IDF Commander: Arafat, PA still in control of territories
By Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondent
GOC of the IDF's central command, Yitzhak Eitan, said Wednesday afternoon that the Palestinian Authority was still functioning and was in control of the West Bank despite Israel's Operation Defensive Shield.
Eitan told reporters that "throughout the territories... {PA Chairman Yasser] Arafat's orders are adhered to." Eitan added that "this was proved during the negotiations over the standoff at the Church of the Nativity where an agreement was only reached with Arafat's approval."
Eitan also said that since Defensive Shield drew to an end three weeks ago, 20 Palestinians have been arrested on their way to carry out suicide attacks inside Israel.
Despite this belief that the Arafat is still in control of the territories, IDF sources said Tuesday that criticism of Arafat by Palestinians is now far harsher than it has ever been since the PA was established in 1994.
Nevertheless, they said, this criticism does not appear to pose a serious threat to Arafat's rule.
The sources noted that the criticism, which they attributed to the effects of Defensive Shield, is now more open than ever before, and can even be heard at the highest levels of the PA. In addition, it is coming from several different directions: The Islamic movements object to Arafat's call for a temporary halt to suicide bombings; various political organizations denounced his consent to the imprisonment of the murderers of former minister Rehavam Ze'evi and to the deportation of gunmen holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity; and the general public holds him responsible for large scale destruction caused by Defensive Shield in the West Bank.
Arafat's tour of several West Bank cities on Monday was a failure, the sources said, with only a few hundred people turning out to great him. In the Jenin refugee camp, Hamas and Fatah activists threatened not to let the city's governor enter the camp during Arafat's planned visit, on the grounds that he had fled to Jordan during the IDF assault. As a result, Arafat canceled the visit. |
