Daily Alert Archives

Emerging from the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis

(Saban Center - Brookings Institution) Yaacov Perry- Yaacov Perry is former head of Israel's General Security Services, presiding during efforts to build a security foundation through the Oslo Accords. Regrettably, the Palestinians did not reciprocate and today we know this to be an absolute, irrefutable truth. From the first moment of the establishment of the Palestinian Authority over part of the territories, they engaged systematically and purposefully in arms smuggling, the building of military capacity, and the establishment of terrorist infrastructure by cynically taking advantage of the means and capacity that we had placed at their disposal out of trust and good will. We know from interrogations and documents that the Palestinians knowingly and maliciously breeched our trust and cooperation, and the best example is what we call the "revolving door" approach to people arrested for terrorism. The Palestinian leadership cooperated with the terrorists quite willingly as part of its strategic view that the pressure of terror will play an important part in the coming conflict with Israel. Arafat's desire to avoid internal conflict is what permitted his survival as head of the PLO from 1965 to the present day. This is why, since his arrival in Gaza in 1994 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, Arafat never took any resolute action against Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the rejectionist organizations, such as the Popular Front. Arafat has been ill in recent years. He has trouble moving and speaking and apparently may have serious problems in grasping reality. The Palestinian security organizations that engage in intelligence gathering are alive and well. If the Palestinians indeed want to restrict terrorist activities from their territory, they could do this starting tomorrow morning.
2002-07-19 00:00:00
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