ARAFAT & ISRAELIS 'COOPERATING' FAR MORE THAN PUBLICLY
ACKNOWLEDGED
.
PA, ISRAELIS, AMERICANS WORKING
CLOSELY TO CONTROL PALESTINIAN SOCIETY
.
MER - While the "Palestinian Authority"
of Yasser Arafat pretends to be independent of the Israelis, the reality
is that the most important element of the "PA" -- the multi-branched security
services which consumes the bulk of the funds provided to Arafat by the
Europeans and the Americans -- works increasingly closely with the Israelis...
and of course with the Americans.
In fact the Palestinian security
apparatus is increasingly infiltrated by both the CIA and the Shinbet --
both of which are increasingly involved in "autonomous" Gaza and throughout
the occupied territories Arafat himself is trying to present a public image
of keeping his distance from the Israelis, especially the Likud government;
but the reality is that the agreements he has signed since 1993 and the
procedures they have established make such independence impossible and
reduce the PA at best to unwitting collaborator status.
As for Har Homa and ongoing Israeli
settlement "thickening" and "expansion", here too Arafat is misrepresenting
what has really been happening trying to blame everything on Netanyahu.
The actual reality is that all the planning and land-confiscation for Har
Homa, as well as most of the building in the Jerusalem area, was done under
the previous Rabin-Peres government. Furthermore, while the Labor Party
may criticize the "timing" of proceeding with more Jerusalem settlements,
most of the party actually endorsed going ahead with Har Homa.
It use to be in the past that only
the Israelis and the Americans manipulated the "Good Cop/Bad Cop" disingenuous
symbolism of Labor and Likud. These days Arafat's PA joins in promoting
this pretense as well.
Last Saturday, as but one of the
latest instances of Israeli- PA "security" cooperation, Arafat's most important
Palestinian security deputy, Jibril Rajoub, was instructed by his Israeli
army contacts to contain the Palestinian rock-throwing and rioting or else
the Israeli army would reenter the Palestinian sections of Hebron -- either
the Palestinian police would do the job, or the Israeli army would. Within
about 30 minutes Rajoub brought the rioting temporarily to a near halt...just
as instructed.
As Professor Tanya Reinhart explained
a few weeks ago in MER, the Israelis are using and playing Arafat quite
coyly. See the following information at the MER Web site for further insights:
.
PEACE PROCESS DECEPTIONS:
http://www.MiddleEast.org/Reinhar1.htm
Below, a few additional quick and recent commentaries
about the realities of Arafat, Israeli, American cooperation:
"THROUGHOUT THE CRISIS THERE'S BEEN
COOPERATION BETWEEN PALESTINIAN AND
ISRAELI SECURITY FORCES. IN HEBRON
TODAY THEY EVEN GAVE EACH OTHER
FIRST AID. TOGETHER THEY WORKED OUT
A STRATEGY FOR HOLDING BACK THE MOB --
A PLAN WHICH EVENTUALLY SUCCEEDED."
NBC News - 22 March 1997 Hillary Brown in Hebron
-
"ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN SECURITY OFFICIALS
ARE INCREASING EFFORTS TO ROUND UP ISLAMIC
RADICALS ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN PLANNING
ATTACKS AGAINST THE JEWISH STATE."
UPI - 23 March 1997
-
{Israeli government statement} "'The government of Israel
demands from the Palestinian Authority that it uphold
its
commitments to fight terror and violence, as a necessary
step to furthering the political process.' It demanded...
that the Authority increase security cooperation; prevent
incitement against Israel; fight guerrilla organizations
including their infrastructures; arrest, try and punish
'terrorists'; deal with Israel's extradition requests;
and
confiscate illegal weapons."
REUTERS - 23 March 1997
-
"There have been efforts on his (Arafat's) part, 100 percent
efforts, to stop the violence and the terrorism, but the
r
esult has not been 100 percent... He has condemned
the violent acts, but there needs to be some improvement."
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, US Sec of State, 3/23/97
-
And the following, from MER in January and available at:
http://www.MiddleEast.org/q97-5.htm
.
[MER, January 1997 - One of the usually unspoken realities
for Palestinians is the extent to which the Arafat Regime
is
now working closely with the Israeli Shinbet and the
American CIA in order to get the money and support
needed to be able to 'control' the Palestinian population.]
"ARAFAT'S 'SPOOKY ALLIANCES'..." CIA and SHINBET in Gaza
By Ian Black, THE GUARDIAN (1/22/97)
Colonel Rajoub is head of the Palestinian
Preventive Security Apparatus, and today he works with Shin Bet... It is
a delicate subject for both sides and the veil is lifted only rarely. But
on January 1, when a settler fired randomly at Palestinians in Hebron,
Col. Rajoub (Palestinian intelligence chief) and Ami Ayalon, the Shin Bet
chief, appeared together in public to impose a curfew and prevent disaster
for the town -- and the peace agreement.
"Fateh people say cynically that this
might be the only really successful part of the relationship with the Israelis,"
said Ghassan al-Khatib, a Palestinian analyst.
CIA training teams from the United States
are operating in Gaza, while Canada has supplied communications and surveillance
equipment and computers to the Palestinian agency... The European Union
recently sent a mission to assess how it too could help.
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