Release of Hamas Founder Yields Mixed Rewards

The surprise release of Sheik Ahmed Yassin from prison Wednesday has further aggravated Israeli relations with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who had sought the Hamas spiritual chief’s liberty for years without success.

But by freeing the ailing founder of the militant Islamic group, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has averted a blowup with King Hussein of Jordan, Israel’s closest Arab ally--even as his move threatens to raise tensions between Hussein and Arafat.

Yassin’s transfer to Jordan is perceived as strengthening the king’s hand in the region while weakening Arafat at home in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Yassin is a 62-year-old quadriplegic, nearly deaf and suffering multiple other health problems. Nonetheless, he is a powerful opposition religious figure who could challenge Arafat politically.

Arafat publicly welcomed Yassin’s release and called for other political prisoners to be freed. But he condemned the sheik’s “expulsion” to Jordan, and Arafat’s aides viewed the deal as a snub. They said Arafat was not told about Yassin’s release until after the fact and was given no role that would allow him to claim any credit.

“The Palestinian Authority had demanded the release of Sheik Yassin and all prisoners for a long time. Israel should have released him before,” Arafat spokesman Nabil abu Rudaineh said. “He should have been released to Gaza.”

Hisham Abdel Razek, a leader of Arafat’s Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the official in charge of prisoner issues, added that the release did not help build confidence between Israel and the Palestinians.

“Netanyahu, instead of building confidence between himself and Arafat, prefers to build confidence between himself and King Hussein,” Razek said on Israel Radio.

Yassin’s release is widely believed to be part of a deal to compensate for a bungled Israeli undercover operation against a top Hamas political leader in the Jordanian capital, Amman, a week ago--despite a Jordanian denial and Israel’s refusal to comment.

Arafat has been under intense U.S. and Israeli pressure to crack down on Hamas since the group’s military wing carried out multiple suicide bombings in Jerusalem’s central market July 30 and a downtown pedestrian mall Sept. 4. He has arrested scores of Hamas activists in the Palestinian-ruled territories and closed Islamic organizations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The United States welcomed the sheik’s release as “a humanitarian gesture” by Israel and said it hopes the action will improve the political climate and facilitate peace moves. But political observers in the region suggested that the release of Hamas’ spiritual leader will make it difficult for Arafat to continue his crackdown. When asked about this, Rudaineh replied, “I do not really know what Israel or Jordan were thinking of when they reached that deal.”

He and other Palestinian officials referred to Yassin’s release as a deportation, but Israeli officials did not clarify whether Yassin had been officially deported or will be allowed to return to Gaza.

From his room at the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman, Yassin vowed to return to Gaza after treatment.

“I send my greetings to the entire Palestinian people. I want to inform them that I am coming to Gaza in the near future. I am getting treatment in Jordan,” he said in a phone linkup to a news conference in Gaza.

Hamas leaders also said Hussein had promised them that Yassin will be sent home after medical treatment. Such a homecoming could strengthen Arafat’s opponents and those who reject the peace process.

Hussein has all but stated that a bizarre attack against Hamas spokesman Khaled Meshaal with some kind of chemical weapon or nerve gas outside an Amman office building a week ago was committed by two Israeli operatives carrying Canadian passports. An official Jordanian newspaper said so on its front page.

“This [release] was a quid pro quo,” said a Jordanian political analyst who asked not to be identified. “Israel releases Yassin in return for settling the issue. Maybe it is for the release of the two agents in custody or just for a commitment to find a way out of this.”

Israeli television, quoting sources in Jordan, reported that Hussein had threatened to sever diplomatic relations with Israel if Netanyahu did not cooperate.

Securing Yassin’s release helps Hussein temper the embarrassment and domestic political cost of an Israeli paramilitary operation in his capital. More than two-thirds of the Jordanian population is Palestinian, and there is much resentment within this group of Hussein’s 1994 peace agreement with Israel.

Many Jordanians feel the agreement has provided no economic or political benefits for their country, and they see the Netanyahu government as reneging on the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements that Hamas opposes.

In Israel, reaction to Yassin’s release was muted as the country prepared for the Jewish New Year and a three-day holiday without newspapers or, for the religious, radio and television.

Apparently to appease Netanyahu’s right wing, President Ezer Weizman granted amnesty to two Israeli prisoners sentenced to 10 years for throwing a hand grenade into Jerusalem’s Old City market in 1993 and killing a Palestinian. He shortened the terms of four other prisoners accused of crimes against Arabs but denied any connection to Yassin’s release.

At the other end of the political spectrum, Israelis expressed amazement that Netanyahu would launch an undercover operation in a friendly Arab country--and that the agents would fail and get caught. Leftist Meretz Party leader Yossi Sarid said the release of Yassin was the right step but was carried out by “two left hands.”

Internal Security Minister Avigdor Kahalani, the only government official to publicly comment on the release, defended the move on Israel Radio. “I believe that, all in all, it was time to release the man and that we did the right thing in releasing him. God help us if he had died in the Israeli jail,” Kahalani said.

He said Israel would prefer that Yassin not return to Gaza, although he did not rule out that possibility.