Weekly Commentary: PA reunification: Israel should focus on the missiles

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 24 November 2011

Fact: There are huge quantities of weapons in the Gaza Strip both prohibited
by the Oslo agreements and utterly inconsistent with the kind of
“demilitarized” state a broad consensus of supporters of Palestinian
independence around the world have in mind.

Fact: None of the relevant “actors” – Palestinian and foreign – deny the
presence of literally hundreds and thousands of various rockets, missiles,
etc. in the Gaza Strip. If anything many of the Palestinian and Arab actors
are quite proud of the impressive array of weapons deployed today in the
Gaza Strip.

Fact: The moment that the West Bank and Gaza Strip reunify, the Palestinian
Authority will be directly responsible to respond to the presence of this
massive violation of both the agreements with Israel and the
demilitarization that the world ostensibly insists on for a Palestinian
state.

So far Israeli remarks about reunification have focused on concerns
regarding the participation of Hamas in the PA government.

The problem with this approach is that the daily activity of a reunified PA
government could be fairly innocuous. After all, the daily activity of a
government is generally focused on collecting garbage, handing out parking
tickets and dealing with the myriad of other civil matters any governing
authority faces.

In the absence of some specific performance benchmarks, the world could
easily be lulled into accepting the legitimacy of a reunified PA with Hamas
participation.

If Israel raises the weapons issue now as a performance benchmark/litmus
test for a reunified PA and presses others in the world to do the same we
have a serious chance to get some key players in the world to embrace this
requirement.

On the other hand, if Israeli officials only get around to demanding action
against the rockets, missiles, etc. after reunification takes place, it
will be perceived to be more a “debater’s point” than a serious argument and
will be treated as such.

Now is the time for Israel to make clear that it is absolutely unacceptable
for these weapons to remain in a Gaza Strip that is under the rule of a body
that claims international legitimacy and even seeks recognition as an
independent state.

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