Hamas a Creature of Israel? Here are the verified Facts with source links including a very old New York Times Newspaper, You Decide! Is Israel a Nation State or was it a Name given to Abraham that means 'To Wrestle With God?'
In looking at this old newspaper, would one even be able to sell this today?
Pretty Sure this wouldn't go over well either!
Interesting?
Back to the article from 1981
Hamas — which is an Arabic acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement”
Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”
According to The Times of Israel,
During the early 1970s the greatest enemy to Israel was known as the Palestinian Liberation Organization who was known for waging terror attacks on Israeli civilians and targets all over the world.
The PLO was known for being a Socialist organization whose sole purpose was the elimination of the state of Israel along with the establishment of a socialist state of Palestine where the constitution would be run by secular Marxism rather than Islam.
Due to the short sidedness of the Rabin administration and later Begin there was an idea to bring about a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood into Gaza and the Palestinian territories to counter balance the strength and popularity of the PLO.
In the early seventies Shiekh Ahmed Yassin started the Organization Mujama Al Islamiya which helped establish the Islamic University in Gaza, hospitals and schools.
Just like the United States was funding the Taliban to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets to bring down the communists so too was Israel selling Arms to Iran to fight their archenemy Iraq during the early eighties.
Islamic fundamentalism was not seen as a threat to world peace, instead it was Marxists terrorists around the world who were seen as a threat so Muslim extremists were seen as natural allies against G-dless communists.
Precursor to Hamas was from the Muslim Brotherhood who were persecuted by the secular Ba’athist government of Egypt to the point their leader Sayyid Qutb was executed by the Egyptian government in 1966.
Egypt and secular socialist Arab governments were at war at the time against Islamic extremism so the Israelis saw them as a natural ally against their common enemy.
Shiekh Yassin was on such good terms with the Israeli state that he would receive treatment in Israeli hospitals.
According to Andrew Higgin, ” Israel’s military-led administration in Gaza looked favorably on the paraplegic cleric, who set up a wide network of schools, clinics, a library and kindergartens. Sheikh Yassin formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, which was officially recognized by Israel as a charity and then, in 1979, as an association. Israel also endorsed the establishment of the Islamic University of Gaza, which it now regards as a hotbed of militancy. The university was one of the first targets hit by Israeli warplanes in the [2008-9 Operation Cast Lead].”
Operation Cast Lead
The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead (Hebrew: מִבְצָע עוֹפֶרֶת יְצוּקָה ), also known in the Muslim world as the Gaza Massacre (مجزرة غزة ), and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan (معركة الفرقان ) by Hamas, was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire.
The Israeli government's stated goal was to stop indiscriminate Palestinian rocket fire into Israel and weapons smuggling into the Gaza strip. Hamas stated its rocket fire, which resumed in November 2008, was in response to an Israeli raid of a tunnel leading from Gaza, which it characterized as a ceasefire violation. Israel said the raid was a preemptive strike against a tunnel they believed would be used to abduct Israeli soldiers guarding the border.
The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian structures that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets as illegal under international law.
During the last week of the offensive (from 12 January), Israel mostly hit targets it had damaged before and struck Palestinian rocket-launching units. Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against mostly civilian targets in southern Israel, reaching the major cities of Beersheba and Ashdod for the first time during the conflict. Israeli politicians ultimately decided against striking deeper within Gaza amid concerns of higher casualties on both sides and rising international criticism.[citation needed] The conflict ended on 18 January, when the IDF first declared a unilateral ceasefire, followed by Hamas' announcing a one-week ceasefire twelve hours later.
Many Israeli government officials saw the improvement of the quality of life in the Palestinian territories as a way prevent radicalization of the Arab residents so in 1979 Mujama Al Islamiyah got the status as a charity organization with the ability to be able to raise millions of dollars in decades.
During the eighties clashes between secular and Islamists supporters became more common and there was a rift growing in Palestinian society between secularists and Islamists.
“The Israeli government gave me a budget,” the retired brigadier general confessed, “and the military government gives to the mosques.”
“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades, told the Wall Street Journal in 2009. Back in the mid-1980s, Cohen even wrote an official report to his superiors warning them not to play divide-and-rule in the Occupied Territories, by backing Palestinian Islamists against Palestinian secularists. “I … suggest focusing our efforts on finding ways to break up this monster before this reality jumps in our face,” he wrote.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123275572295011847
According to the Truth Seeker, ” As the fighting between rival student factions at Birzeit grew more violent, Brig. Gen. Shalom Harari, then a military intelligence officer in Gaza, says he received a call from Israeli soldiers manning a checkpoint on the road out of Gaza. They had stopped a bus carrying Islamic activists who wanted to join the battle against Fatah at Birzeit. “I said: ‘If they want to burn each other let them go,’” recalls Mr. Harari.
Israeli Military thinking during the time figured it would be great if the Islamists and Socialists were to continue fighting each other since it would take away their focus on fighting Israel.
According to Tharoor, ” Israel jailed Yassin in 1984 on a 12 year sentence after the discovery of hidden arms caches, but was released a year later.” Israel had Shiekh Yassin in custody three years before the first intifada started.
If Israel would have kept him in custody for his whole sentence perhaps Hamas would not have gotten to do the about of damage they did during the first intifada.
According to The Interceptor, ” Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”).”
General Segev himself even admits to funding Hamas himself with Israeli taxpayers money that was later used to kill the same people who were funding them.
In 1987 when an Israeli military truck collided with a Palestinian vehicle killing four Palestinians in the car accident the first Intifada started.
Evidence of feuds in 1981
In the same year of 1987 during the Intifada Hamas was founded and even staged its first attack on Israel in 1988, abducting and killing two IDF soldiers.
All the sudden Israel no longer saw Hamas as an asset but, as a terror group equal in comparison with the PLO.
Car accident at the Erez crossing caused mass protests in the following months leading to the people being involved in violent riots against the IDF. Other sources claim the trigger for the first intifada was the Gliders operation when terrorists infiltrated Israeli territory with a glider from southern Lebanon resulting in the deaths of six Israeli soldiers.
By the end of the first Intifada coinciding with the Madrid Conference in 1991 resulted with many Palestinians disillusioned with the PLO because 1,200 Palestinians had been killed during the first Intifada.
Many Palestinians saw the PLO as weak since they started a dialog with Israel so a large amount of Palestinians had been killed many started to see Hamas as a better political option than the PLO.
Hamas gained more support since they still refused to even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a political entity many Palestinians started to support them since their 1988 charter stated the complete denial of Israel’s existence in its charter.
Following the Oslo Accords Hamas only increased its attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets with the more people they murdered the more support they received from the Palestinian public while the PLO was continually as a corrupt entity that many Palestinians even today call the Palestinian Authority, ” The Israelis.”
Hamas became even more dangerous during the Second intifada when they were responsible for several suicide bombings across Israel in the early 2000s.
Death of many Israeli citizens led to the attempted assassination of Khaled Mashaal in Jordan who was stabbed with a poisonous syringe in Jordan in broad daylight by Mossad agents who were caught.
Possible diplomatic crisis and execution of the Mossad agents by the Jordanian government forced Israel to trade Shiekh Yassin for the Mossad agents as well as provide the antidote for Khaled Mashaal subsequently saving his life in the process.
Shiekh Yassin was still a serious threat to Israel that in 2004 an IDF Apache Helicopter shot hellfire missiles killing him instantly.
During the same period Israel launched operation Defensive Shield throughout the West bank which as a result brought IDF soldiers in areas they were not supposed to be in according to the Oslo Accords.
The result of the operation led to a significant decrease in the amount of terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank became gradually safer that today anyone can drive through highway 60 or highway 90 without fear of being murdered by a terrorist.
Israel did not do the same thing in Gaza and eliminate Hamas as a terrorist entity. Instead Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 all of its citizens and military which acted as a buffer between the Gaza Strip and the rest of Israel.
Hamas took advantage of the weakness of Israel and used this to their advantage for propaganda purposes that through their armed resistance they were able to kick out the Israeli’s from Gaza.
2006 Elections Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament garnering 76 seats out of 132 with the PA only receiving 43 seats. This resulted in a large civil war in the Gaza Strip where Hamas threw PA opponents off rooftops.
In the West Bank because of the Israeli control Hamas was unable to take control and overthrew the PA since Israel used both the military and the General Security Service to arrested and monitor Hamas activists throughout the West Bank.
Even though today people like Tayseer Abu Sneineh who was responsible for killing 6 people at the Beit Hadassah is the Mayor of Hebron ever since 2017 and won the mayoral race on the platform of having committed a terror attack in 1980.
Current situation in the West Bank will never get the level of Gaza because of the Jewish communities scattered throughout the area and large military and Shin Bet presence makes it close to impossible for an organized terrorist cell to carry out an attack that would severely inflict damage on multiple people.
Gaza is an Islamic state controlled completely by Hamas, there close to nothing the Israeli military can do since Israel is no longer controlling the area.
Israel is going to have to eventually eliminate Hamas and run a serious military campaign to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, return the Jews who were expelled and make a new Operation of Defensive shield to eliminate the terror threat Hamas poses.
Invasion of the Gaza strip will result in large army causalities if the IDF wants to minimize civilian causalities or large civilian casualties if it wants to minimize IDF causalities.
No present Israeli administration wants to deal with either the backlash from the Israeli public or the backlash of the international community so the current strategy for the short term future is to maintain quiet in the south of Israel by having a limited military incursions when Hamas acts up.
DEC 3, 2018, 12:35 PM
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During the early 1970s the greatest enemy to Israel was known as the Palestinian Liberation Organization who was known for waging terror attacks on Israeli civilians and targets all over the world.
The PLO was known for being a Socialist organization whose sole purpose was the elimination of the state of Israel along with the establishment of a socialist state of Palestine where the constitution would be run by secular Marxism rather than Islam.
Due to the short sidedness of the Rabin administration and later Begin there was an idea to bring about a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood into Gaza and the Palestinian territories to counter balance the strength and popularity of the PLO.
In the early seventies Shiekh Ahmed Yassin started the Organization Mujama Al Islamiya which helped establish the Islamic University in Gaza, hospitals and schools.
Just like the United States was funding the Taliban to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviets to bring down the communists so too was Israel selling Arms to Iran to fight their archenemy Iraq during the early eighties.
Islamic fundamentalism was not seen as a threat to world peace, instead it was Marxists terrorists around the world who were seen as a threat so Muslim extremists were seen as natural allies against G-dless communists.
Precursor to Hamas was from the Muslim Brotherhood who were persecuted by the secular Ba’athist government of Egypt to the point their leader Sayyid Qutb was executed by the Egyptian government in 1966.
Egypt and secular socialist Arab governments were at war at the time against Islamic extremism so the Israelis saw them as a natural ally against their common enemy.
Shiekh Yassin was on such good terms with the Israeli state that he would receive treatment in Israeli hospitals.
According to Andrew Higgin, ” Israel’s military-led administration in Gaza looked favorably on the paraplegic cleric, who set up a wide network of schools, clinics, a library and kindergartens. Sheikh Yassin formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, which was officially recognized by Israel as a charity and then, in 1979, as an association. Israel also endorsed the establishment of the Islamic University of Gaza, which it now regards as a hotbed of militancy. The university was one of the first targets hit by Israeli warplanes in the [2008-9 Operation Cast Lead].”
Many Israeli government officials saw the improvement of the quality of life in the Palestinian territories as a way prevent radicalization of the Arab residents so in 1979 Mujama Al Islamiyah got the status as a charity organization with the ability to be able to raise millions of dollars in decades.
During the eighties clashes between secular and Islamists supporters became more common and there was a rift growing in Palestinian society between secularists and Islamists.
According to the Truth Seeker, ” As the fighting between rival student factions at Birzeit grew more violent, Brig. Gen. Shalom Harari, then a military intelligence officer in Gaza, says he received a call from Israeli soldiers manning a checkpoint on the road out of Gaza. They had stopped a bus carrying Islamic activists who wanted to join the battle against Fatah at Birzeit. “I said: ‘If they want to burn each other let them go,’” recalls Mr. Harari.
Israeli Military thinking during the time figured it would be great if the Islamists and Socialists were to continue fighting each other since it would take away their focus on fighting Israel.
According to Tharoor, ” Israel jailed Yassin in 1984 on a 12 year sentence after the discovery of hidden arms caches, but was released a year later.” Israel had Shiekh Yassin in custody three years before the first intifada started.
If Israel would have kept him in custody for his whole sentence perhaps Hamas would not have gotten to do the about of damage they did during the first intifada.
According to The Interceptor, ” Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”).”
General Segev himself even admits to funding Hamas himself with Israeli taxpayers money that was later used to kill the same people who were funding them.
In 1987 when an Israeli military truck collided with a Palestinian vehicle killing four Palestinians in the car accident the first Intifada started.
In the same year of 1987 during the Intifada Hamas was founded and even staged its first attack on Israel in 1988, abducting and killing two IDF soldiers.
All the sudden Israel no longer saw Hamas as an asset but, as a terror group equal in comparison with the PLO.
Car accident at the Erez crossing caused mass protests in the following months leading to the people being involved in violent riots against the IDF. Other sources claim the trigger for the first intifada was the Gliders operation when terrorists infiltrated Israeli territory with a glider from southern Lebanon resulting in the deaths of six Israeli soldiers.
By the end of the first Intifada coinciding with the Madrid Conference in 1991 resulted with many Palestinians disillusioned with the PLO because 1,200 Palestinians had been killed during the first Intifada.
Many Palestinians saw the PLO as weak since they started a dialog with Israel so a large amount of Palestinians had been killed many started to see Hamas as a better political option than the PLO.
Hamas gained more support since they still refused to even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a political entity many Palestinians started to support them since their 1988 charter stated the complete denial of Israel’s existence in its charter.
Following the Oslo Accords Hamas only increased its attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets with the more people they murdered the more support they received from the Palestinian public while the PLO was continually as a corrupt entity that many Palestinians even today call the Palestinian Authority, ” The Israelis.”
Hamas became even more dangerous during the Second intifada when they were responsible for several suicide bombings across Israel in the early 2000s.
Death of many Israeli citizens led to the attempted assassination of Khaled Mashaal in Jordan who was stabbed with a poisonous syringe in Jordan in broad daylight by Mossad agents who were caught.
Possible diplomatic crisis and execution of the Mossad agents by the Jordanian government forced Israel to trade Shiekh Yassin for the Mossad agents as well as provide the antidote for Khaled Mashaal subsequently saving his life in the process.
Shiekh Yassin was still a serious threat to Israel that in 2004 an IDF Apache Helicopter shot hellfire missiles killing him instantly.
During the same period Israel launched operation Defensive Shield throughout the West bank which as a result brought IDF soldiers in areas they were not supposed to be in according to the Oslo Accords.
The result of the operation led to a significant decrease in the amount of terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank became gradually safer that today anyone can drive through highway 60 or highway 90 without fear of being murdered by a terrorist.
Israel did not do the same thing in Gaza and eliminate Hamas as a terrorist entity. Instead Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 all of its citizens and military which acted as a buffer between the Gaza Strip and the rest of Israel.
Hamas took advantage of the weakness of Israel and used this to their advantage for propaganda purposes that through their armed resistance they were able to kick out the Israeli’s from Gaza.
2006 Elections Hamas won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament garnering 76 seats out of 132 with the PA only receiving 43 seats. This resulted in a large civil war in the Gaza Strip where Hamas threw PA opponents off rooftops.
In the West Bank because of the Israeli control Hamas was unable to take control and overthrew the PA since Israel used both the military and the General Security Service to arrested and monitor Hamas activists throughout the West Bank.
Even though today people like Tayseer Abu Sneineh who was responsible for killing 6 people at the Beit Hadassah is the Mayor of Hebron ever since 2017 and won the mayoral race on the platform of having committed a terror attack in 1980.
Current situation in the West Bank will never get the level of Gaza because of the Jewish communities scattered throughout the area and large military and Shin Bet presence makes it close to impossible for an organized terrorist cell to carry out an attack that would severely inflict damage on multiple people.
Gaza is an Islamic state controlled completely by Hamas, there close to nothing the Israeli military can do since Israel is no longer controlling the area.
Israel is going to have to eventually eliminate Hamas and run a serious military campaign to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, return the Jews who were expelled and make a new Operation of Defensive shield to eliminate the terror threat Hamas poses.
Invasion of the Gaza strip will result in large army causalities if the IDF wants to minimize civilian causalities or large civilian casualties if it wants to minimize IDF causalities.
No present Israeli administration wants to deal with either the backlash from the Israeli public or the backlash of the international community so the current strategy for the short term future is to maintain quiet in the south of Israel by having a limited military incursions when Hamas acts up.
Eventually Israel will have to make a large military campaign because the way things are presently going Hamas will eventually build up a more powerful military power with a large amount of Rockets which can overwhelm the Iron dome system and build up enough people with weapons to storm the border and infiltrate into Israel killing any Jewish person they see in their path.
Hamas has large financial backing of both Iran and Qatar and ever since their founding from a small group of terrorists in 1987, today they are a terrorist military with a division of different units along with special forces are trained in both weapons and hand to hand combat.
Not only are they a terror group with military capabilities but they also have a large public relations through social media websites and have many people around the would who sympathize and support them in western countries.
Hamas flags can be seen at Pro-Palestinian protests throughout college campuses in North America and Europe where Hamas flags are waved and calls for a third Intifada.
Israel has created this monster and will one day have to deal with its complete elimination, the only thing is when this happens due to Hamas’ international support and military prowess Israel will have to deal with public backlash for its soldiers killed and international backlash for civilians killed, but it will eventually have to take action because Israel can not continue to co-exist with a terror state inside itself that continues to be a threat to its own citizens.
Bibi Netanyahu
Serving as the prime minister of Israel since 2009, having previously served in that role from 1996 to 1999. Netanyahu is also the chairman of the Likud – National Liberal Movement. He is the longest-serving Israeli prime minister in history and the first to be born in Israel after its Declaration of Independence.
- Born in Tel Aviv to secular Jewish parents, Netanyahu was raised both in Jerusalem, and for a time in Philadelphia in the United States.
- returned to Israel upon graduating from high school in 1967 to join the Israel Defense Forces, shortly after the Six-Day War.
- became a team leader in the Sayeret Matkal special forces unit and took part in many missions, including Operation Gift (1968) and Operation Isotope (1972), during which he was shot in the shoulder.
- Netanyahu fought on the front lines in the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, taking part in special forces raids along the Suez Canal and then leading a commando assault deep into Syrian territory.
- Netanyahu achieved the rank of captain before being honorably discharged. After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science (SB) and a Master of Science (SM), Netanyahu became an economic consultant for the Boston Consulting Group.
Boston Consulting Group
management consulting firm founded in 1963, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm is the second largest consulting firm by revenue. It is one of the Big Three (management consultancies), along with Bain & Company and McKinsey & Company.
The New York Times also reported that Boston Consulting Group is one of the consulting firms, along with McKinsey and Booz Allen, helping Prince Mohammed bin Salman consolidate power in Saudi Arabia. While a BCG spokesperson said the firm turns down projects involving military and intelligence strategy, BCG is involved in designing the economic blueprint for the country, a plan called Vision 2030.
Back to Netanyahu
He moved back to Israel in 1978 to found the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute, named after his brother Yonatan Netanyahu, who died leading Operation Entebbe.
In 1984, Netanyahu was appointed as Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, a role he held until 1988.
On his return to Israel, he was elected to the Knesset, and in 1993 was elected as the Chairman of Likud. He went on to lead the party to victory at the 1996 election, and was appointed as Israel's youngest-ever Prime Minister.
After serving a single term, Netanyahu and Likud were heavily defeated in the 1999 election by Ehud Barak's One Israel party; Netanyahu chose to retire from politics entirely, and entered the private sector.
Several years later, after his successor as Likud Chairman, Ariel Sharon, became Prime Minister, Netanyahu was convinced to return to politics, and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance.
As Finance Minister, Netanyahu initiated major reforms of the Israeli economy that were credited by commentators as having significantly improved Israel's subsequent economic performance.
Netanyahu later clashed with Sharon, eventually resigning over disagreements regarding the Gaza disengagement plan.
Although Likud finished second in the 2009 election to Kadima, Netanyahu was able to form a coalition government with other right-wing parties and was sworn in as Prime Minister for a second time.
In the September 2019 election, the centrist Blue and White alliance, led by Benny Gantz, emerged slightly ahead of Netanyahu's Likud; however, neither Netanyahu nor Gantz was able to form a government.
After continued political deadlock, this was resolved when Likud and Blue and White reached a coalition agreement following the 2020 election.
Under the terms of the agreement, the premiership would rotate between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, in which Gantz was scheduled to succeed Netanyahu in November 2021.
In December 2020, this coalition collapsed and a new election was held in March 2021. Netanyahu has led Israel’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.
Earlier years in the United States
- his family lived in the United States in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, while father Benzion Netanyahu taught at Dropsie College.
- Benjamin attended and graduated from Cheltenham High School and was active in the debate club, chess club, and soccer.
- He and his brother Yonatan grew dissatisfied with a perceived superficial way of life they encountered in the area, including the prevalent youth counterculture movement, literary interpretation focused on individualized feelings, and the liberal sensibilities of the Reform synagogue, Temple Judea of Philadelphia, that the family attended. To this day, he speaks fluent English, with a noticeable Philadelphia accent.
- Netanyahu returned to Israel to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. He trained as a combat soldier and served for five years in an elite special forces unit of the IDF, Sayeret Matkal.
- At the Boston Consulting Group, he was a colleague of Mitt Romney, with whom he formed a lasting friendship.
Have you seen Mitt Romney's history?
He is NOT at all a President Trump supporter.
- During the 1980s, while serving as the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., Netanyahu became friends with Fred Trump, the father of Donald Trump.
Larry King Live read a letter from JFKjr. to the then Donald Trump which was a condolence letter after Fred Trump passed away. This occurred right after JFKjr. disappeared.
- Netanyahu first met Palestinian President Arafat on 4 September 1996. Prior to the meeting, the two leaders spoke by telephone.
- The meetings would continue through Autumn 1996. On their first meeting, Netanyahu said: "I would like to emphasize that we have to take into account the needs and the requirements of both sides on the basis of reciprocity and the assurance of the security and well-being of both Israelis and Palestinian alike."
Arafat said: "We are determined to work with Mr. Netanyahu and with his government."
- The talks culminated on 14 January 1997, in the signing of the Hebron Protocol.
- The signing of the Hebron Protocol with the Palestinian Authority resulted in the redeployment of Israeli forces in Hebron and the turnover of civilian authority in much of the area to the control of the Palestinian Authority.
In 1997, Netanyahu authorized a Mossad operation to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in Jordan, just 3 years after the two countries had signed a peace treaty.
The Mossad team, covering as five Canadian tourists, entered Jordan on 27 September 1997 and injected poison into Mashal's ears in a street in Amman.
The plot was exposed and two agents were arrested by the Jordanian police while three others hid in the Israeli embassy which was then surrounded by troops.
An angry King Hussein demanded Israel to give out the antidote and threatened to annul the peace treaty. Netanyahu relented to the demands after pressure by US President Bill Clinton and ordered the release of 61 Jordanian and Palestinian prisoners including Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. The incident sent the nascent Israeli-Jordanian relations plummeting.
During his term. . .
Netanyahu also began a process of economic liberalization, taking steps towards a free-market economy.
the government began selling its shares in banks and major state-run companies.
Netanyahu also greatly eased Israel's strict foreign exchange controls, enabling Israelis to take an unrestricted amount of money out of the country, open foreign bank accounts, hold foreign currency, and invest freely in other countries.
Throughout his term. . .
Netanyahu was opposed by the political left wing in Israel and lost support from the right because of his concessions to the Palestinians in Hebron and elsewhere, and due to his negotiations with Arafat generally.
Netanyahu lost favor with the Israeli public after a long chain of scandals involving his marriage and corruption charges. In 1997, police recommended that Netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges for influence-peddling. He was accused of appointing an attorney general who would reduce the charges but prosecutors ruled that there was insufficient evidence to go to trial.
In 1999, Netanyahu faced another scandal when the Israel Police recommended that he be tried for corruption for $100,000 in free services from a government contractor; Israel's attorney general did not prosecute, citing difficulties with evidence.
After being defeated by Ehud Barak in the 1999 election for Prime Minister, Netanyahu temporarily retired from politics.
He subsequently served as a senior consultant with Israeli communications equipment manufacturer BATM Advanced Communications for two years.
Netanyahu instituted a program to end welfare dependency by requiring people to apply for jobs or training, reduced the size of the public sector, froze government spending for three years, and capped the budget deficit at 1%.
Sources/Connecting Articles/Reports
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1981/03/28/issue.html
www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1a36e2212f82
Truthseeker, www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=101701.