Tuesday, January 18, 2005
One PA official is saying a few of the right things:
Haaretz - PA security chief: PA intends to disarm militants
"There is no leadership in the world that gets elected on a peaceful program and leaves arms in the hands of militias and other groups," Nafe told Reuters.
"Weapons that don't belong to the Palestinian police are illegal. So wherever illegal weapons are found, we will collect them," he said.
The Special Forces are among at least a dozen, sometimes competing, Palestinian security forces...
Now that last part is the problem, isn't it? Arafat always resisted combining the security forces and placing them in someone else's hands - keep the underlings divided and looking over each other's shoulders is a classic way for an old thug to hold on to power. Now it's going to be up to Abbas to consolidate "security" and make sure that the State is the one with a monopoly on violence in the name of the State.
He's not having much luck being taken seriously by the armed groups, of course:
Abbas in Gaza for talks with factions
Abbas said he expects to meet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon before any planned visit to Washington in the near future.
Speaking to Palestinian reporters on Tuesday, Abbas said all the Palestinian factions had to respect the rule of law in the Palestinian areas, and that those breaking the law will be punished...
...He disclosed that Abbas had also issued instructions to recruit gunmen belonging to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, into the security forces. "These men will play a role in building the PA and its institutions," he said, referring to scores of Fatah gunmen wanted by Israel for their involvement in terrorism.
However, a spokesman for the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Nablus rejected the offer, saying his men would continue to fight against Israel "until the end of the occupation."...
...The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad also rejected the call to halt attacks, saying the armed struggle is a legitimate tool....
Good luck to Abbas.
If you want to know why Sharon and company are so serious about Abbas taking action, it's because it's no joke, and it's not a game, and it's not something to be done at some vague point in the future and it's because of things like this:
17-year-old wounded by Qassam clinically dead:
Ella Abukasis, 17, was returning from a meeting of the Bnei Akiva youth movement, together with her siblings and a friend, last Saturday around 6:30 P.M., when they heard a warning that a rocket was approaching.
The rocket landed near them while they were on Jerusalem Street, only 100 meters from the Abukasis' home.
Abukasis suffered severe head wounds from shrapnel. Her friend and sister were both wounded lightly. According to one eyewitness, Ella had dived to shield her 9-year-old brother Tamir from the Qassam...
Arieh O'Sullivan writes in the Jerusalem Post about hunting the Kassam missiles and their production facilities - the concern being that Israel has given up much of its ability to head-off the production and launching of the missiles by its low presence in Gaza - but really, that's beside the point.
I used to have a roommate at college who was from East Boston. One day there was a murder outside in broad daylight, but according to the news reports, the police were stymied in getting anyone to step forward and make an identification. IIRC, this was just before the DA's efforts to break the East Boston code of silence hit the news. My roommate told me that he was sure his mom would know who did the shooting by breakfast the next morning. Sure enough, she did.
Gaza is a tight, highly-populated area. You can't tell me that the PA couldn't find out inside of five minutes, if they don't already know, exactly where the Kassam production shops are, and who's responsible for them. It's up to them to do something. The responsibility is theirs. Rather than trying to place their own people and contacts on the ground, the far more economical solution is for Israel to put pressure on Abbas to do his job, and that's what they're doing.
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