NYT reports on the Roadmap, aka 'Peace Process with Terrorism':
U.S. Eases Demand for Palestinians to Curb Militants
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 — The Bush administration has backed away from demands that the Palestinian Authority dismantle militant groups immediately, concerned that the authority's security forces are too weak at this point to carry out a speedy crackdown, administration officials said today.
The officials said that as a result of the changed thinking about Palestinian abilities, they had come to accept the cease-fire that the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, negotiated last month with Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
In June, when the cease-fire was negotiated, it was belittled by Israeli and American officials as a poor substitute for tough actions against militants. Lately, as attacks on Israelis have declined ["only" 167 attacks in July -nsc] and support for Mr. Abbas among Palestinians seems to have grown, Americans have changed their tone.
"Both sides now think the cease-fire is a good idea and the early Israeli skepticism has changed," a senior administration official said, referring to Israeli and Palestinian positions. He said one advantage of the cease-fire was to give Mr. Abbas time to build up and consolidate his security forces for a campaign against militant groups.
The cease-fire is supposed to last only three months. The United States is urging Israel to improve conditions in Palestinian areas so there would be overwhelming popular pressure in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to continue the cease-fire for at least another three months.
Conditioned helplessless is so f--king useful for the Palestinians, why should they ever give it up? They've got everyone trained. While simply getting the two sides to 'unclench' might have beneficial effects in lessening support for the intifada, it also definitely gives Hamas et al time to regroup and rearm, which naturally they are using. Since they have no interest in a long-term cease-fire, it is in their interest to restart the intifada, particularly if they see their support eroding. When fighting's going on, Palestinians support the fighters. Period. It's some sort of automatic reaction with them, I think it's a conditioned tribal response; not supporting the fighters = traitor = death sentence.
nytimes.com |
