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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
October 28, 2005
The suicide bombing in Hadera put a temporarily halt to the Bush Administration's growing campaign to push Israel to essentially abandon its security concerns vis-à-vis the operation of passages.
But it is a very temporary halt.
And for good reason.
Because, ultimately, the operation of the passages, the lifeblood of Gaza, isn't a question of "if" but "how".
Unfortunately, the Palestinians have apparently succeeded in making the issue of the operation of the various passages more an issue of sovereignty than security, thus setting the stage to effectively strip Israel of the ability to ensure that the Jewish State's security needs are not compromised by the operation of the passages.
Israel shut down the passages today as it launched a security operation necessitated, as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon explained, by the refusal of the Palestinian Authority to act against the terrorists. And there is no reason to expect the PA to be any more serious when they operate passage points.
And Egypt?
Earlier this week Israeli officials complained that there is weapons smuggling from Egypt to Gaza at volumes well above pre-retreat levels thanks to Egypt's failure to take serious measures.
But what about foreign observers?
If one could expect the Palestinians and Egyptians to diligently operate passage points then foreign observers might be face saving window dressing for internal Israeli political purposes. But it would be absurd to expect foreign observers to ensure security when the Palestinian and Egyptian operators themselves are part of the problem -- not the solution.
An active Israeli role in the operation of passage points may not be pleasing to Palestinian eyes, but the alternative is a farce doomed to catastrophic failure.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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