Quantities of homemade explosives were found in homes and mosques in Qalqiliya, a city in the northern West Bank, on Saturday, according to Palestinian Authority security services spokesperson Adnan Dmeiri.Today:
He also insisted that the Palestinian Authority will not allow manufacturing and storing of explosives in residential neighborhoods, whatever the justification, because it endangers residents’ lives.
Dmeiri did not name any particular faction thought to be responsible for storing the explosives, however, he highlighted that statements were found near the explosives bearing the signature of Hamas’ militant wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. He claimed that the statements included defamation against the Palestinian Authority.
A military court sentenced a Hamas militants in Nablus sentenced to one and a half years for possession of weapons and planning 'of a coup against the Palestinian Authority' in the West Bank.So when you read things about how Hamas is willing to (temporarily) accept a peace plan engineered by the PA, keep in mind that they are planning to do to the West Bank what they did to Gaza, and that the PA is likely to be nearly as ineffective next time as it was last time.
(It is worthwhile to note that the PA did not feel threatened by the explosives found in the first story quoted - they assume that those are earmarked against Israel, and their concern was more for safety issues than for worries about a Hamas coup.)
In the Palestinian Arab universe, very few are passionate about Fatah - but many are passionate about Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups. Decades of indoctrination against Israel and Jews have resulted in a profound ambivalence about any peace process, and even PA television glorifies "resistance" and not peace. Gaza became a terror statelet because popular passion was on Hamas' side, and even though a large number of Gazans were ambivalent and nervous about Hamas, they weren't keen on the Fatah government either - the only pro-Fatah passion being for the the Fatah al-Aqsa Brigades terrorists.
The billions that the West is pouring into the PA (most of which indirectly helps Hamas anyway) is money that is backing an ephemeral pseudo-government that will ultimately fall to Islamic extremists.