Neighbors, Thursday, October 06, 2005

The High Court of Justice took three years to decide but finally handed down an order today banning the ‘neighbor practice’ used by IDF troops who would use Palestinian neighbors of suspected terrorists to ‘knock on the door’ to announce to the suspect that the army was there to arrest them. Several innocent Palestinians were killed due to the practice, which became prevalent as a method of trying to protect Israeli soldiers during the worst years of intifada, particularly in 2002 and 2003.

The court had issued a temporary injunction against the method, but there were reports in the press over the years about army units going ahead with it nonetheless. The question now is whether the court ruling today will be enforced by the army. Human rights groups that petitioned the court against the practice say they will be on guard to watch for violations and then demand the court cite the army for contempt.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Palestinian President’s Office are working out the details of the summit between Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, now slated for Tuesday – if there’s no Palestinian terrorist attack or IDF operation that kills too many people between now and then, giving each side a reason to skip the meeting.

Actually, the stakes are quite high for Abbas, who is due to meet with President Bush on October 20. He has a political crisis to deal with inside the PA – the Palestinian Legislative Council has given him two weeks to form a new government. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie’ is rumored to have suffered a heart attack and is in Jordan, recuperating. There are reports that Egypt – perhaps prompted by the Americans and Israelis – are proposing that Abbas declare a national emergency and cancel the January 20th elections for a new PLC. But Hamas is threatening to break the very tenuous cease fire if Abbas reneges on his promise to hold those elections. Meanwhile, PA police are trying to enforce the ban on public displays of weapons by Palestinians other than members of the PA armed forces. They’ve had some success, but there are many rogue cells that have their own vendettas to settle, whether with Israelis or with Palestinian officials or rivals. Discipline is tight inside Hamas, but on the fringes of it and the other groups, there are many young men with nothing to lose -- except their weapons, whether symbols of manhood or political struggle.

Nonetheless, there are reports today in Yedioth Ahronoth by the usually reliable Shimon Shiffer, lately the closest reporter to Sharon other than Yoel Marcus of Haaretz, saying that Sharon has decided to help Abu Mazin and that there will be prisoner releases, handovers of security responsibility, checkpoints will be lifted, the ‘safe passage’ – though under a different name – will be implemented between Gaza and the West Bank, and other ‘Confidence Building Measures.’

However, Army Radio’s correspondent says that Sharon will do most of the talking at the summit, with the usual demands for eradicating the terrorist infrastructure, and for Hamas to be banned from taking part in the PLC elections unless it disarms. Abbas will try to explain that disarming the Hamas is not an overnight exercise – he’ll probably point out it has taken the IRA ten years to finally give up all its arms, but that did not stop the political process from taking place in Northern Ireland – and that so far, the method of ‘mainstreaming’ the Hamas into the political arena is working – after all, there has not been a Hamas attack inside the Green Line (not counting the Qassams two weeks ago from Gaza) for months.

Speculation now, even before Sharon’s consigliore Dov Weissglas has met with Saeb Erekat to hammer out the details of the agenda for next Tuesday, is therefore an exercise in hope. Unfortunately, given the volatility in the PA, and with any teen with a gun capable of disrupting the political process, it might be an exercise in false hope. And in any cased, don’t expect ‘political negotiations’ at the summit. It’s more like a meeting between neighbors trying to clear the air between them after a nasty exchange.

More news from today || Yesterday's situation (Archive)

© Today's Situation From Ariga, http://www.ariga.com by Robert Rosenberg; Feel free to pass this page on, including this line: Subscribe to get it daily by email -- or unsubscribe -- at http://www.ariga.com/signup.shtml >>>>>>>>>>RSS Feed

Feed Shark

Today's Situation || Yesterday's Situation