Defense Minister Ehud Barak will receive the IDF's plan to remove anti-terror checkpoints throughout Judea/Samaria, in accordance with Prime Minister Olmert's desires - but the IDF itself objects to the idea.
The Central Command drew up the plan, and will submit it to Barak Tuesday afternoon.
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who arrives in Israel Tuesday in yet another attempt to prod along the talks to form an Arab state in Judea and Samaria, has long demanded that Israel remove checkpoints in the region. Prime Minister Olmert, as well, has long talked of his desire to "prop up" Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas via such gestures as removing anti-terrorist checkpoints.
However, of late, leading IDF officers and Shabak (General Security Service) personnel have been dropping public hints as to the inadvisability of this idea. "Anything that could have been removed has been removed already," one was quoted as saying. "They are all necessary for the prevention of repeated attempts to move terrorists and arms from one place to another within Judea and Samaria."
Government sources, as well, have said that the very request to remove checkpoints is a "distortion of reality," in that it implies that some checkpoints were put in place for no genuine reason - which is totally untrue.
Checkpoint soldiers have thwarted an untold number of terrorist attacks over the years.
The Central Command's plan attempts to minimize the dangers by recommending the removal of some 10-20 checkpoints in several stages, with a review of the situation on the ground between each stage.
Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman reported last week that in a year-end briefing and review, a "senior Central Command officer" said, "No additional checkpoints can be removed... I see no possibility of granting security responsibility to the Palestinian Authority in any city in Judea and Samaria..." He said the Fatah military organs operate against civilian Hamas institutions, but not against the terror organs of Hamas.