Thursday, December 13, 2007
Elder of ZiyonPA Civil Police commander Gen. Kamal al-Sheikh revealed that more than 600 Fatah-affiliated policemen helped Hamas take control of the Gaza Strip last June.And the other 98.2% twiddled their thumbs - and drew their salaries."Out of 13,000 policemen in the Gaza Strip, only 612 participated in the Hamas coup against the Palestinian Authority," Sheikh said during a tour of Bethlehem.
Downplaying the significance of the move, he noted that this constituted only 1.8 percent of the entire police force.
This is the first time that a senior PA security official has spoken about the involvement of Fatah-affiliated policemen in the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. Sheikh did not say what kind of role the rebellious policemen played during the coup, but pointed out that the PA leadership had dismissed them and was no longer paying them.So just to make things crystal clear: The PA is asking for $5.6 billion, much of which is to to continue paying "policemen" (and now they are adding policewomen, because clearly they don't have enough) who:The PA, which is hoping to raise $5.6 billion over the next three years at Monday's donors conference, still hasn't made enough progress in imposing law and order in the West Bank, the PA officials conceded.
They told The Jerusalem Post that despite the lack of progress, they expected the 90 countries that were scheduled to participate in the conference to approve the PA's request.
According to the officials, the PA's US-backed security plan, which was launched in the last few weeks in Nablus and Tulkarm, had failed to achieve most of its goals, largely due to the incompetence of the PA security forces.
"The security operation has not been a big success," one official said. "We arrested many wanted criminals and members of the Islamic Hizb al-Tahrir party, but we weren't able to lay our hands on many weapons."
Another official said the security operation did not target militiamen belonging to Fatah's armed groups. "These gunmen are continuing to operate freely in the refugee camps near Nablus and Tulkarm," he told the Post. "We arrested citizens who stole olive oil three years ago or fired into the air during weddings two years ago."
In addition, the PA's efforts to reform the Fatah-controlled security forces in the West Bank continued to face major obstacles, the official said, citing a lack of discipline among the ranks of the Palestinian policemen.
"We still have many officers who are involved in various crimes and corruption," he said. "We are still far from talking about real reforms in the security establishment. In the coming days we will launch a similar security operation in Bethlehem. But the real test will be in Hebron and Jenin, as well as in the refugee camps, where Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah militiamen call the shots."
The PA has also failed to make good on its pledge to cut by half the number of policemen serving in the various branches of its security forces, a number estimated at over 70,000. The PA is reluctant to fire large numbers of policemen for fear of driving them into the open arms of Hamas and other radical groups.
- don't actually do anything, or
- they are actively involved in terror,
- after they promised they would reform the security forces,
- after they fooled the US into giving them $1.3 million based on the "success" of the Nablus "crackdown,"
- after they pledged at Oslo that the number of policemen would never exceed 30,000.
And they fully expect the world to bow to their demands and throw more billions their way, because that's what the world always does.
Responsibility is apparently not a word that is in the PA's vocabulary. And why should it be? They get routinely rewarded by the Western world for inciting hate, supporting terror, lying, and breaking written agreements. Two generations of Palestinian Arabs now have no concept that there are any repercussions for acting like spoiled brats who think that the world owes them everything.
