A couple of links from Ethel the Blog

Analysis / Arafat's nightmare: Israel bombs the jails

Yasser Arafat and his security services are afraid that Israel will bomb the prison facilities where arrested Hamas and Islamic Jihad suspects are being held. They have long been aware of the growing bitterness and alienation in the West Bank and Gaza toward the leadership, and if the prisoners are killed in an Israeli attack, Arafat and his men will be immediately blamed for it. The Palestinian street will also be suspicious of collusion among Arafat, the Israelis and Americans to eliminate the intifada activists now being held in Palestinian Authority jails.

Last night, there were reports that the PA security forces had halted their sweep as a result of the Israeli attacks. A Palestinian security source said that a group of Hamas prisoners in Nablus were transferred to a safe place, for fear that Israel would bomb the prison, just as it bombed the old Nablus prison in an attempt to kill Mahmoud Abu Hanoud.
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The war they wanted
Isreal stoked the anti-Islamic fire to secure U.S. support

Alex Fishman is the main commentator on security matters for Israel's largest mass circulation paper, Yediot Achronot, a publication with right-of-center politics. Fishman is known for his excellent contacts in the military. On Sunday, Nov. 25, Fishman issued a prediction based on the recent assassination on Nov. 23 by Israel's security services of the Hamas leader, Mahmud Abu Hunud. It was featured in a box on the newspaper's front page.

It began, "We again find ourselves preparing with dread for a new mass terrorist attack within the Green Line (Israel's pre-'67 border)." Since Fishman was entirely accurate in this regard, we should mark closely what he wrote next. "Whoever gave a green light to this act of liquidation knew full well that he is thereby shattering in one blow the gentleman's agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority; under that agreement, Hamas was to avoid in the near future suicide bombings inside the Green Line, of the kind perpetrated at the Dolphinarium (discotheque in Tel-Aviv)."

Fishman stated flatly that such an agreement did exist, even if neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas would admit it in public. "It is a fact," he continued, "that, while the security services did accumulate repeated warnings of planned Hamas terrorist attacks within the Green Line, these did not materialize. That cannot be attributed solely to the Shabak's impressive success in intercepting the suicide bombers and their controllers. Rather, the respective leaderships of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas came to the understanding that it would be better not to play into Israel's hands by mass attacks on its population centers."

In other words, Arafat had managed to convince Hamas to curb its suicide bombers. This understanding was shattered by the assassination of Abu Hunud. "Whoever decided upon the liquidation of Abu Hunud," Fishman continued, "knew in advance that that would be the price. The subject was extensively discussed both by Israel's military echelon and its political one, before it was decided to carry out the liquidation. Now, the security bodies assume that Hamas will embark on a concerted effort to carry out suicide bombings, and preparations are made accordingly."
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Let's see...Hamas isn't sending in the bombers because of an agreement with Arafat and Israel knows this. Israel murders a Hamas leader knowing it would provoke Hamas into sending the bombers in. Then Israel blames Arafat for the Hamas bombers. Israel then can send in the F-16s and tanks with impunity. What a con game. Who is the real terrorist?

Let's not forget that Ha'aretz, as linked to earlier, reported that Israel tried to kill the same Hamas leader when he had been in a Palestinian jail for 9 months but only succeeded in freeing him.