Mofaz: Redeployment Not A Concession

Fathi Sabbah     Al-Hayat     2003/08/18

Gaza

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that a redeployment of Israeli occupation troops from four Palestinian cities, expected in the next few days, is "not a concession made by Israel." 

During the weekly cabinet session held in occupied Jerusalem yesterday, Mofaz said that the redeployment of Israeli troops from Jericho, Qalqilya, Ramallah and Tulkarem in the West Bank "comes as part of transferring the responsibility into the (Palestinian) Authority in order for it to deal with the basic structures of terrorism," referring to the Palestinian armed resistance groups. He described the agreement with Palestinian Security Affairs Minister, Mohamad Dahlan, as "important, at a decisive moment when the peace process was about to collapse." He pointed out that the "progress made in the process will occur gradually and cautiously, in addition to the fact that it will be conditioned and open to change," or in other words, revocation.

Mofaz renewed Israel's conditions on this matter, saying: "we will not relinquish our security demands and we hold on to our current position, which is that we will work in any place where the Palestinian Authority isn't handling terrorism." He stressed on the fact that "in case one perpetrator of an operation (Palestinian Fedayee) comes out from a region under their control (the Palestinians), the situation will return to what it used be," which would mean the re-occupation of these regions and practicing all kinds of aggression.

He said "many efforts have been deployed by the Palestinian Authority since last Friday (when he last met with Dahlan) aimed to stop (the two Islamic resistance movements) Jihad and Hamas from carrying out operations," adding "we have never seen such efforts before."

He described these efforts as "new," even though they can't prevent of the Fedayee operations against Israeli targets, and considered that the facilities the Israeli government presented to the Palestinians during the past few weeks "have curbed the support for terrorism."

In a bid to justify the house arrest imposed on President Yasser Arafat and the provocations against him in the Israeli society and around the world, Mofaz said that "there are indications that President Yasser Arafat is giving the green light to pursue the suicide operations against Israel."

Later on, the head of military intelligence unit, Major General Aharon Ze'evi, pursued the talk to the government, and said that his unit "has information proving that (Arafat) participated in financing the last terrorist acts." He claimed that Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Dahlan are not ready to confront Arafat and that this is "perfectly clear." 

General Ze'evi pointed out that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are committed to the truce, while Fatah, headed by Arafat, doesn't accept it. He said that Abbas, who insists on carrying on with the negotiations and not terrorism, is against Arafat and "is holding on to his commitment to put all those carrying weapons under one authority."

Meanwhile, several Israeli ministers criticized what they called "delivering four cities of the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority," describing this as "a unilateral concession that threatens the security of Israeli citizens."

The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Education Minister Limor Livnat saying she opposed "delivering additional cities to the Palestinians as long as they are not fighting terrorism." 

As for Minister Uzi Landau, he wondered: "we can't understand how we can withdraw before the Palestinians take even one step towards dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism, despite the Palestinian commitments."

During the cabinet session, dozens of Jews demonstrated, asking to know when the construction of the separation wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories will be continued.  

The Commander of the reserve units, Uzi Dayan, considered that the Israeli government "is giving many excuses to obstruct the continuation of the construction," which the Palestinians call "a racist separation wall." He continued that "no more excuses can be given," and that this government hasn't done anything in an entire year about the wall. He said: "if you ask me what the Prime Minister did during the past year for the wall, I would answer nothing, he hasn't done anything, the Americans are now against the wall and are using it as a political bargaining chip."