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Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of , Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
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By Dr. Aaron Lerner
April 20, 2007
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"First, they will discuss immediate concerns, like movement and access, management of the passages, and preventing arms smuggling and rocket fire by terrorists in Gaza. On this trip, however, it became clear to all of us that establishing clear benchmarks to measure progress will help us move forward. So this is one immediate task that the parties will undertake with the assistance of General Keith Dayton."
Secretary Condoleezza Rice remarks to the press - Jerusalem March 27, 2007
More than three weeks have passed since Ms. Rice talked about the need for performance benchmarks.
And in the apparent absence of any Israeli suggestions, Washington is preparing its own list that it plans to present to the Israelis and Palestinians in the coming weeks.
Judging by past plans, one can expect a list of amorphous benchmarks for the Palestinians and measurable benchmarks for the Israelis.
While the Palestinians will be expected to make some photo-op deployments of security forces and "make efforts" to "prevent attacks" or even "prevent smuggling", Israel will be given benchmarks in the form of numerical goals (number of roadblocks removed, flow of trucks per day from Gaza, etc.).
It doesn't have to be this way.
Not if the Olmert team wakes up now and develops its own proposed timeline with a series of benchmarks for Palestinian security compliance.
A "put up or shut up" proposal that puts "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas to the test by setting a series of well defined "bite-size" confrontations between "moderate" PA forces and the "terror infrastructure".
The timeline could start with confrontations to destroy such high profile targets as illegal militia training facilities. The PA forces could then graduate to seizing illegal weapons stores and handing them over to General Dayton's people for elimination.
Mahmoud Abbas already has many thousands of well armed soldiers. Certainly magnitudes more than what he needs in order to launch these kinds of operations if he wants to.
That's if he wants to.
And that's really the point.
Because up to now "moderate" Abbas has repeatedly explained that he has no intention to confront other Palestinians.
And for some reason this refusal to fight has been rewarded by programs to give his forces even more weapons and training.
The choice is in the Olmert team's hands:
Either sit back and wait for asymmetric performance benchmarks from Washington or seize the initiative and pre-empt Washington with a detailed timeline of Palestinian performance benchmarks that, if honored, would genuinely move the Palestinians in the direction of security compliance.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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