"Hasbara": Hebrew for "S**t or Get Off the Pot"

Israel claims to have a smoking gun in last Friday's bombings in Tel Aviv, and it has Syrian fingerprints:

As the March 1 London conference devoted to the re-building of the Palestinian Authority approaches, Israel has launched an informational "hasbara" campaign to shed light on Syria's involvement in terror orchestration.

Delegations from the Israeli defense establishment embarked Monday to Washington, Paris and London, in order to present intelligence information which Israel has collected against Syria revealing its role in the deadly bombing in Tel Aviv Friday night, which killed five people.

Israel said Sunday that it would use intelligence information to prove Syria was behind Friday night's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet Sunday.

For the sake of bringing some long-awaited honesty to the issue, I hope the Israelis are right.

Remember the KAL007 hearings in the UN? Jeanne Kirkpatrick took the tapes of the MiG pilot and the ground controller in to the UN, and playing the damning evidence to the whole world. The Security Council had no choice but to act, or void all pretense of legitimacy.

I'm going to cross my fingers and hope this is the same kind of moment.

What the two called irrefutable evidence to this effect has been sent to the US and select European allies. The evidence, based on intelligence information, will be presented by IDF Intelligence chief Aharon Ze'evi Farkash in a briefing on Monday at the Foreign Ministry for ambassadors from European Union countries and the UN Security Council.

Sharon's associates said the goal of releasing the information is to pressure the Syrians ahead of Tuesday's summit on building the Palestinian Authority in London. Foreign Ministry officials said they hope the Security Council will condemn the attack and perhaps even censure Syria on Monday.

"We have intelligence information that the orders came from the Islamic Jihad in Syria," a senior source close to Sharon said. "We know where the orders for the attack were issued, we know where they were sent, and we know Syrian intelligence was involved and provided logistical support."

Mofaz told the cabinet that an Islamic Jihad cell in Jenin recruited the bomber from Tulkarm under orders from Damascus. Mofaz said that Israel had arrested Islamic Jihad operatives in Tulkarm, but both Mofaz and Sharon emphasized that the PA had taken no action yet against the group, even though Israel had given the PA names of wanted Islamic Jihad operatives.

Riots to the West of them, smoking guns to the south - Assad has some 'splaining to do.

Posted by Mitch at February 28, 2005 07:03 PM | TrackBack