Israel Matzav

Why the US and Israel should stop backing Fatah

Unlike Iraq, the U.S. has chosen sides in this civil war. To this end, the U.S. State department has prodded Israel to release $85 million worth of taxes and tarrifs it collected on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf, and hand it over to a U.S. program that trains and arms the forces of P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas’ Fatah party is in a shooting war with Hamas, which won the parliamentary elections last year.

Why would the U.S. do this? Its all about “moderation.” Briefly put the U.S. wants to encourage the “more moderate” Palestinian Abbas, in the hopes he will persuade Hamas to both recognize Israel and stop its rocket attacks on that country.

Abbas, for his part, has long claimed he doesn’t have either the men or weapons needed to stop the persistent rocket attacks against civilians in Israel. Apparently, the U.S. takes him at his word.

But giving guns to Abbas is utterly unnecessary. The Palestinian security forces Abbas commands already have tens of thousands of rifles and millions of bullets; rifles and bullets they have never used to stop the attacks of Hamas, Islamic Jihad or other militias against Israel. In fact, Abbas has control over some 45,000 members of a dozen security forces in the Gaza Strip. In addition, Abbas also controls thousands of gunmen and activists belonging to his Fatah party. Hamas, by contrast, has less than 6,000 militiamen.

Clearly Abbas has all the men, guns and ammunition he needs to stop Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Instead he uses these military resources to wage war for personal power, not peace.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:31 AM