[IMRA: Reality does not appear to be one of the concerns of United States
security coordinator in the territories, General Keith Dayton. Israel Radio
reports that the proposal would also include an airport.]

U.S. proposal: Int'l observers, expansion at Karni crossing
By Avi Issacharoff Haaretz 28 August 2006
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/755387.html

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed in principle to station
international observers at the Karni border crossing between Israel and the
Gaza Strip.

The idea was proposed by the United States security coordinator in the
territories, General Keith Dayton, who presented a detailed proposal last
week to PA representatives and to Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

According to Dayton's proposal, a copy of which has been obtained by
Haaretz, some 90 international observers would be stationed at Karni, backed
by 30 staff assistants. In addition, the terminal - which is the main cargo
transit point between Gaza and Israel - would be expanded on both sides of
the border.

The observers would be stationed on the Palestinian side of the terminal,
and their job would be to ensure that the PA security personnel stationed
there do what is necessary to prevent terror attacks in the vicinity. The PA
personnel would be drawn mainly from PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' presidential
guard, and would receive additional equipment and training in order to
improve their performance. Currently, several different PA security services
are responsible for security at Karni.

While the observers would be European, like those already stationed at the
Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, American officials would supervise
them.

Dayton's plan calls for an investment of some $19 million to train and equip
the PA troops and expand the terminal, and he therefore intends to present
it at a conference of donor nations that assist the PA, which is slated to
take place in Sweden on September 2.

Karni is Gaza's economic lifeline. According to Salim Abu Safiyeh, the PA
official in charge of security at Gaza's border crossings, some 200,000
Gazan employees depend on Karni for their livelihood: The raw materials that
enter Gaza via Karni are essential to keep dozens of small factories
operating, and the same holds for the exports that leave Gaza through this
crossing. However, due to repeated threats of terror attacks at the
terminal, Israel has frequently shut it down, resulting in a virtual
cessation of exports and a sharp reduction in imports of raw materials.
That, said Abu Safiyeh, has been a major factor in the collapse of Gaza's
economy.

Under Dayton's plan, some 400 trucks a day would leave Gaza through the
expanded terminal, up from almost none at present.

While Abbas has agreed to the plan, Palestinian sources warned that there
are likely to be some difficulties in implementing it. For instance, they
said, the terminal's proposed expansion will require expropriating privately
owned Palestinian land, whose owners are currently abroad and therefore
difficult to locate.

Similarly, while Israeli security officials also welcomed the plan, terming
it an opportunity to both improve Gaza's economy and strengthen Abbas'
position in the Palestinian political arena, they warned that Israel will
not agree to implement it until Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was
kidnapped to Gaza in June, is released.