So much for two states living side by side in peace. The Palestinians are demanding a militarized “Palestine.” Gee. Whomever would they need to use that army on, I wonder?
Despite previous understandings that a future Palestinian state would be demilitarized, Ynet has learned that in talks held behind closed doors, the top negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, Ahmed Qureia, is demanding the establishment of a regular army.
High-level Israeli and Palestinian officials confirmed the newly revealed developments on Monday night.
According to the information obtained by Ynet, the new and surprising demand first emerged as the negotiations teams sat down in Jerusalem last Sunday to discuss security arrangements. Qureia told Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni that the Palestinian state would require a regular army to defend itself.
Livni, though perplexed by the sudden demand, made clear that all previous accords specifically spoke of a demilitarized Palestinian state. A senior Israeli source said that Livni sought to clarify if perhaps Qureia had meant a Palestinian police force, but the latter was reiterated that it was a proper regular army the PA was after.
Watch for the rest of the world to shrug and say “Of course. It’s only natural that a state should have an army.” Watch for it.
A very senior Palestinian source close to Qureia confirmed the exchange. “At the meeting in question we raised the demand for a regular army, meant to defend the independent state,” he told Ynet.
“This isn’t an army intended to launch an attack against Israel. We are not asking for F-16 jets but rather a force that would be able to defend the nation from threat and realize its basic right to exist in security.”
I’m thinking George W. Bush’s insistence on a peace deal by the end of the year is a pipe dream. Of course, I thought that even before I read about this, but hey—I’m a realist. And frankly, I’m rather happy the Pals are insisting on an army. Because even Olmert isn’t foolish enough to let that one get past him. So there’s no chance of being bulldozed into a final status agreement when the Palestinians have yet to end the incitement and Jew-hatred by their government offices. Not to mention terrorism against Israel.
And this was always an issue through the 90’s, the PA had something like 50,000 men under arms even though Oslo demanded that they not exceed 12,000 or so.
Plus the PA is asking for night vision goggles and armored personnel carriers, not usually considered police equipment. Barak, amazingly, apparently agreed to the transfer of such military grade equipment.
“Now, now,” said the Israeli, “you guys don’t need an army. Cause if anybody attacks you Zahal will come to the rescue. And Zahal is a much better army than any army you could raise. And if you don’t attack Israel you’ll have nothing to fear from us. And if you think we are going to let you have tanks and other heavy weapons, when your “Palestinian Covenant” calls for Israel’s destruction, and you can place them where Israel is less than 20 kilometers wide, you’re delusional. In any case the typical Muslim method of warmaking today, and most especially the Palestinian Arab method, is the indiscriminate murder of civilians by terrorists, and you certainly don’t need a regular army for that.”