US embassy cable - 04TELAVIV2249

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEL AVIV 002249 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/19/2009 
TAGS: KWBG, KPAL, PGOV, PREL, GZ, IS, ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS 
SUBJECT: PERCEPTIONS OF U.S. "GREEN LIGHT" FUEL ANGER AT 
AL-RANTISI ASSASSINATION 
 
 
Classified By: Pol/C Norm Olsen, per 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
THIS IS A JOINT MESSAGE FROM CONGEN JERUSALEM AND EMBASSY TEL 
AVIV. 
 
1.  (C) Summary: Contacts throughout the Gaza Strip all 
concurred that the April 17 assassination of Hamas leader Abd 
al-Aziz al-Rantisi the March 22 assassination of Shaykh Ahmad 
Yasin and the Bush-Sharon summit were being viewed as a 
cumulative series of actions against the Palestinian people. 
Particularly in the aftermath of the April 15 Bush-Sharon 
meeting in Washington, the perception on the street was that 
United States had given Sharon the "green light" to carry out 
the attack.  Palestinians, already furious at the exchange of 
letters between the U.S. and Israel that they interpret as 
evidence that the U.S. has now completely sided with Israel, 
have concluded that Israel does not want peace.  Contacts 
predicted that there would be negative repercussions in 
ongoing talks between Hamas and the PA over their future 
relationship in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal. 
End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) In the aftermath of the April 18 assassination of 
Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi in an IAF missile strike in Gaza City, 
militants' reactions in Gaza have been swift and heavy. 
According to the IDF, at least 37 mortars and rockets were 
fired at Israeli settlements and IDF outposts throughout the 
Strip since the assassination, and UNRWA has reports that at 
least six rockets were fired into Israel.  The Israeli media 
reported that one settler had been injured, and a total of 14 
Palestinians, including a nine-year-old girl, were wounded in 
Gaza when IDF soldiers returned fire. 
 
3.  (C) The reaction was no less vociferous in the political 
and social realms, with Palestinian outrage at the latest in 
a series of assassinations merging with what contacts 
referred to as the Palestinians' sense of betrayal following 
PM Sharon's meeting last week with President Bush.  A 
journalist sympathetic to Hamas, Ghazi Hamad, told Poloff 
April 18 that the feeling among residents, political and 
apolitical alike, is that Israel will not withdraw from Gaza 
until it has succeeded in "punishing" each Palestinian in the 
Strip.  The GOI's action affected the entire Palestinian 
situation, he added, not just that in Gaza.  When asked how 
al-Rantisi's death would impact ongoing Hamas-PA talks, Hamad 
said, "Especially after the (Bush-Sharon) summit, there is no 
way now to talk about peaceful compromise.  The language 
between all the factions now is completely different, because 
they (the factions) know that they are each of them a 
target."  Israel, he added, will not leave Gaza until it is 
"clean" of Hamas.  Hamas members, Hamad predicted, will now 
let nothing stop them. 
 
4.  (C) Jihad al-Wazir, deputy minister of planning in Gaza 
and son of assassinated PLO leader Abu Jihad, told Poloff 
April 19 that al-Rantisi's assassination was a direct and 
logical result of the April 15 Bush-Sharon meeting.  That 
meeting, al-Wazir said, demonstrated that the U.S. could not 
say no to Sharon and, as a result, Sharon felt empowered to 
take whatever actions he wished.  "By giving him (Sharon) 
carte blanche, you have let the bull loose in the china 
shop," al-Wazir said.  Al-Wazir, a western-educated, PA 
pragmatist, elaborated, saying that the GOI had carried out 
the assassination of former Hamas leader Shaykh Ahmad Yasin 
after he had accepted the 1967 borders in the creation of a 
Palestinian state.  Now, al-Wazir continued, Israel has 
killed Yasin's successor al-Rantisi just when Hamas was 
sitting together with the PA to work out the terms of their 
post-withdrawal relationship in Gaza.  It is clear to 
everyone, al-Wazir concluded, that Israel is doing this to 
weaken the Palestinian people, not just Hamas.  Furthermore, 
even though al-Rantisi was much more radical than Yasin, none 
of the remaining possible Hamas leaders has as much stature. 
Now, younger and even more radical individuals will move to 
the fore, al-Wazir predicted, and any nascent agreement 
reached with Muhammad Dahlan and the PA in recent days may 
well unravel. 
 
5.  (C) Al-Wazir outlined what he saw as a possible scenario: 
Hamas will do its utmost to carry out a large attack on an 
Israeli target at the earliest opportunity.  Given the likely 
severity of any Hamas attack, and the perceived American 
"green light," the IDF will then respond "strategically 
rather than tactically", possibly even targeting Yasir 
Arafat.  While admittedly unsure whether or not Hamas had the 
capacity in the near term to carry out such a catastrophic 
attack against Israel, al-Wazir stressed that all focus is 
now on retaliation. 
 
6.  (C) A prominent Gaza businessman, Ahed Bseiso, wondered 
why Israel had hit al-Rantisi now, when Hamas had not 
retaliated for the strike that killed Shaykh Yasin.  Prior to 
al-Rantisi's death, Bseiso said, he had the impression that 
Fatah's efforts to restrain Hamas had been working.  Now, 
however, all bets were off.  Palestinians are 100 percent 
convinced that Israel does not want peace, Bseiso concluded, 
adding that Palestinian anger and disappointment with the 
United States was palpable.  Echoing the same sentiment, UNDP 
Deputy Representative Iman al-Wazir told Econoff April 19 
that people were perhaps more upset that Sharon seems to have 
a free hand from the U.S. than at the actions themselves. 
 
7. (SBU) These individual views of the assassination 
reflected harsh official statements that emerged over the 
weekend.  Officials from PA Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath 
down to individual Hamas leaders all alleged U.S. complicity 
in the al-Rantisi assassination, drawing the link between the 
timing of the killing and the recent Bush-Sharon summit in 
Washington.  Hamas, the Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs' 
Brigades, and other, smaller groups all issued statements 
vowing to retaliate against Israel for the assassination. 
 
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