Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has chosen the PA-controlled Samarian city of Shechem to prove his security forces can restrain terrorism.
PA security forces plan to take control of the city at the beginning of November, when 500 officers will join Shechem’s existing PA force. Only PA personnel will be allowed to walk the streets with weapons, according to PA sources.
The city, known as the “terrorist capital of Israel,” has been the scene of countless counter-terrorism operations by IDF soldiers. Fugitives and other terrorists have been arrested and weapons caches and bomb factories are discovered almost daily in Shechem, as well as in nearby Jenin, which shares the “terrorist capital” title.
U.S. Middle East envoy Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has been training the PA security forces, backed by equipment purchased with American dollars. Dayton toured the city Thursday and encouraged Abbas, saying “This is where the Palestinian state will have its first real test.” He added that proving the PA’s ability to maintain security would show Abbas “is serious about law and order.”
Israel is not confident that Abbas will be able to manage the task, however, regardless of what his intentions might be. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev commented that “The Palestinian leadership today is not capable of implementing its obligations to rein in these [terrorist] groups.”
The Associated Press (AP) reported that a Fatah terrorist who had handed in his weapon as part of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s amnesty program still teaches his six-year-old son how to shoot an M-16 semi-automatic rifle.
Mehdi Abu Ghazleh, of the Fatah-sponsored Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, told the AP that 200 of its members kept other weapons while handing over one weapon each as part of Israel’s amnesty program several months ago.
PA Plans to Blame Israel If Security Forces Fail
The PA has already charged that Israel is preventing it from controlling terror in the area. PA officials also allege that 90 percent of the 3,000 police officers who are to be deployed do not have rifles with which to carry out their assignments.
Jamal Muheisen, responsible for administering the Shechem district, said that Israel’s counter-terrorist activities in the area have made it difficult to disarm Fatah operatives.
Fatah gunmen seriously wounded an IDF soldier and lightly wounded a second person on Wednesday near the Samarian Jewish city of Ariel, several miles west of Shechem.
Rival Hamas terrorists pose a major problem for the PA as well. Referring to Hamas's violent takeover of Gaza, spokesman Mushir a-Masri accused Abbas of having an “American Zionist agenda,” warning that “the Gaza scenario will be copied” in Judea and Samaria if the PA continues its crackdown.
Hamas terror leader Sheikh Maher Kharas told the AP “We can hide, or keep the weapons buried under the dirt for a while, but then we will rise again.”