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Monday, January 17, 2005
Rejecting the "Payroll Solution" for Illegal Palestinian Militias

Rejecting the "Payroll Solution" for Illegal Palestinian Militias

Aaron Lerner Date: 17 January 2005

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas is reported to have given orders today for
members of the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades be incorporated into the PA
security services. Members of other illegal militias are expected to be put
on the payroll in the future.

Will the world community insist that the Palestinians actually disarm and
break up the illegal militias or will it succumb to the temptation to
achieve instant compliance by simply putting them all on the PA payroll?

Palestinian officials have consistently embraced this "payroll solution", a
program that would result in not only keeping the terrorists armed and well
fed but also provide them with the opportunity to increase their influence
on the ostensibly professional Palestinian security forces.

After all, senior Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim
terrorists aren't going to come in as buck privates - they will be officers.
And the men they bring in, steeped in both ideological fervor and basking in
the glory of past battles, will have no trouble turning the PA security
forces into a wing of Hamas/ al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades/Tanzim.

Egypt also strongly supports this approach in Gaza with a minor twist: it
wants to build up a political conglomerate from all Palestinians streams in
Gaza that will take responsibility for security matters. Under the Egyptian
plan the various illegal militias don't even have to formally shed their
affiliations for the sake of appearance as they unite under a joint command
and draw salaries and arm with even more weapons financed by the
international community.

If the purpose of the exercise is to put a check mark on the Palestinian's
Road Map "Do List" in order to move on to the creation of a sovereign
Palestinian terror state in temporary borders then the "payroll solution" is
the way to go.

But if one is serious about the Road Map requirements these gunmen have to
be disarmed and their organizations broken up. Period.

That doesn't mean that the international community can't help assist in
providing gainful employment for the disarmed militiamen. The opposite is
the case. In fact, perhaps one of the greatest contributions the London
Conference could make would be to formulate a program to insure that these
tens of thousands of illegal militiamen are satisfactorily integrated and
absorbed into the civilian working force.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

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