The Prime Minister\'s Office reported that a meeting took place yesterday between General Security Service director Avi Dichter and his Palestinian Authority counterpart Amin el-Hindi. The meeting, deemed a partial resumption of security cooperation, was held at the Erez Checkpoint in Gaza. Other meetings between Israeli and Palestinian military leaders are scheduled for the coming days. A Palestinian source confirmed to Itim News Agency that a meeting would take place tonight, involving Dahlan, Rajoub, Tirawi, and other leading Palestinian terrorist leaders.
Sharon ordered that the meetings deal only with security matters, such as a possible relaxation of some of the restrictions on the Palestinian villages, and not with diplomatic matters. One of the main pillars of Sharon\'s policies is that there not be diplomatic negotiations while the violence continues.
Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman commented today that Israel \"gains little, if any, from the renewed security cooperation with the PA... Sometimes Israel even suffered from it, because we were always the one to give them information about impending attacks and the like - they never initiated information to us - and then they used it against us. That is to say, whenever we had information about some sort of terrorist activity to take place in Palestinian-controlled Area A, where our forces couldn\'t enter, we gave them the information so that they could act upon it. Sometimes they ignored the information, and sometimes they did take action and thwarted an attack - but only when they had an interest. In all the cases, however, their first concern was to find out our sources of information. They would always try to find our informants, and then they would either arrest them, or kill them, or force them to become double agents, with the resultant damage that this caused to other informants and our defense array. The PA never initiated any action in helping the anti-terrorism campaign, but only acted on what we told them.\"
Huberman concluded, \"Israel\'s true interest is not security cooperation with the Palestinians, but rather an order by Arafat to stop the shooting. He did this from Beit Jala, when the Christian world arose in an uproar against the Palestinian shooting from there to Gilo, and also regarding the attacks from Ramallah on Psagot. All he has to do is give the order.\"
Ehud Yatom, a former high-ranking GSS official who is now a top aide to Prime Minister Sharon, does not agree. He told Arutz-7 today that renewed security cooperation is important in order to give the Palestinians a chance to respond to Sharon\'s new policy: No talks without a cessation of violence. \"It is not true to say that we never gained anything from our years of security cooperation with the PA. There were ups and downs, of course, but there were times when they imprisoned terrorists, and stopped attacks, etc. For the last six months, of course, there has been nothing, and now we are attempting to renew it.\" Other commentators said that an important aspect of the \"renewal of security cooperation\" is the need to have an appearance of progress during Sharon\'s visit to the U.S.
Sharon ordered that the meetings deal only with security matters, such as a possible relaxation of some of the restrictions on the Palestinian villages, and not with diplomatic matters. One of the main pillars of Sharon\'s policies is that there not be diplomatic negotiations while the violence continues.
Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman commented today that Israel \"gains little, if any, from the renewed security cooperation with the PA... Sometimes Israel even suffered from it, because we were always the one to give them information about impending attacks and the like - they never initiated information to us - and then they used it against us. That is to say, whenever we had information about some sort of terrorist activity to take place in Palestinian-controlled Area A, where our forces couldn\'t enter, we gave them the information so that they could act upon it. Sometimes they ignored the information, and sometimes they did take action and thwarted an attack - but only when they had an interest. In all the cases, however, their first concern was to find out our sources of information. They would always try to find our informants, and then they would either arrest them, or kill them, or force them to become double agents, with the resultant damage that this caused to other informants and our defense array. The PA never initiated any action in helping the anti-terrorism campaign, but only acted on what we told them.\"
Huberman concluded, \"Israel\'s true interest is not security cooperation with the Palestinians, but rather an order by Arafat to stop the shooting. He did this from Beit Jala, when the Christian world arose in an uproar against the Palestinian shooting from there to Gilo, and also regarding the attacks from Ramallah on Psagot. All he has to do is give the order.\"
Ehud Yatom, a former high-ranking GSS official who is now a top aide to Prime Minister Sharon, does not agree. He told Arutz-7 today that renewed security cooperation is important in order to give the Palestinians a chance to respond to Sharon\'s new policy: No talks without a cessation of violence. \"It is not true to say that we never gained anything from our years of security cooperation with the PA. There were ups and downs, of course, but there were times when they imprisoned terrorists, and stopped attacks, etc. For the last six months, of course, there has been nothing, and now we are attempting to renew it.\" Other commentators said that an important aspect of the \"renewal of security cooperation\" is the need to have an appearance of progress during Sharon\'s visit to the U.S.