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PA Moves Against Armed Militias in Jenin Are "a Big Show"

(JNS) Israel Kasnett - Has the Palestinian Authority reformed by cracking down on terror groups that seek to attack Israel? "Everything the PA is doing right now is part of the Trump effect. The PA remembers Trump's steps against them in the previous term and wants to show that they are capable of change," said Shaul Bartal of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. "In practice, this is a big show," he said, referring to PA moves against armed militias in Jenin. "The majority of the Palestinian public in the West Bank is not satisfied with the PA and there is almost no Palestinian faction that believes that this is a real change within the PA." Bartal said that in northern Samaria and especially in the Jenin area, "the PA has begun to lose control." It "wants to show Israel, and especially Trump, that it is capable of enforcing government order and dealing with militants." Journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Strategic and Foreign Affairs, said the PA is more worried about its honor than it is about actually fighting terror groups. "We've seen clashes like this in the past," he noted, adding that this time it appears to be on a larger scale since the armed groups have "never before challenged the PA in such a way." "Why can't the PA say openly in Arabic, 'No more battalions, no more armed groups and no such thing as resistance?' Why don't we hear that message? I don't hear it in Arabic." Instead, Abu Toameh said he hears Palestinian officials saying, "We are not against the weapons of the resistance." "They don't come out against the whole idea of resistance against Israel." Moreover, "We know there is no strategic decision to dismantle these groups because we don't see it in other places like Tulkarem and Nablus." The writer is Chief Editor of English Publications at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.
2025-01-14 00:00:00
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