The Palestinian Authority is failing to meet its obligations to fight terrorisim under the standards set forth under the US-sponsored Roadmap plan, according to the American monitoring team headed by US General William Fraser who recently arrived to measure Israel and the PA's performance of their tasks under the plan.
The US also expressed displeasure at what it considered Israel's failure to freeze construction in Judea and Samaria and dismantle outposts in the areas. However, its greatest concern was the PA's inability -- or possible, its unwillingless -- to conduct fullscale counterterrorism operations within its own territorities, including arrests, interrogations and trials of those who carry out and/or intend to carry out terror activities against Israelis.
There have been a number of incidents in which members of PA security forces -- trained, equipped and armed by the US -- have murdered Israeli citizens, including two off-duty IDF officers hiking near Hevron. In three other cases, terrorist members of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization have "escaped" their imprisonment in Shechem jails, located in a city often referred to as "terrorist central" in Judea and Samaria. Shechem was the first city in which the newly-US trained PA security force made its debut to show off its ability to fight terror within area.