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Peace Process

PA fight against terror must be unconditional


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
February 02, 2005

Eliminating the threat of Islamic terror is an unconditional obligation for the Palestinian Authority, and must not be linked to Israeli gestures, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday.

In an interview with Reuters and Agence France-Presse, Rice was asked at what point she believed Israel would “have to make some gesture, with either the [security fence] or [Palestinian security] prisoners” in order to ensure PA leader Mahmoud Abbas continues working to thwart anti-Jewish terror.

She responded that “the determination to fight terror and to reestablish law and order is something that the Palestinians need to do, period.”

Rice said she thinks the PA leadership understands this, noting that the resulting peace and quiet would benefit the Palestinian Arabs as much as Israel’s Jews.

PA wants a reward

Contradicting Rice’s assertion, however, was the PA’s reaction to Israel’s failure to offer immediate concessions after it took what Israel termed positive but insufficient steps to end the violence in Gaza.

On Tuesday, the Abbas regime issued statements expressing great disappointment following Monday night's meeting between Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz and PA security chief Mohammed Dahlan, Arutz 7 reported.

The PA decried the fact that Mofaz continued to dwell on the issue of totally eliminating terror, and said its efforts to temporarily halt the bloodshed should be good enough to elicit Israeli offerings.

Green light for terror

Meanwhile, reports indicate Abbas has already given Hamas the green light to resume its campaign of mass murder against Israel’s Jews should Jerusalem fail to meet the Arabs’ demands.

Israel Channel One News correspondent Oded Granot reported Sunday that elements of Abbas’s Fatah party were unhappy about his secret promise that Hamas could “return to the path of armed struggle” if the ceasefire deal he brokered fell through because of Israeli non-compliance.

It’s all a ploy

Unsurprised by the PA’s behavior was IDF Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash, who told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Wednesday that Abbas’s hudna, or temporary truce, was merely a ploy.

Farkash, who heads Israel’s Military Intelligence, said the current relative quiet could be expected to last only until after next week’s Sharm el-Sheikh summit, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Abbas will meet for the first time since the latter’s election victory.

Farkash explained that the PA had asked the terror groups to halt attacks on Israeli Jews with the promise that Abbas would use the lull in fighting to extract further Israeli concessions at the negotiating table, Arutz 7 reported.

Israel must not give in

Last week, Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu insisted Israel must not pay for protection by offering goodwill gestures in order to get the PA to honor its signed commitments.

“I do not believe that Israel must give something” in return for an end to anti-Jewish terror, Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu pointed out it was the “Palestinian” side that had openly “transgressed” the various peace agreements.

“They are the side that tried with the force of terror to advance the terrible results that they sought,” he said.

Since the signing of the so-called “Oslo Accords” in 1993, Israel, in addition to numerous goodwill gestures, has complied with many of its “peace” obligations, most notably the relinquishing of vast swaths of its biblical heartland and transferring control over some 98 percent of the Palestinian Arab population to the PA.

In contrast, the PA has failed for more than a decade to fulfill its only meaningful obligation – to remove the threat of anti-Jewish terror by dismantling the terrorist infrastructure operating out of territories under its control.

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