Weekly Commentary: The grave mistake of rewarding Palestinian noncompliance

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 23 October 2008

"In an effort to maintain momentum on the ground in the absence of a peace
deal with the Palestinians, Defense Minister Ehud Barak has drawn up a plan
under which Palestinian security forces would take control of several key
West Bank cities during the coming year.

The "Jenin model".a US-Israeli initiative in Jenin to gradually transfer
security control of the city to the Palestinians. has received much praise
from the IDF, although officers in the Central Command stress that while
Palestinian security forces are effectively restoring law and order in
Jenin, they have yet to noticeably crack down on local terror elements."

Israel to give PA control of more cities
Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post 19 October, 2008
www.jpost.com
/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017577368&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

That's right. The Palestinians may be doing a fantastic job directing
traffic and maybe reducing domestic crime in the cities they have taken
control of, but they have not "noticeably" fought terror.

And so the reward for not fighting terror is that Israel will make it easier
for the terrorists to operate - and give them more cities where they can
operate in under the cover of the PA security forces.

So why do it?

"In an effort to maintain momentum on the ground .."

Been there. Done that.

It's the story of Oslo.

Foregoing Palestinian compliance for the sake of "momentum."

In the early days of Oslo, the American Congress linked the transfer of U.S.
funds to the PA to Palestinian compliance. And so, for the sake of
"momentum", the Clinton administration regularly lied to Congress, in
writing, in reports proclaiming that the PA was complying with Oslo.

And with few exceptions, Israeli authorities tended to do the same.

Fighting terror is a necessary condition for durable progress.

Rewarding noncompliance undermined any chance that Oslo might succeed.

The incredibly dangerous lowering of the bar for the PA security forces
today will inevitably doom the project to failure.

And at a high cost to all concerned.

Those pushing to reward Palestinian noncompliance for the sake of "momentum"
may think that they are "friends of peace" but the opposite is the case.

They are actually "friends of chaos".

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