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Promoting a Ceasefire on the Palestinian-Israeli Front

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy)Brig. Gen. Michael Herzog - In Israeli eyes, a ceasefire should be no more than a relatively short corridor leading the PA towards fighting terrorism and dismantling the terror infrastructure. Combating terror is perceived as both a practical necessity and an essential litmus test as regards the prospects of future peace. For its part, the new Palestinian leadership will probably argue that they are not strong and popular enough to undertake a comprehensive battle against terror so soon after assuming power. In reality, the PA does have enough armed elements to successfully confront the terror groups, certainly in Gaza, but does not command enough popular support, and hence political will, for such a move. The U.S. should monitor the fulfillment of a Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire based on its intelligence capabilities. In so doing, it should encourage the development of bilateral Israeli-Palestinian security exchanges rather than revert to a trilateral (Israeli-Palestinian-U.S.) security framework that has proven problematic in the past since it made it easier for the parties to project their problems on the third party rather than try to solve them bilaterally.
2004-12-02 00:00:00
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