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Defining Down the Roadmap

[New York Sun] Rick Richman - PA officials said they plan to deploy 500 security forces in Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank, in an effort to end the anarchy there. U.S. security coordinator Gen. Keith Dayton was quoted as saying, "This is where the Palestinian state will get its first real test." Actually, this will be the fourth "real test" for the PA security forces. They have already had at least three such tests in the past two years, and flunked them all. In September 2005, after Israel withdrew from Gaza, the PA security forces stood by as the former Israeli synagogues, which could have been used as schools, were burned and as Israeli greenhouses, which could have provided jobs, were looted. Security at the Gaza-Egyptian border collapsed within three days. Over the succeeding two years, the PA forces proved unable to prevent massive smuggling of weapons and terrorists across the border from Egypt, or stop the daily firing of rockets into Israel from Gaza, or prevent tunneling under the border and the kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldiers. Finally, in June 2007, the PA forces were routed from Gaza by Hamas forces they outnumbered. Secretary of State Rice is seeking to convene a conference to negotiate a Palestinian state "as soon as possible," even though the PA has been unable to enforce basic civic order, much less meet its Phase I Roadmap obligation to engage in "sustained, targeted, and effective operations" to dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. Gen. Dayton's "test" for the PA reflects the continuing process of defining down the conditions for a Palestinian state, consistent with Secretary Rice's waiver of Palestinian compliance with Phase I and II obligations as a precondition to Phase III final status negotiations.
2007-11-02 01:00:00
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