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| By Israel Insider staff January 2, 2008 |
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Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that Israel was closely monitoring the disposition of the case of two "policemen" in the Palestinian Authority security forces, who confessed to the killing of two off-duty Israel Defense Forces soldiers Friday, checking to see if the PA fulfills its promise to prosecute them. "These people need to rot in jail until their last days," Barak told Israel Radio.
"We will see if the Palestinian Authority is opening a revolving door for them and if so, the IDF and security services will know how to put our hands on them," he said, in unusually harsh language.
The killing of Achikam Amichai and Yehuda Rubin, boyhood friends and soldiers on leave, was only the latest incident where men on the payroll of the PA, and members of West Bank chief Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, raised additional doubts among Israeli officials, about the readiness and capability of Palestinian security forces to stop terrorism, since it was turning out that many of them are moonlighting as terrorists.
Israel has made implementation of any peace deal it reaches with the Palestinians following the U.S.-hosted Annapolis summit in November conditional on the PA controlling terrorism. There is no evidence that is happening, despite US training of Palestinian forces and Israeli agreement to allow their arming.
Palestinian security officials compounded injury with insult, claiming the two had not planned to kill the Israelis but only to take their weapons, even though earlier PA reports said that the murderers in custody had confessed and various organization had taken credit for the killing of the Jews. Then they said that even though both men were employed by the PA - one being a member of the General Intelligence Service and the other a government official - they were not members of Fatah.
Palestinian Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said that if found guilty, the men would pay for their crimes. But they could pay, he said, in three to eighteen easy and equal payments, with interest just one percent over prime.
"The investigation is still going on. They will be tried and once there is a verdict they will stay in prison until they finish their sentence," said Malki, who also serves as foreign minister. He added that the only crime they are likely to be accused of is taking the weaons of the young men they killed without asking pretty please.
In more fictitious news, lacking all basis and credibility, the Palestinian Authority said Tuesday it recently foiled a Hamas-planned suicide bombing in Israel by wrapping the would-be bomber in tin-foil. The Shin Bet security service said it knew nothing about the case, and suggested that the details sounded doubtful. According to Palestinian sources, both the bomber and the planner were arrested last Friday in a village near Jenin. The bomber had a suicide belt in his possession and had already videotaped a message to be broadcast after the attack. Neither belt nor tape were provided nor shown to Israeli officials. |
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