Bush forces Hamas down Israel’s throat in Jerusalem. Olmert government is stunned

Sunday night Jan 8, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice discussed the forthcoming Palestinian elections to the legislative council on the telephone with Palestinian Authority chairman Abu Mazen.

Twelve hours later, the US consul in Jerusalem Jacob Walles visited Abu Mazen’s office in Ramallah with an oral message from President George W. Bush. According to our sources, it was a presidential guarantee that all the Palestinian parties running for election on Jan 25 would be allowed to campaign openly in East Jerusalem, eligible voters in the city would be permitted to cast their votes through local post offices, and the voter slips of all Palestinian parties without exception would be available in the balloting booths.

The Israeli government was not informed of the extraordinary step taken by Bush over its head and in respect of Israeli sovereign territory.

1. The Bush administration took advantage of Ehud Olmert’s having been less than a week in the job of acting prime minister and treated his reluctance to undertake firm decisions - as long as prime minister Ariel Sharon’s condition was uncertain -as a leadership vacuum in Jerusalem. Without a word, administration officials marked down the goings-on around Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem and Olmert’s slowness to rise to the challenge.

3. Olmert’s failure to come down decisively on the Jerusalem issue has a serious consequence: Washington’s intercession enables the terrorist Hamas group to fly its green flags and hold rallies on Temple Mount with its standard calls for jihad against Israel, as well as piling its voter slips at Israeli government post offices as an option for the Palestinian voter. By this device, the backhanded recognition of a Palestinian terrorist organization sworn to destroy the Jewish state has been thrust down the interim government’s throat.

4. The Bush administration showed no consideration for Olmert’s efforts to find his feet as head of government, bid for the leadership of Kadima party and fight a tough election.

Governing circles in Jerusalem were stunned by the White House action. They asked if Bush wanted Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud to win the March election having awarded him the edge on the Jerusalem issue. Part of the shock derived from the Israeli ministers’ mistaken conviction that Abu Mazen would postpone the election to prevent the Hamas beating his ruling Fatah. DEBKAfile’s sources repeatedly reported that the White House would insist on the Palestinian vote taking place on schedule – even at the price of a Hamas win and regardless of Sharon’s indisposition and a transitional administration very much at sea in Jerusalem.

There are still hopes in Israeli government circles that the two US officials David

Welch and Elliot Abrams due this week will help moderate some of the particulars of the Bush pledge to the Palestinian leader. But the chances of this are slim.

Fatah Allowed to Campaign in Eastern Jerusalem

16:35 Jan 09, '06 / 9 Tevet 5766
By Hillel Fendel

The Government of Israel, at the behest of the U.S., has decided to allow some PA political campaigning in eastern Jerusalem - even though the Oslo Accords forbid PA political activity in the city.

The decision was made in the Prime Minister's Office, at a consultation including Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra, and heads of the security establishment.

The Palestinian Authority is scheduled to hold elections for its legislature on Jan. 25. Minister Ezra (Kadima) explained today that only independent candidates or groups not associated with terrorist organizations will be allowed to campaign in eastern Jerusalem. "Israel will not permit parties that still bear weapons to campaign in eastern Jerusalem for the PLC elections," Ezra said.

Later in the day, he changed his line: "Extremist organizations working against peace will not be permitted to campaign. Fatah will be allowed to campaign, but not Hamas."

Ezra said that anyone who wants to campaign in Jerusalem must submit a request to the police and the General Security Service. "If they do not submit such a request," he said, "or if the request is turned down, the police will arrive and disband the gathering."

Former GSS head Ami Ayalon, a new member of the Labor Party, said that even Minister Ezra knows that the police will not have an easy time enforcing the new policy.

Israeli police barred PA candidates from Jerusalem last week, drawing a United States call for Israel to allow Jerusalem Arabs to take part in the election.

Israel Radio Arab affairs commentator Avi Yisacharov said that Hamas "will not want to leave the streets open only to Fatah, and clashes can be expected."

Arutz-7 spoke with Yehuda Maman, Minister Ezra's spokesman, and asked if the decision does not negate the Oslo Accords, which ban Palestinian Authority activity in Jerusalem. He said, "The new decision does not permit voting to be held there, but only campaigning... It was decided that this is something that is acceptable."

Asked why Fatah is being permitted to campaign, despite the many terrorist attacks its members have carried out, the spokesman said, "Fatah has a status that is different than Hamas; in this area, Fatah is not defined as a terrorist organization."

Arutz-7 contacted David Baker, an official spokesman for the Prime Minister's Bureau, regarding on the issue of the decision permitting PA election propaganda in Jerusalem. He said, "My office has no comment on this issue. Thank you," and hung up.

Arutz-7 faxed another PM's Bureau spokesman the following questions, and is awaiting a reply:

1. Does today's decision not require a Knesset vote, since it stands in opposition to the Oslo Accords, which forbid all PA political activity in Jerusalem?
2. If not, who determines whether today's decision does not negate the Oslo Accords?
3. Why Fatah yes, and Hamas no? Fatah has also perpetrated many terror attacks against Israel.

Today's decision was attacked from both left and right. Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu said that it will help encourage the division of Jerusalem, thus bringing Hamas terrorists to within shoulder-rocket range of capital residents.

A right-wing Shinui MK, Eliezer Zandberg, said the government’s decision represents “the first sign that [Acting Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert intends to divide Jerusalem.”

A Labor party statement attacked the government for not allowing Arab Jerusalem residents to vote in Jerusalem. "Responsible government policy obligates it to act to strengthen the pragmatic and moderate forces in the PA," according to Labor, "as a defensive wall against Hamas, which is getting stronger."

Although Jerusalem is sovereign Israeli territory, a provision in the Interim Oslo Agreement of 1995 requires Israel to enable at least some PA Arabs to vote in eastern Jerusalem post offices, in an arrangement similar to that used for absentee voters.

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