[Dr Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Great idea. That way when things fall apart - and
they will - the Palestinians will be in a better position to murder more
Israelis. Dayton doesn't want to more step by step and pick a model village
for the PA to first handle and bring to his ideal state of control etc.
After his phenomenal success in flooding Gaza with weapons that ultimately
became a gift to Hamas he wants to repeat himself in the West Bank.
And now, the joke of the day:
During her meeting with the U.S. congressmen, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
presented the "red lines" on which Israel is unwilling to compromise. These
include the issue of Palestinian refugees returning to territory inside
Israel, and ensuring that the Palestinian state will not become a terrorist
entity.
Israel is unwilling to compromise on "ensuring that the Palestinian state
will not become a terrorist entity"?
The only way to do that is by not having a sovereign Palestinian state. But
Livni insists that there should be one.]
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U.S. coordinator plans 5 new Palestinian battalions in W. Bank
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 03:15 30/08/2007
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/899120.html
A new plan by the U.S. security coordinator in the territories, General
Keith Dayton, calls for the deployment of five new Palestinian battalions
throughout the West Bank.
The plan, whose aim is to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas, requires the approval of Israel if arms and equipment are to be
transferred for the new force, political sources in Jerusalem said
Wednesday.
The plan, which is still in its early development, is likely to call for the
staged creation of the force, with relatively small units undergoing the
necessary training.
Last week, the U.S. Congress authorized for the first time the transfer of
$80 million to the security delegation headed by Dayton, which will be used
to bolster the security forces of Abbas. No funding has ever before been
transferred to Dayton, and the money will now allow him to carry out his
plans.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that he would like to conclude a
single-page agreement of principles with Palestinian Authority Chairman
Mahmoud Abbas. The agreement would offer a political horizon for moderate
Palestinians, and at the same time avoid details that would cause a
political crisis that would derail the diplomatic process.
Earlier this week, Olmert met with a visiting American congressional
delegation headed by Gary Ackerman (D-NY), and brought them up to date on
his meetings with Abbas.
"The question is whether we will be able to carry out some of the
understandings we will reach," Olmert said. "I believe that we want and can
make decisions, but the Palestinians have a number of groups, they have no
stable democracy, and there is uncertainty about the government and their
institutions. I hope we can reach understandings on basic issues, but the
implementation will be carried out on the basis of the road map."
Olmert said that the understandings will be "far reaching, so that Abu Mazen
[Abbas] will not lose the moderates, but sufficiently moderate so that no
mines [sensitive issues] explode. I will propose reasonable and positive
views that Abu Mazen will be able to take, and which will be accepted by
Palestinian public opinion and Israeli public opinion. We will not push him
toward any declarations that will be good at noon and cause us to lose
everything by evening."
In the prime minister's view, the main goal of the international summit
scheduled to take place in Washington in November is to include Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates in the diplomatic process, in an effort to
broaden the Arab world's support for Abbas.
"I do not need to travel to Washington in order to meet Abu Mazen," Olmert
told the visiting Congressmen. "We meet here. The focus of the effort in the
international summit will be to include elements that to date have not been
part of the process."
During her meeting with the U.S. congressmen, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
presented the "red lines" on which Israel is unwilling to compromise. These
include the issue of Palestinian refugees returning to territory inside
Israel, and ensuring that the Palestinian state will not become a terrorist
entity.
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