Israel to Let Some Palestinian Police Carry Guns

[Elisheba]

Israel's Defense Ministry agreed on Thursday to a Palestinian request to let some police carry guns on the streets, in order to help end unprecedented internal unrest, Israeli security sources said.

Most members of Palestinian security forces in the West Bank stopped carrying weapons more than two years ago after some were killed in major incursions that Israel said were to root out militants involved in bombings and shooting attacks.

Israeli security sources said the Defense Ministry would only agree to the deployment of armed Palestinian police in areas that were not seen as hotbeds of militancy.

"All those policemen who will carry weapons will also have to be vetted by the Shin Bet," one source said, referring to Israel's internal security service.

Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters he had not heard official word from Israel on the issue of arming the police and was still awaiting a high-level security meeting between the two sides.

Palestinian-run areas of the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and West Bank have been gripped by unprecedented internal unrest since last month amid calls on veteran President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) to sack corrupt officials and reform a plethora of security forces.

Palestinians accuse the Israelis of destroying their security structures during nearly four years of conflict, which began when peace talks foundered in 2000.

Israelis have often accused Palestinian forces of collaborating with militants.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...t_weapons_dc_2

(um...why do I get the feeling that this is NOT a good idea?)

[Mediocrates]

Maybe, but I'd rather have them shoot each other.

[Elisheba]

Maybe, but I'd rather have them shoot each other.

If you mean pal shooting at pal, yeah!

[Oh Jerusalem]

Israel's Defense Ministry agreed on Thursday to a Palestinian request to let some police carry guns on the streets, in order to help end unprecedented internal unrest, Israeli security sources said.

Stupid Jews.

[Elisheba]

Stupid Jews.

Well, in all candor, that WAS my initial reaction.

[Oh Jerusalem]

Well, in all candor, that WAS my initial reaction.

You will find many posts of mine that sum up a situation with those same 2 words.

[Elisheba]

You will find many posts of mine that sum up a situation with those same 2 words.

... uh oh ... that doesn't sound good ...

[Oh Jerusalem]

... uh oh ... that doesn't sound good ...

Things have not been good for a long time.

[Roland]

Things have not been good for a long time.

What is "unprecedented internal unrest"?

[Oh Jerusalem]

What is "unprecedented internal unrest"?

Rhetoric.

[Elisheba]

GUNS TO BE ALLOWED IN P.A. ONCE AGAIN

Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz decided last night to allow Palestinian Authority para-military policemen in Judea and Samaria to bear arms. The decision was made in a special meeting last night with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, Shabak officials, and IDF generals.

The objective of the new policy is to enable the PA to deal with recent signs of sprouting anarchy. Israel will receive a list of policemen from the PA, and will investigate the terrorism background, if any, of each of them. The permits to carry rifles will be granted in stages, beginning in the areas deemed to be quieter.

Reactions from the nationalist and Land of Israel camps were fast and furious. "The decision is reckless [mufkeret, in Hebrew] and abandons us [mafkirah]," stated Yehoshua Mor-Yosef, spokesman for the Yesha Council (Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza). "The only one who can say that giving weapons to terrorists won't cost Jewish lives is someone who can say that retreating under fire [from Gaza] will improve our security."

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said, "Mofaz relies on armed PA policemen to instill order in the PA, and therefore gives them weapons with which they can kill Jews. [As IDF Chief of Staff in October 2000,] Mofaz abandoned the wounded soldier Madhat Yusuf in Joseph's Tomb because he relied on Jibril Rajoub, and he now continues to abandon the security of the residents of Yesha."

Defense Minister Mofaz responded today to the wave of criticism, saying said that the step is necessary, not dangerous, and reversible. He said that the permitted weapons will be pistols and clubs, and that they will not be allowed to carry them in areas that will endanger Israelis.

Earlier this morning, Minister Gideon Ezra made a lame attempt to explain the new decision: "This is an attempt to instill order amidst the anarchy. They promise that they won't point the weapons at our forces... There is no problem for us to approve this policy when it helps them and doesn't hurt us. I understand that the defense establishment has checked into the matter very well... These policemen will be working for law and order, and it could be that if we come [looking for] a stolen car, they will return it to us." Ezra said that Israel's eight-year demand that the PA turns in its illegal weapons still stands.



OTHER RESPONSES TO MOFAZ'S DECISION

Almagor Terror Victims Association asked, "Doesn't the Sharon Government try to learn lessons from the past? Similar experiments in the past have exacted a heavy price, one that we will apparently have to pay again. We call upon the government to reverse this decision."

Professors for a Strong Israel: "Many of the Sharon Government's recent steps are a green light for terrorism [, for instance]:
* providing weapons to the PA terrorists;
* restoring Shimon Peres to the Foreign Ministry [a possible outcome of the limping Likud-Labor coalition negotiations - ed.];
* the end of the IDF activities in Beit Hanoun against the Kassam rockets;
* opening [this morning] the Rafiah Crossing on the Israeli-Egyptian border despite the concern [of the past three weeks - ed.] over a possible explosives tunnel;
* the re-routing of the anti-terrorism partition fence to the Green Line;
* and above all - the disengagement plan that pours fuel on the bonfire of terrorism."

Even former GSS director Ami Ayalon said that the weapons to be given to the PA are liable to be used against us "if there is no diplomatic vista."


AND WHAT ABOUT DAHLAN?

MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) of Gush Katif reacted sharply to the decision to allow PA policemen to bear arms: "I cannot believe it's true. But if, Heaven forbid, it is, it's proof that the insane moves of the Prime Minister are causing even those who surround him to lose their sanity. The murderous Palestinian gang headed by Dahlan - so admired by Israel's government - will be happy to be aided by Israel's approval for it to carry arms in order to murder more Jews."

The afore-mentioned Muhammed Dahlan, who has a rich terrorist background, is a leading candidate to take control of Gaza if Israel withdraws. MK Uri Ariel (National Union) contacted Attorney-General Meni Mazuz this week, demanding that Dahlan be brought to justice for his role in a fatal attack outside Kfar Darom in November 2000. Dahlan and his deputy Rashid Abu-Shabak organized the school bus bombing, which killed two teachers, left half a dozen children maimed - including three siblings of the Cohen family who lost legs - and seriously wounded an American citizen, Rachel Asaroff. In response to this brutal terror attack on Jewish school children, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak dispatched Israeli planes to strafe Dahlan's Gaza headquarters.

None other than Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, now a leading champion of the disengagement/expulsion plan, has called for the "eradication" of Dahlan. In a Wall Street Journal article in June 2002, Olmert wrote,
"Mr. Dahlan is the man who has presided over an ever-fortified terrorist network... On his watch, Mr. Dahlan permitted Gaza to become a safe haven for the hundreds of fugitive terrorists fleeing Israeli forces... [T]he current thinking that Mr. Dahlan can bring reform and law enforcement to the Palestinians is totally misguided. No democratic state should ever allow itself to do business with those individuals who deliberately target a school bus... Criminals such as Mr. Dahlan and Arafat can never be reformed; they must be eradicated by force."

"Cities of Israel" grassroots activist Susie Dym applauded MK Ariel's demand that Dahlan be tried. "It is important that the public not be fooled into thinking that these terrorists are 'leading political figures,'" she told Arutz-7. "Once they are indicted, they become, indeed, terrorists and the public stops being fooled. This is what Israel did with Marwan Barghouti, and this is what must be done with Dahlan. "

[Mediocrates]

Then it's clear that Dahlan is not setting himself up to be the leader of anyone. He's angling for the humanitarian of the year award so the IDF can't kill him. The longer he's not killed or brought to trial the less likely it will ever happen and he can retire to his Villa on the Cote d'Azure.

But what serously does Israel propose to do otherwise. As the PA pretends to implode and it spreads internal repression, violence and terrorism amongst its own people what does Israel think it can or should do to stop that? Do they want to patrol that lunar landscape themselves?

[Elisheba]

But what serously does Israel propose to do otherwise. As the PA pretends to implode and it spreads internal repression, violence and terrorism amongst its own people what does Israel think it can or should do to stop that? Do they want to patrol that lunar landscape themselves?

What a great idea! Could we please just send the palestinians to the moon NOW? The PA can spread anything they want all over that mound of green cheese and Israel can be Israel.