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Olmert: we must accept the General Dayton's recommendation (file photo)
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| By Israel Insider staff June 25, 2007 |
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not rule out transferring military equipment, including armored vehicles and bulletproof vests to Palestinian forces, he said during a security consultation on Sunday. "Decisions on this matter will be made according to the recommendations of Major General Keith Dayton, who has been entrusted to build the Palestinian forces. Any recommendation by Dayton will be considered by the defense establishment. Only then will we decide," he said.
The Fatah organization led by PA Chairman and President Mahmoud Abbas largely fled without a fight in the face of the Hamas offensive in Gaza. Fatah also includes the Al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, responsible for the deaths of scores of Israeli citizens in terror bombings and roadside shootings from 2000 to the present days, and the wounding of hundreds more.
Abbas is expected to demand supplying the Fatah-controlled security forces with more weapons, supposedly to thwart expected attempts by Hamas to try to take over the "West Bank" (Judea and Samaria). "We want thousands of rifles, hundreds of armored vehicles and a lot of ammunition," one PA official told The Jerusalem Post. "We also want Jordan and Egypt to help train our forces in the West Bank."
Another official said that Abbas and his aides would ask Israel to release senior Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti and hundreds of Fatah prisoners to enhance Fatah's status. "We will also ask Israel to remove most of the checkpoints in the West Bank and to increase the number of Palestinians who are permitted to work in Israel," he said. "These measures are needed to boost Fatah's standing in the West Bank and to prevent Hamas from establishing bases of support there."
He said Abbas would also demand that Olmert order the IDF to stop pursuing Fatah gunmen and to refrain in the future from raiding Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank.
Olmert's position is opposes by many cabinet minister, including newly appointed Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, two Yisrael Beitenu ministers and Shas ministers. National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) also said during the discussion, "Lessons should be learned from previous weapon transfers. All the weapons we have transferred to Fatah eventually made their way to Hamas and were turned against us."
Before the weekly cabinet meeting, Olmert had attempted to rationalize his position, saying, "Some two months ago Israel approved the recommendations of General Dayton to supply weapons to Fatah forces in Gaza. This equipment included armor, bulletproof vests and other items that are not weapons, including uniforms and tents."
"This equipment however was not transferred to Fatah, even before Gaza fell to Hamas. Therefore, if General Dayton recommends transferring equipment to Fatah forces in the West Bank, this can definitely be considered positively."
Olmert then made it clear that "this is in no way about the transfer of weapons, but of supplemental military equipment. This equipment is of no danger to the Israeli forces, even if in the future it may fall into enemy hands," the prime minister said.
During Saturday?s security assessment meeting Defense Minister Barak expressed his opposition to such a gesture, saying "Fatah?s problem is not the lack of weapons, but rather its lack of willingness and resolve to defeat Hamas." This view was echoed by Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman: "Whoever thinks Fatah lost to Hamas because its weapons were not advanced enough, does not understand the reality." He pointed out that Fatah lacked the determination to fight terror, and warned that "additional arms may fall into the hands of terrorists that will aim them toward Israel."
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said, "One-time gestures are pointless. I suggest a long-term economic and political package that will lead the Palestinians to compromises that the international community and Israel are demanding." It was not clear whethered she favored a sustained effort to support the Palestinians militarily as well. |
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