Israel Matzav

IDF to withdraw from 'Palestinian' cities?

From September 2000 until the spring of 2002, we were living in a war zone. When you said good bye to your spouse and children in the morning, you never knew whether they would all be there in the evening. Taking buses or walking in many parts of this city was like playing Russian roulette. Our government under Ehud Barak was unwilling to jeopardize 'peace' with the 'Palestinians' by doing what needed to be done.

Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister in February 2002 (without a Knesset election - this was during the brief period when we had a directly elected Prime Minister) with a mandate to restore security to the country. When the 'Palestinians' perpetrated the Seder Night Massacre a couple months later, Sharon decided he'd had enough. In Operation Defensive Shield, he sent the IDF into the 'Palestinian' cities to ensure that terrorists could no longer reach Israel's cities. It took another two years for the terror to die down, but it has been relatively quiet since 2004. Largely because the IDF is still in those cities.

Now, the 'Palestinians' are trying to convince the Obama administration to force Israel to return to its September 2000 starting point, to withdraw the IDF from the 'Palestinian' cities and to keep it outside those cities. The 'Palestinian Authority,' which can't even control downtown Ramallah, is claiming that its American trained 'police force' should take control of the 'Palestinian' cities, with the IDF staying out.

The 'Palestinian police' are poorly trained. It is at least as likely that they will turn their guns on the IDF as that they will turn them on Hamas and other terror organizations. But if the 'Palestinian police' take control of the 'Palestinian' cities, the most likely scenario appears to be that Hamas will take over. Think Gaza 2007.

But that won't stop the 'Palestinians' from demanding that they be put in charge.

Palestinian officials said Monday they were close to reaching an agreement with the US according to which the Obama administration would demand an Israeli withdrawal from positions that were manned by Palestinian forces prior to the outbreak of the second intifada at the end of September 2000.

IDF forces currently controls positions situated at the entrance to large Palestinian cities in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority is demanding that these positions be moved and that Israeli forces be prevented from entering the cities.

...

According to the officials, part of the Authority's success has to do with the dismantling of various armed groups, particularly those affiliated with Fatah [In other words, they can disarm their own terrorists (maybe) but not Hamas.' CiJ]. The PA is working diligently to abide by the security-related clauses of the US-backed Road Map for peace initiative, they said.

"Now it's time for Israel to reciprocate and fulfill its part of the Road Map initiative, meaning the transfer of control to the Palestinian security forces in such a way that by the end of the process PA security forces will return to all the outposts they had controlled on the eve of the second intifada," one official said.

The Palestinians are also demanding that the IDF be prevented from operating in areas under full control of the PA.

I would say that if this happens, the odds that we get another round of suicide bombings within six months is probably nearly 100%. People outside Israel believe that it's the 'security fence' that's preventing the suicide bombers from returning. The fence has a little bit to do with it. But the main reason we don't have suicide bombers is that the IDF is in all the 'Palestinian' cities. If that changes, God forbid, it will just be a matter of time before things blow up.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:58 PM