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Not Before They Disarm

(bitterlemons.org) Yaakov Amidror - * Since Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) took formal control over the Palestinian Authority, he appears to be moving in a direction that his predecessor avoided, focusing on a ceasefire or hudna. Who isn't happy to live in peace and quiet, without terror on the streets and Kassam rockets landing on Sderot? But a hudna clearly does not permit an offensive against the terrorist infrastructure, and this could entail a significant cost in the future. * During the past three years of the war against terror, the General Security Service (Shabak) and the Israel Defense Forces succeeded in reaching and silencing nearly every terrorist activist in Judea and Samaria. In contrast, in the Gaza Strip, precisely because the territory was never reoccupied, the IDF's success is very limited. * In parallel with the talks between the sides, the ceasefire will enable the terrorist elements to refurbish, rebuild their capabilities, train their activists, acquire ordnance, and rest. The terrorists will be that much more prepared on the day when someone in Ramallah or Damascus, Gaza or Tehran decides that the time is ripe to renew terrorist attacks. The worst damage will be in Judea and Samaria, where the terrorist organizations have a genuine interest in a ceasefire as their only means of salvation. * Every time Israel ignored Palestinian efforts to rebuild a terrorist capability while the sides were engaging in political contacts, it paid in blood. A leadership that does not constantly fight terrorism eventually gives in to it. In my view, anyone who allows terror to regroup under his governance cannot be a viable partner for peace negotiations. * We have no alternative. Israel must condition a return to political negotiations on the readiness of the Palestinian security establishment to act against the terrorist organizations, arrest their leaders, disarm them, destroy their explosives laboratories, and take immediate steps to cease all incitement to terrorism - on television, in the official press, in the mosques, the schools, and the street banners. * Whoever wants to qualify as a peace partner cannot permit incitement to murder the people with whom he is negotiating. He certainly should not be allowed to shelter those who are preparing their weapons for the next terrorist war. Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror is the former head of the IDF's research and assessment division, with special responsibility for preparing the National Intelligence Assessment.
2005-02-04 00:00:00
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