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Palestinians Short of Ideas, Not Guns

(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is complaining that Israel is making it difficult for his security forces to obtain weapons. However, according to a senior Israeli source, there is no shortage of guns or ammunition in the West Bank. The various PA security forces are all armed to the teeth. The material Abbas wants to import from Russia and Egypt is not police equipment but armaments that would transform the PA's forces into the sort of army the Oslo peace accords specifically forbid. The PA leader is still under the mistaken impression that he needn't talk to Prime Minister Netanyahu. But as his failed attempt to get the UN to recognize Palestinian independence without the PA first making peace with Israel should have taught him, this strategy is not going to work. The diplomatic "tsunami" that was supposed to overwhelm Israel instead merely demonstrated that the world had little interest in the Palestinians. There is only so much Abbas' foreign friends can do for him if he isn't willing to talk to the Israelis. Abbas has demonstrated time and again that he isn't willing or capable of signing a peace agreement that would recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn.
2012-05-14 00:00:00
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