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Israeli Army Calls to Strengthen Palestinian Authority

Fears that security situation could deteriorate further

Days after Secretary of State John Kerry left the region after failing to win any Israeli concessions to the Palestinians, the Israeli army is urging the government to strengthen the Palestinian Authority (PA) by providing more weapons and releasing Palestinian prisoners.

An unnamed senior military Israeli official was quoted in several Israeli newspapers as saying that the army is concerned about the possible disintegration of the Palestinian Authority and an end to security cooperation with Israel. The officer said that if violence increases, it could spread anarchy throughout the West Bank.

The army official said most of the attackers who have killed 22 Israelis and a Palestinian in the past two months are “lone wolves” and that the current wave of violence is a “limited uprising.” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called it a “wave of terror” with “roots in anti-Semitism.” One hundred Palestinians have also died, some of them attackers and others in clashes with the Israeli army.

The army’s recommendations were apparently made several months ago, and will now have to be revisited, Israeli military sources said. The recommendations include providing light weapon and bullet-proof vehicles to the Palestinian Authority’s security forces. That would enable them to enter Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank to deal with armed gangs that continue to reject the authority of the PA. The army is also calling to allow Palestinians to export directly from the West Bank to factories in Israel and to increase the number of permits given to workers to come into Israel to work. The army even called on the government to allow more Palestinians to legally build homes in Area C, the 60 percent of the West Bank this is under sole Israeli control, and where all the Jewish communities are built.

These are exactly the kinds of gestures that Kerry asked Netanyahu to grant this week in their meetings. Netanyahu’s response was the same as that of the Israeli army.

“As long as the violence continues there is no room for change,” an Israeli security source told The Media Line. “The recommendations reported have been discussed over recent months.”

Palestinian officials said that even if these suggestions were adopted, they still would not be enough to change the climate between Israelis and Palestinians.

“First of all this is only a leaked document and not an official statement,” Xaiver Abu Eid, the spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told The Media Line. “In any case this is far short of what is needed. We need a political horizon that talks about ending the occupation (of the West Bank and Gaza Strip).

He said that the attackers are exercising their right to demonstrate against the Israeli occupation, and that no Palestinian officials can stop them without progress towards renewing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Despite the past two months of violence, Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation has continued as usual. Israeli and Palestinian security officials continue to meet frequently, and Palestinians try to stop any planned attacks on Israelis. Israelis who wander into Area A of the West Bank (the 18 percent that is under full Palestinian control) are rescued by Palestinian security officers and returned unharmed to Israel.

“Israel does not believe that Abbas is an active supporter of terrorism – he’s not (Yasser) Arafat,” Jonathan Rynhold, a security expert at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University told The Media Line. “Israel benefits from the security cooperation and the Israeli army wants it to continue.”

The wave of current attacks, in which young people, many of them teenagers, are grabbing kitchen knives and heading out to attack Israelis, knowing they will almost certainly be seriously wounded or killed in the process, shows the depths of the frustration that many young Palestinians feel.

The current violence is still limited, says Rynhold and others, but could spread. The Israeli army tries to limit casualties at demonstrations, knowing that can increase anger and lead to more attacks. Many Palestinians already believe that Israeli soldiers have responded to the attacks with disproportional force. Many on the street also say that some of the alleged attackers did not have knives, and that Israeli security personnel planted weapons at the scene — all claims that Israel sharply rejects.

The Israeli army source told reporters that the army expects the current violence to continue for about two months. The stabbing attacks have left Israelis feeling unsettled, with many carrying pepper spray in case of an attack.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Israel will complete a high-tech smart fence in the south to stop attackers from the West Bank area of Hebron. Israel has been building a barrier in and around the West Bank for a decade, but gaps still exist. The terrorist who stabbed four Israelis in the town of Kiryat Gat on Saturday reportedly came through the fence.

“We are aware of a problem with the fence,” Ya’alon said. “We intend to build a more massive fence similar to the fence on the Egyptian border. It’ll take a little time but it will happen.”