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| Middle East |
| Egypt security plan for Gaza is back on... |
| 2002-07-17 |
| Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported an Israeli pilot programme to ease restrictions on the Gaza Strip in exchange for an end to "terrorist" attacks there. The plan was put forward by Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer Monday during his meeting in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who told him he supported the plan. "The Gaza Strip will be a test for the Palestinians," Yediot quoted Ben Eliezer as saying, adding that if the plan was successful, it would be applied to areas in the West Bank. The newspaper said Egypt had pledged its support to the programme and would send its intelligence chief Omar Soleiman to the Gaza Strip to contribute to its implementation and help restart negotiations between the two sides. Egypt is pretty obviously wobbling on this issue, which lends credence to the idea that the Hamas-in-the-toaster story may be based in fact. It's not something to be undertaken lightly. Hosni probably can't figure out whether he wants to do it or not, because there are risks — and benefits — both ways... The newspaper Haaretz said that under the plan Israeli troops would respond to a significant reduction in violence by pulling back to positions occupied before the Palestinian uprising broke out in September 2000. Egypt would help train and supervise Palestinian security forces, which would be unified under a single command, the newspaper said. I'd be real happy to see Paleostinian "security forces" just go away completely. I'm still trying to figure out just what it is that they're "securing." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |