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Sean Gannon is a freelance writer and researcher on Irish and Israeli affairs, specialising in the relationship between the two countries. He is currently preparing a book on this subject and writing the chapter on Ireland for a forthcoming study on the interplay between Anti-Americanism, anti-Zionism and antisemitism in Europe since 9/11.
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By Sean Gannon
May 1, 2003
The appointment of Abu Mazen as Palestinian Prime Minister has generated acres of coverage worldwide. His personal life, politics and past statements have been endlessly analyzed in an effort to gauge the prospects for peace under his premiership. Considerably less attention, however, has been devoted to Mohammed Dahlan who, as the new Minister of State for Security Affairs, will prove just as influential in determining the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations. With effective responsibility for the eradication of terrorism, the success of any deal will depend on him. Today, the international community including Israel is lining up behind him, believing him a trustworthy 'moderate' with whom business can be done. But is this belief warranted?
On the evidence of Dahlan's past attitude to terrorism, it would seem the short answer is no. His time as head of Preventive Security in Gaza was marked by an almost schizophrenic approach to the problem of Palestinian violence with clampdowns alternating with active encouragement. In 1996, for example, he took on the terrorists after the suicide bombings in Israel that spring; six months later, however, he helped to organize the rioting over the opening of the Hasmonean Tunnel in Jerusalem.
Dahlan's periodic moves against the murderers during the Oslo years served only to camouflage the fact that his forces were involved in terror themselves. They were instrumental in both the smuggling and manufacture of illegal weaponry which they used to become the engine driving the Intifada in Gaza. They were responsible for so many attacks on Jewish targets in Gush Katif and Netzarim in the early months of the conflict that it was reported that Dahlan was in competition with Tawfik Tirawi to see who "could contribute most to the struggle with Israel."
Dahlan himself has been personally involved in orchestrating attacks on Israelis. The CIA is reported to have a recording of him ordering the November 2000 school bus bombing at Kfar Darom in which two teachers were killed and nine others wounded and resulted in his becoming the subject of a $250 million federal lawsuit in the United States. He is also one of six officials named in a case taken against the Palestinian Authority by the family of Yaron Ungar, who was shot with his wife in 1996. It has further been alleged that he personally assisted al-Qaida and Hizbullah terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip.
But it is the ambivalence of Dahlan's relationship with Hamas which gives most cause for concern as he is now being touted internationally as their 'sworn enemy' and future nemesis. While he is a committed secularist who holds the religious ideology of what he calls "the Taliban of Gaza" in contempt, he is fully in sympathy with their political aims. His recent rebukes constitute but one side of the coin for he has been far from critical of the organization in the past. In June 1997, he told al-Hayat al-Jadidah that Hamas was "very important for building the Palestinian homeland" while one year later he told an al-Ayyam reporter that he would never outlaw the organization.
Dahlan has also been proffering more practical assistance to Hamas. While a few of his much vaunted crackdowns were effective, most were at best half-hearted, at worst dishonorable shams. He recruited its members into his own security forces with the aim of protecting them from Israel and he operated a revolving door policy with regard to the imprisonment of others. In October 2000, he released all of them to fight in the al-Aqsa war. And in February 2002, Ehud Ya'ari charged Dahlan with supplying C-4 plastic explosives to Hamas for use against Merkava tanks.
Furthermore, the focus on his current war of words with Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantissi ignores the fact that Dahlan is a longstanding friend of Mohammed Deif, who took charge of the group's military operations after Salah Shehade was killed by Israel last July. Deif, responsible for some of the most deadly attacks on Israelis, has been sheltered and supported by Dahlan for years, most recently after his narrow escape from an Israeli strike last September.
Given all of this, what can we expect from Dahlan in his new ministerial role? Will he continue his ambivalent approach to terrorism or tackle the problem as he has promised? Boaz Ganor of the Institute of Counter-Terrorism is circumspect about what the future holds; "In an ideal world, Dahlan would not be our best person, but he is the right person to deliver the goods if he has the right motivation."
This ability to deliver has allowed the Americans to overlook the fact that Dahlan is clearly 'tainted by terror' and to emerge as his chief international champions. Even Prime Minister Sharon, who called in the past for Dahlan's liquidation, now gives him his tacit support.
But does Dahlan have the 'right motivation'? Possibly. Dr. Rantissi warned him last week that he had "to be on the side of [his] people, not the side of [his] enemy" but, in truth, Dahlan has always been first and foremost on the side of himself. He has, over the years, been motivated primarily by personal gain and there is no reason to think this has changed in the present.
In the past, Dahlan was driven by greed. In his pursuit of wealth he proved himself every bit as corrupt as his former PA colleagues, one of the reasons his nomination to the new cabinet was resisted by Fatah. While he has recently taken to denouncing the corruption of others, he too used his PA position as a path to personal enrichment, making millions through his stranglehold over the importation of gas into Gaza and through the charging of 'unloading taxes' at the transit points into the area. He is also reported to have used information gathered by his brutal intelligence officers to promote his other business interests.
In the present, however, Dahlan is driven by his passion for power and this may prove the motivating factor required to make him act against the 'Intifada.' For to advance his position, he needs the support of an America which is instituting regime change in Ramallah as surely as it is doing so in Baghdad. He realized long ago that the path to power in 'Palestine' would run through Washington not Ramallah, something President Bush's June 2002 demand for the overthrow of Arafat confirmed. Dahlan, at the time, pledged never to bow to "conditions advanced by Sharon and Bush" and move against his leader, but his subsequent intriguing against Arafat and his key role in Abu Mazen's putsch demonstrates that principles count for nothing when they conflict with his campaign for control.
Without keeping America on his side, Dahlan will never secure the top PA job. And to maintain his status as Washington's man, he will have to tackle terrorism; Deif must be sacrificed for Dahlan's ambition. However, Jerusalem must exercise caution. Supporting a strongman to take on the terrorists is a dangerous strategy and has failed once before. Yitzhak Rabin's attempt to use Arafat in this way was a costly mistake for which Israel still pays daily.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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