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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
January 14, 2005
There is every indication that instead of holding fast to the demand that newly elected PA head Mahmoud Abbas act against the illegal weapons and the general terror infrastructure, Israel is moving towards accepting yet another temporary "hudna" during which the various Palestinian forces recruit, arm and train unimpeded as they prepare for their next round of "armed resistance" against the Jewish State.
This is a terrible mistake that accepts the ongoing Palestinian rejection of Yasser Arafat's commitment to Prime Minister Rabin to abandon the "armed resistance" option -- a commitment that served as the very foundation for entire "Oslo process".
That's abandon -- not "refrain from armed resistance when it is counter-productive."
Mr. Abbas' apologists claim that weapons collection can only take place (if ever) after Israel foregoes any security presence in Palestinian cities and the Palestinian Authority's "security forces" undergo extensive consolidation and training.
But this ignores the fact that the official PA security forces themselves possess considerable quantities of illegal weapons and munitions.
Mortars, rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles, mines and a variety of other devices in the arsenal of the PA's security forces are all illegal.
Now is the time to put Mahmoud Abbas to the test.
If he orders his own commanders to clear out the illegal weapons in their own armories and hand them over to a third party for destruction then this could serve as an important first step - one that might justify Israel's step-wise testing of the PA's ability to take security responsibility in Palestinian cities.
On the other hand, if Mr. Abbas refuses to even clear his own house of the illegal weapons, it would be folly to think he is truly serious about pursuing anything more that a tactical, temporary cease-fire in preparation for the next round of "armed resistance."
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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