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IDF Central Command Head: "If We Leave West Bank, It's a Big Risk"

[Ha'aretz] Amos Harel - Head of IDF Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni says that instead of counting checkpoints in the West Bank, the Palestinians should be improving the economy. "We've taken down hundreds of barriers and today movement in the territories is almost free." "Hamas' military wing has suffered a serious blow, but it is still a threat. It has the capability to recover quickly, which necessitates unrelenting pressure, both from us and from the PA. There is enough knowledge out there, mostly accumulated by former prisoners. These are people who know how to carry out professional terror attacks, even within Israel. They learn new methods in prison and sometimes are released only to head straight to explosive materials waiting for them in a hiding place throughout their entire incarceration." A few months ago, Shamni told President Shimon Peres that without the IDF's presence in the West Bank, Hamas could gain control on the ground and defeat Fatah within two or three days. Since then, the PA has become stronger, "but I still maintain that if we leave the territories, it's a very big risk. It will take time for the PA to establish itself properly....They have just started building an alternative to what Hamas has been doing for years."
2008-10-03 01:00:00
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