;.cBBC, kidnapping
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INSTANT MEDIA BIAS
TO:  BAR-ILAN, EYE ON MEDIA, JLEM POST; CC: BEDEIN ISRAEL RESOURCE
FROM:  Steve Amdur, Haon, 15170; 06-757572; FAX: 06-757511
==================================================================
10/14/94 05:30 GMT BBC World Service
An interview with Valerie York, described without furtherexplication as an expert on the Middle East.

Ms. York, who sounds sympathetic to if not an apologist for Hamas&/or the PLO, advances two arguments, ostensibly as lines ofanalysis:
(1)  That the kidnapping has some justification insofar as it refocusses attention on Israel's delay in releasing (presumablyHamas-affiliated) prisoners
(2)  That the kidnapping makes the following point:  that Hamaswas able to kidnap an Israeli soldier within Israel proper(indeed, the center of Israel, near the airport) -- especially ifhe is, as one may presume, still being held there -- shows thateven Israel is not able to protect its own citizens, and thereforecannot fault the PLO for being unable to fully protect Israelisfrom Hamas terrorism until Arafat is given full control and(presumably financial) support.
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COMMENT:  This is a thought-provoking argument, if one is not put off by itstwilight-zone logic:  one doubts that Cousin York thought it up in her ownoverworked featherbrain; it sounds weird enough to reflect the OfficialThinking of His Excellency the President of Chamberpot ChairpersonFlibberdygibbet.
In which case -- shocking as this might seem in the quiet lavendar halls of theMinistry of Foreign Selloffs -- it may indicate some prior collaboration onthis kidnapping between the PLO and Hamas.

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Once again the PLO has reportedly searched Gaza with 9000 "police", in a daringdeparture from the usual Israel approach to freeing hostages, which usuallydoes not brief the press and public on operational details beforehand.  Anexpensive operation, esp. if the USA et. al don't pick up the tab; butdoubtless worth all the noise if it proves -- as will doubtless soon be claimed-- that the PLO is not responsible because the soldier was never in Gaza.

Like, there's a bit of cognitive dissonance here.  Rabin is trying to exploitthe issue to force Arafat to declare war on Hamas.  Arafat is vigoroulsyresponding, with his usual hysteria concealed as well as possible,  by ordcringthe arrests of hundreds of "the usual suspects" -- presumably including a majorportion of the graffiti corps -- who may languish in jail for days or evenweeks, depending on the media's attention-span.
In a reassuring sign that the PLO now respects human rights and civilliberties, the Palestinian Reuters stringer who filmed the video of thecaptured 19-year-old was briefly arrested by the PLO, and then released,without the PLO having in the process learned the location of the kidnappedsoldier.
Since Rabin has (a) demanded that the PLO release the soldier (b) not statedthat Israel will refuse to release Palestinian prisoners, he foredooms thisgambit; were the PLO to release the prisoner, they would be fairly blaimed (ieshot) by the Palestians for sabotaging an attempt to free prisoners.   And thatseems to be just the tip of a very dirty business, even by Rabin's standards,behind the present bathetic media circus.  One expects that, after a flood ofcrocodile tears have dried up, the piece process will resume as usual. Kissinger, at least, had the decency to give the dynamite money to the familiesof those on whose deaths his fame rested.