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Don't Wait for the Next Attack

(Jerusalem Post) Editorial - * Many knowledgeable observers have trouble imagining Abbas fully controlling terrorist elements within his own Fatah, let alone Hamas and Islamic Jihad. * The terrorist groups, which Abbas and his Egyptian hosts legitimate by negotiating with them in the first place, did not even agree to a "cease-fire" (hudna), but merely to a "calming" (tahdiah). A cease-fire would not be enough because it leaves the terrorists intact and fully armed. A "calming" is even worse, because it is explicitly no more than a pause to rearm, train, and reload - which, security officials report, is already happening. * Even the notion that all this is "a first step" rings somewhat hollow unless there is reason to believe that a second step will follow. * At this point, it seems that Abbas will only come under serious financial and diplomatic pressure to use his 60,000 armed men to break up terrorist militias when, God forbid, terrorist attacks resume. * If the U.S., Europe, and Israel all agree that it is unacceptable to allow terrorist groups to hold any peace process hostage, that recognition should be reflected in tangible pressure on Abbas to fulfill his commitments now, not after the next attack. If we wait, we are not strengthening Abbas but instead setting him up for failure.
2005-03-22 00:00:00
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