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January 21, 2005/Shevat 11 5765, Vol. 57, No. 21
Sharon turns up heat on Abbas
LESLIE SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Ariel Sharon surprised Palestinians, Israelis and the international community when he broke off ties with Mahmoud Abbas a day before the new Palestinian Authority president was sworn in.
However, on Jan. 19, Sharon and his security cabinet decided to restore ties. But aides say the Israeli prime minister had delivered a clear message - that before there can be any peacemaking with the new P.A. government, as is being urged around the world, Palestinian terrorism must stop.
There are signs that Abbas may have been pricked into action by Sharon's move, but critics on the Israeli left are skeptical - suggesting Sharon is preparing the ground to delegitimize Abbas as a potential peace partner.
The severing of ties followed a Palestinian attack last week on the Karni crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel in which six Israeli civilians were killed. Sharon's anger at the nature of the attack and the time it took Abbas to condemn it partly explains the sharpness of the prime minister's response.
While Abbas has been protesting that he needs time in office to find his feet, Sharon aides suggest cutting the ties was intended as a wake-up call for the Palestinians and the West.
Israeli officials maintain that Abbas can root out terrorism if he wants to. Amos Gilead, a top Israeli defense adviser, notes that the Palestinians have about 35,000 men under arms in Gaza, where they face fewer than 1,000 Hamas militiamen.
According to Gilead, if Abbas were to unify the P.A. armed forces and threaten military action against Hamas, the radicals would back down and Abbas would be able to establish law and order without a civil war.
Sources close to Sharon say if Abbas presents a security plan outlining how he proposes to end the attacks, Israel will give him the space he needs.
The initial results of Sharon's get-tough policy seem to have been positive: The Americans and Europeans also have been pressing Abbas to take action. Whether as a result of the mounting pressure, or because Abbas genuinely believes terrorism does not serve Palestinian interests, the tone of Palestinian statements against the militiamen has grown decidedly more threatening. For the first time ever, the PLO Executive Committee put out a declaration calling for "an end to all military actions that undermine the national interest."
P.A. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei warned that "anyone who engaged in terror would be punished."
In a meeting Jan. 17 with Israeli left-wingers, Abbas outlined his plans: He said he would need about amonth to reorganize the P.A. armed forces and bring the terrorists to heel. He would try to do so not by confronting them, but by getting them to sign onto a comprehensive cease-fire, he said.
Most significantly, he said the cease-fire he had in mind would apply not only to attacks inside Israel proper but also in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The big question is what will happen if the terrorist groups don't accede to Abbas' urgings. Will Abbas impose his will?
Israeli media quoted a senior P.A. security official Jan. 18 as saying that the Palestinian Authority indeed planned to disarm terrorist groups. But so far there is no sign of any movement of Palestinian forces to confront the terrorists on the ground, Israeli officials say.
Israel isn't prepared to wait much longer. If Abbas fails to act within the next few days, the Israel Defense Forces are threatening to mount a wide-scale assault on the terrorists in Gaza. Some even talk of an attack similar to Operation Defensive Shield, the massive reinvasion of the West Bank in April 2002 that decimated the terrorist infrastructure there.
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