By Ryan Jones
Dec 02, 2005
?Total neglect? is how one senior Israeli defense official described the current security situation along the Gaza-Sinai border, which is now under the sole control of the Palestinian Authority.
Ynet reported Thursday that the Israeli security establishment is increasingly concerned over the ?new reality? along the border, through which terrorists and illegal arms have flowed with little or no interference from the PA or Egypt since Israel's ?disengagement.?
Military sources backed up a recent assessment by senior Likud MK Yuval Steinitz that Israel had been coerced to relinquish control over the border before it was able to adequately determine both the willingness and ability of the PA to effectively control the frontier.
?Israel was pressured into opening up the crossings before we were ready; we gave in to pressure from the Americans,? said Steinitz last month, following a brief visit to the region by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
What Israel was unable to determine prior to surrendering the border was made crystal clear this week.
On Tuesday, the PA allowed known terrorist Fadel Zahar, a senior Hamas member and brother of the group's leader Mahmoud Zahar, to walk unhindered into Gaza some 15 years after Israel banished him from all areas under Jerusalem?s control.
The PA?s prompt abuse of its newly acquired power triggered what analysts suggest will be just the first of numerous empty threats by the Israeli government, which warned it would seal the crossings from Gaza into the rest of Israel unless the ?Palestinians? rapidly cleaned up their act.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Wednesday that the PA should quickly improve its operation of the Gaza-Egypt border or face a situation in which the Erez and Karni crossings from the Strip ?into? Israel would become ?international crossings in all senses.?
??I really hope the Palestinians [sic] understand the significance of this step,? he cautioned.