Two weeks ago, the Regavim movement issued a report titled, “Officers by Day, Terrorists by Night,” about the involvement of Palestinian Authority Security officers in terrorism in Judea and Samaria. The report revealed shocking data on more than 80 PA officers and policemen who were killed or arrested during or following attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers over the past three years.
Since the publication of the report, in a matter of days, two more PA security officers have been added to this despicable list: last Friday, a US-trained sharpshooter killed an IDF soldier and wounded six others in Binyamin while expertly surviving a five-hour encounter with Israeli security forces; and on Thursday, another officer of the PA security forces fired on a bus carrying dozens of schoolchildren and on private cars in the Jordan valley.
Members of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades participated in the October 7, 2023 atrocities and boasted about it on the organization’s official channels. The Fatah spokesperson posted videos of terrorists abducting Israeli victims and abusing them while wearing yellow scarves that are identified with Fatah (as opposed to the green scarves associated with Hamas).
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Thursday “We received another painful proof that Mansour Abbas’s officers are striving to murder Jews. I repeat, the PA is not the solution, it is a central component of the problem. We must change the concept and act against the PA, which encourages and finances terrorism.”
BIDEN’S IMAGINARY ARABS
On Thursday, only hours after a PA officer sprayed a bus with Israeli students with bullets, State Dept. Spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters the administration believes “a reformed PA is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people and establishing the conditions for stability in both the West Bank and Gaza. So, we will engage with this government based on its actions. We’ll be closely tracking the steps it takes to advance the key reforms and look forward to engaging with them on that matter.”
“We want to see a united West Bank and Gaza that is governed by the Palestinian people through the Palestinian Authority,” Miller reiterated, adding, “Yes, we have engaged with both the Palestinian Authority and with countries in the region about the full panoply of post-conflict issues that Gaza will face.”
You’ll notice that Miller acknowledges the fact that at the moment, the Palestinian Authority is corrupt and requires urgent reform, but as soon as they come back from rehab (28 days?), they’ll become the masters of their own state, ruling in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
“Mohammed Mustafa” became the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authorityhttps://t.co/RLTaeHXiT3
With the decree of the head of the self-governing organization, “Muhammad Mustafa” introduced his cabinet as the new prime minister of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/mBjTYNbxiU
— International News | webangah (@webangah_en) March 28, 2024
In that spirit, in mid-March, the White House issued a statement saying, “We welcome the appointment of Dr. Mohammed Mustafa as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, and we urge the formation of a reform cabinet as soon as possible. The United States will be looking for this new government to deliver on policies and implementation of credible and far-reaching reforms. A reformed Palestinian Authority is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people and establishing the conditions for stability in both the West Bank and Gaza.”
THE ILLUSION OF A DEMILITARIZED PALESTINIAN STATE
On January 19, President Joe Biden said he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about establishing an independent Palestinian state, and suggested Netanyahu agreed to a demilitarized state. When asked if the feasibility of a two-state solution was impossible during Netanyahu’s tenure, Biden responded affirmatively, stating, “No, it’s not.”
Biden stressed that Netanyahu did not oppose all the two-state solutions, and pointed to the diversity of options available. He pointed out that certain United Nations member countries lack military forces, indicating the potential for such an approach regarding a future Palestinian State the Israelis could live with.
Anchal Vohra, writing for Foreign Policy (Why a Demilitarized Palestine Won’t Work), agreed that some 40 countries and territories do not have a standing army, but noted that “The Palestinian territories are vastly different from any of these countries, as it fears an imminent threat from its own neighbor, faces disunity over what qualifies as a settlement within its own population, and is the victim of an Iranian agenda to expand its regional influence.”
Vohra added, “From the Israeli perspective, being absent on the ground in Gaza could result in another Oct. 7-like attack by insurgents who don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist.”
Bassam Tawil, writing for JNS (The illusion of a ‘demilitarized’ Palestinian state), noted that while the Biden administration “is homing in on a new doctrine involving an unprecedented push to immediately advance the creation of a ‘demilitarized’ but viable Palestinian state,” close to half a year after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, “it has become clear just how successful the Palestinian terror groups were in transforming the Gaza Strip into one of the most dangerous and militarized areas in the Middle East. The Gaza Strip is so full of weapons that, five months into the war, the Palestinian terrorists are still using rocket-propelled grenades and explosive devices to attack Israeli troops.”
Tawil says “The situation in the West Bank areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority is equally worrying. In the past few years, Iran and its terror proxies accelerated efforts to smuggle weapons into the West Bank through Jordan.”
He cites Amer al-Sabaileh, founder of a counterterrorism think tank in Amman, Jordan, who said, “Iran wants to turn Jordan into a transit area for weapons going into Israel,” and “the bulk of Iranian weapons to Palestinians go into the West Bank, particularly to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
US-TRAINED TERRORISTS
Majhad Mansur, who served in PA Chairman Mansour Abbas’s presidential guard, last Friday put his American training to use in a manner that baffled the IDF. After reaching the area above Haparsa Junction, he established four fortified positions – as his American sharpshooting instructors had taught him. When a minibus with seven IDF soldiers entered his sights, he started shooting, hopping from one position to the next, in a firefight that continued for five hours. Only after five hours did an IDF helicopter eliminate the terrorist with a missile.
لحظة إسقاط الشهيد مجاهد بركات منصور لمسيّرة إسرائيلية ببندقية قنص. pic.twitter.com/zNVScYp4EW
— يونس الزعتري #عين_على_العدو (@YounesZaatari) March 24, 2024
The Regavim report cited the spokesman for the PA security forces, General Talal Duikhat, who was attacked by an Al Jazeera reporter who accused the Palestinian Authority of not contributing enough to the struggle against the Zionist enemy, and even collaborating with him.”
Duikhat stated: “We have no goals other than to attain freedom, independence, and the establishment of the state. As a movement, Fatah and also as the security forces, for thirty years have sacrificed more than two thousand martyrs and hundreds of prisoners, including those serving life sentences.”
According to Duikhat, and also according to senior PA official Jibril Rajoub, members of the PA security forces account for 12% of all the terrorists imprisoned in Israel, the “security prisoners.”
Fatah spokesman Hassan Hamail boasted about several PA security forces officers who are in Israeli prisons, and stressed: “The security forces do not stop the fighters among the Palestinian terrorist organizations, on the contrary, it is the operatives of the security forces who are involved in the fight against the occupation.”
