Israel Backs U.S. Plan To Arm Pro-Abbas Forces

16Apr07

From the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz:

‘Diplomatic sources on Sunday said Israel supports the implementation of the Dayton plan for the training and arming of the Palestinian Presidential Guard, loyal to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas…

The sources said Dayton had procured a $59-million budget for two main objectives. The first of these is reinforcement of the Presidential Guard with additional weapons, ammunition, equipment, training and funds. The second is to secure the Palestinian side of the Karni Crossing, which is the lifeline of the economy in the Gaza Strip…

Egypt and Jordan have agreed to train the 1,500 soldiers of the Presidential Guard, most of whom are to be deployed in the Gaza Strip. Arab countries from the Persian Gulf have agreed to provide additional funding for the plan.The guard already received an initial shipment of assault rifles from Egypt several months ago. The sources noted that Abbas had promised Olmert that the soldiers of the guard will be deployed along the Philadelphi Route in Rafah, in an attempt to foil arms smuggling from Sinai into the Gaza Strip.’

For more on the rationale behind this policy, see this article from the same paper last October:

‘Israeli sources say that the United States is interested in the fall of the Hamas government currently in power in the Palestinian Authority…‘During the Quartet meeting in London, the Americans expressed their satisfaction with the results of the boycott of Hamas’ government, which has undermined its standing among the Palestinians…

‘However, the U.S. administration is also certain that the sanctions against Hamas will inevitably result in a violent confrontation between Hamas and Fatah, and in such a scenario, they would prefer to strengthen the “good guys” headed by Abbas’,

and my post here.


Filed under: Israeli / Palestinian, News and politics, US   |  4 Comments
Tags: , ,

4 Responses to “Israel Backs U.S. Plan To Arm Pro-Abbas Forces”  

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address
  1. 1 balkanbalkan on April 16, 2007 said:

    Well, for Israel and US Hamas is terrorist organization, isn’t it? Nothing should surprise us when US policy towards Middle East is concerned!

  2. 2 Jamie Stern-Weiner on April 17, 2007 said:

    Indeed, it is almost certain that some of the money and weapons that have been given to Abbas have found their way into the hands of members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, who are even more extreme than Hamas.

  3. 3 Narvir on April 19, 2007 said:

    Looks like you’re heading for the big 50,000 hits! Well done :) ! I thought this was gonna be one of those month long kinda sites, but once again you proved me wrong you bastard ;)

  4. 4 Jamie Stern-Weiner on April 19, 2007 said:

    Thanks – yeh, I’ve been pleased with it (‘though I passed 50,000 a while ago). A month? I’ll keep writing ’till there’s world peace and love and stuff, man – and not a minute less.


Leave a Reply