Walls of Jericho

Not since the breakout when the Irgun freed Jews being held at the Acre prison in 1947 - an exploit made famous by Paul Newman in the movie "Exodus" - has the world seen the kind of drama that erupted yesterday, when Israel broke into the Palestinian Authority prison at Jericho and seized the Palestinian Arab terrorists who killed the tourism minister of the Jewish State, Rehavam Zeevi. Jerusalem thus sends an important signal at a time when the new Hamas government is going to be testing the West at every turn. It says that Israel is not going to forget, is not going to be trifled with, and is going to see that justice is done.

It was an aberration of justice in the first place that the terrorists were being held in a prison of the Palestinian Authority. The main terrorist arrested by the Israeli troops was the secretary general of the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat. He was behind the assassination of Zeevi in 2001. With him in the Jericho prison, and also arrested by Israel, were others involved in the murder of Zeevi, who was killed in the Jerusalem Hyatt hotel. Also in the prison was the Palestinian Arab Authority paymaster behind the Karine A weapons smuggling ship.

These terrorists escaped Israeli justice as part of a 2002 agreement between Prime Minister Sharon and President Bush. The agreement allowed the terrorists, then being shielded by Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound, to be transferred to the prison rather than face Israeli justice - all on the condition that American and British monitors guard them alongside their Palestinian Arab jailers. But the Palestinian Arab Authority failed to keep its word. The terrorists had virtual freedom within the jail compound, with the jail only really serving to protect them from Israeli troops.

The default by the Palestinian Authority was stated bluntly in a letter sent March 8 to Mahmoud Abbas by the American and British consuls general, who said that "the Palestinian Authority .... has consistently failed to comply with core prevision of the Jericho monitoring arrangement regarding visitors, cell searches, telephone access and correspondence. "The letter warned that "the pending handover of governmental power to a political party that has repeatedly called for the release of the Jericho detainees also calls into question the political sustainability of the monitoring mission."

Indeed, Hamas leaders had made clear they planned to release Saadat and other terrorists, and Mr. Abbas expressed no real objections. And so Israel launched operation "Pay a Visit" to bring the terrorists to justice. While holding out in the prison, Saadat told Al-Jazeera in a telephone interview that "we are not going to give up, we are going to face our destiny with courage." Israeli commandos exposed his "courage" as he walked out of the prison and surrendered. Palestinian Arabs went on the rampage attacking offices linked to Europe and America, burning cars, and firing into the air. Some foreigners were also taken hostage. No doubt this is but the first of many tests with which Hamas is going to confront the rest of us, which is why it was so important yesterday for Israel to make its move - and its point.