Israel has a broad range of capabilities that it is preferable not to reveal prematurely.... Presumably, international opinion will understand, accept, and internalize the change in the rules and the levels of action."

Halevy said a successful attack would "create an international dynamic that would open options that up to now were unacceptable to public opinion."

An Israeli official who has particularly strong ties to the war party in Washington, Halevy said that with Iranian and Iraqi weapons of mass destruction aimed at Israel, the country has to support the United States in an Iraq war. "If the United States succeeds [in Iraq], as many of us hope, there will be far-reaching changes in the Middle East." The end result will be "undoubtedly favorable for Israel."

Regarding Israel's relations with the United States, he said, "Never have the interests and goals of the two countries been so close; therefore, Israel has never needed to examine its international policies with so much consideration of the needs and interests of the United States." He said that every country has to make its views known regarding the war on terrorism. "Those who are neutral are not neutral."

A military source who heard Halevy's presentation emphasized, "This is not simply a 'professional' opinion. This is the opinion of Sharon. You have to understand that Halevy is Sharon's messenger. He is sent on secret missions, and when he speaks, he is expressing the opinions of his boss." The message is that "Now the world must take this global terror threat seriously, or Israel will have to act unilaterally."

Halevy did not detail the "options that up until now have been unacceptable to public opinion." But EIR has detailed several options which Sharon has so far been prevented from carrying out. These include the assassination of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, military strikes against Syria and Lebanon, and a regional war in which Sharon can finally implement his "Jordan is Palestine" policy, by driving the Palestinian population across the Jordan River.

The most convenient point to strike is close to home: Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.

Possible Expansion of the Conflict

Speaking at the same conference, Sharon's new Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, referring to the Kenya attacks, declared that what was intended by the terrorists was "a mega-attack which was prevented by a miracle." In the same breath he spoke of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, declaring, "Sooner or later, we will have to ask ourselves ... whether we should switch to a process of political-military decision." A source close to him told the Jerusalem Post on Dec. 5 that these words were key and code for "making Arafat disappear from history." The source asserted that Sharon is in agreement with Mofaz, but is only concerned with "timing," not wanting to interfere, for the time being, with any U.S. action against Iraq.

Mofaz's statement was backed by Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon, who warned that the continuing conflict with the Palestinians could pose a risk to Israel's peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan.

The Israeli security establishment has linked the perpetrators of the Kenya attacks to alleged al-Qaeda networks in Lebanon, where they are accused of being protected by the Hezbollah group. The latter's backers, Syria and Iran, will now be in Israel's sights.

This was reflected by commentator Ze'ev Schiff, who wrote in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz on Nov. 29, that now "the Mossad and the Shin Bet will have to reorganize outside the country's borders—and not only in the defensive posture." He noted that the unknown "Army of Palestine" claimed responsibility for the Kenya attack via al-Manara, the TV station of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Schiff took this to mean that Hezbollah most likely knows the members of this group, and then went on to claim that Hezbollah works with an al-Qaeda-linked group in Lebanon. "That group must be regarded as a loaded gun that will eventually fire—at Israel. Investments will have to be made in defensive measure so as to not expose that front."

Steps of Escalation

The implication is a possible "preemptive" assassination by Israeli security forces in Lebanon. Such an attack would predictably provoke a retaliation by Hezbollah and lead to a rapid escalation—an escalation Sharon wants to use to launch direct attacks on Syrian positions, not only in Lebanon, but in Syria as well.

The last of the "options that up to now have been unacceptable to public opinion," is the deployment of Israeli nuclear weapons. Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. has warned that Israel could threaten the deployment of its nuclear capabilities as a provocation if the United States does not launch a war against Iraq. In this context, the Jerusalem Post on Dec. 5 reported that Mossad head Meir Dagan on Dec. 4 told Sharon's Cabinet that the world was on the brink of the massive proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and that therefore Israel has to prepare "new responses" in the event of an attack.

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