Middle East "It Turned Out to Be a Mistake"

By William E. Smith.

Ever since Palestinian terrorists staged attacks last Dec. 27 at Rome and Vienna airports against the Israeli airline El Al, it was inevitable that the Israelis would respond. Last week they apparently thought they had their + chance. As a Libyan Gulfstream II executive jet carrying nine passengers and three crewmen passed the southeastern coast of Cyprus on its way to Damascus, two Israeli fighter jets intercepted the aircraft and ordered the pilot to proceed to Ramat David air force base, near Haifa.

Israeli authorities presumably believed they had caught a big fish: George Habash of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Jabril of the P.F.L.P. general command, or perhaps even Sabry Khalil Bana, better known as Abu Nidal, chief of the self-styled Fatah Revolutionary Council and the suspected mastermind behind countless terrorist attacks. But when the Israelis ordered passengers and crew to disembark from the commandeered craft, they discovered only a group of Syrian and Lebanese officials aboard. In what appeared to be a notable failure of Israel's highly vaunted intelligence services, the big fish had managed to slip away. After holding the plane for four hours, the Israelis allowed it to resume its flight to Damascus.

The Palestinians, as well as the Syrians and Lebanese, had been attending a three-day meeting in Tripoli of what Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi called the Allied Leadership of the Revolutionary Forces of the Arab Nation. Representatives of 22 Palestinian and other Arab organizations had been called together for a meeting at Gaddafi's stronghold, the Bab al Azizia barracks. The purpose: to demonstrate radical Arab support for Gaddafi in the face of U.S. naval maneuvers taking place off the Libyan coast. The delegates, who included Habash and Jabril, duly approved an eleven-point resolution proposing, among other things, the creation of suicide squads for commando attacks against American targets in the U.S. and elsewhere "if the U.S. should dare to launch an aggression against Libya or any other Arab country." Added the joint declaration: "He who sets a fire must be burned by his own fire."

A few of the delegates had left early aboard the Libyan executive jet, but Habash, Jabril and other leaders of pro-Syria Palestine Liberation Organization factions had remained behind or left by other means. Once the news of the Israeli seizure reached Tripoli, Jabril angrily threatened to avenge the interception with attacks on Israeli and even American airliners. Summoning journalists to a press conference, he declared: "Tell the world not to board American or Israeli planes. From this day onward, we will not respect civilians who take such planes."

Habash, whose organization helped pioneer skyjack terrorism in 1968 but later publicly disavowed the tactic, acknowledged that he had flown from Damascus to Tripoli aboard the same plane earlier in the week and said he believed he had been an intended target of the Israeli interception. Said Habash, who was nearly kidnaped by Israeli commandos during a similar attack in 1973: "The capture of any Palestinian leader is a good thing from their point of view."

In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al Shara'a called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. Such a meeting was in fact held later in the week, but the U.S. vetoed a resolution condemning Israel for staging the interception. In the meantine, Syria warned of retaliation against Israel. Said its chief of staff, Major General Hikmat Shehabi: "We will answer this crime by teaching those who committed it a lesson they will not forget. We will choose the method, the time and the place." At a minimum, that meant the Syrians could probably be expected to transfer their mobile SA-6 and SA-8 batteries back into positions in eastern Lebanon.

As even moderate Arab regimes condemned the Israeli action, Gaddafi announced, that in retaliation he had ordered his air force to intercept Israeli civil airliners over the Mediterranean and force them to land in Libya, where they would be searched for "Israeli terrorists." Furthermore, Libyan radio charged that the Israeli interception had been carried out with the help of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, whose ships have recently been cruising off the Libyan coast. U.S. officials in Washington vehemently denied providing any assistance, though in the past American ships are thought to have shared with Israel the results of their electronic air-traffic monitoring system in the Mediterranean.

Embarrassed Israeli officials tried hard to justify the operation. Prime Minister Shimon Peres told the Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that because there were indications that a high-ranking Palestinian official was aboard the Gulfstream II, "we decided we had to verify whether he was on the plane." Continued Peres: "The nature of the information was such that it gave us a solid basis for our decision to intercept . . . It turned out to be a mistake." Agreed Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the conservative Likud bloc in the government coalition: "When we have information, Israel is entitled to take action, including extraordinary action, to stop more murder."

Nonetheless, the episode provoked some criticism at home. The left-wing daily Al Hamishmar declared that the interception had undermined the credibility of Israel's Middle East peace efforts. "The sovereign state is not a commando unit," it complained. "The sovereign state is not Rambo." Commented the respected independent daily Ha'aretz in a strong editorial: "Israel has fought for years for the principle of free navigation immune from attack. But now we have given our enemies encouragement to follow our example."

Others speculated about the legal and diplomatic problems that would have ensued if Israel had succeeded in capturing a heavyweight Palestinian terrorist. Such questions, however, were purely hypothetical. As Israel's Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the Knesset last week, "We did not find what we had hoped to find."

With reporting by Roland Flamini/Jerusalem and Scott MacLeod/Cairo