On Wednesday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met with Mohammed Dahlan. On July 6, when they met face to face for the first time, Dahlan surprised Mofaz and for the first time presented his conception and “90 day plan” for uprooting terrorist elements from organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He sat and read to the minister his plan from a notebook. He said that he planned to conduct searches in homes, confiscate illegal weapons, arrest armed men walking the streets. He spoke about stopping the production of Kassam rockets and explosives, and dealing with smuggling. He spoke about arresting people who train terror activists. He spoke about putting on trial wanted men who operate against the PA policy, including the most senior wanted men. He promised to stop funding for Hamas, to deal with the “dawa”, the Hamas social infrastructure,and to replace inciteful preachers in the mosques.

This was a serious plan, which could have allowed Israel to meet the PA halfway with the feeling that there was a serious security official on the other side of the barricade.

However, to Mofaz, as to the GSS people, this plan, for some reason, sounded familiar. It looked like Dahlan had pulled out his notebooks from 1995, when he was the commander of the Preventive Security Service in Gaza. The same paragraphs, the same promises. But the defense minister made the decision that we must give this plan a chance anyhow. And indeed there were several signs of things beginning to be done, which quickly melted away.

When Dahlan was asked by the Americans whether he was blocking funds to Hamas, he threw around numbers. When the GSS, ever so superficially, checked the numbers, they found that nothing had been done. The Saudis, who swore not to support terror and that they would stop sending money directly to Hamas, continue to transfer, by means of Saudi charity institutions, USD 14 million annually, directly into Hamas bank accounts in the territories.

It is difficult for Dahlan to deal with the Saudi money. He himself hosted, about two months ago, a Saudi delegation, headed by an influential Saudi prince. Everything in order to strengthen his position, nothing connected to the elimination of the terror infrastructure.

Colonel Tirawi, commander of General Intelligence in the West Bank, doesn’t do much either. In once case he reported to the Americans about arresting terrorists whom he himself sent… Sometimes he announces the discovery of a bomb here or there, according to information coming from Israel. As for arrests and trials, forget it.

The GSS, as per promises made to the Americans as part of the cease-fire agreement, relays information to the Palestinians about developments regarding terror attacks. Most of the information remains on paper. The Palestinians are also supposed to relay information that which could help thwart terror attacks. The information that arrives is marginal.

At his request, chief US monitor John Wolf receives from Israel, once a week, a report about what was done and what was not done. He requested such a report from the Palestinians as well, which he has not yet received. In the meantime, he is buried in a bureaucratic sea of correspondence. He has to report to the State Department, the White House, some of his people write reports to the CIA. Altogether the contribution of the American monitoring is not yet felt in the field.

On Wednesday Mofaz began the “braking stage” in Israeli gestures towards the Palestinians. This was no longer a talk about clarifying intentions. Mofaz asked for a report from Dahlan. Dahlan responded that the 90-day plan would begin working according to its own pace and conditions and that Israel should not interfere. Everything was said in good spirits, there was no confrontation. But the defense minister began to block: Kalkilya will not be transferred in the meantime to the PA. As for the other cities requested by Dahlan, such as Ramallah, he was told that the subject would be brought up in the security establishment.

At internal Defense Ministry discussions, Mofaz told the heads of the various departments that should the cease-fire collapse, his policy would be not to return to the parameters of military operations on the eve of the hudna, i.e., thwarting, capturing territory, curfew, closure, etc. That’s over. If the cease-fire collapses and we face much stronger terror infrastructures, Israel will bring down the PA. The PA will end its historical role and no longer be a player in the arena.

In the same internal discussions, the defense minister said that if within a number of weeks the PA does not carry out real steps to stop and dismantle Hamas and Islamic Jihad infrastructures, Israel will not enter any negotiations about implementing the middle stage, i.e., the establishment of a Palestinian state in temporary borders. Moreover: Israel, in coordination with the US, will carry out moves that will make it possible to apply pressure on the PA. For instance: The IDF will again deal with the matter of smuggling from the tunnels in Rafah. In other words, the army will return to Rafah…

Top Israeli security officials have the feeling that we are again going to play the role of “regional sucker.” That everyone has fallen in love with this hudna, including the Americans, and that it has become a substitute for the real dismantling of the terror infrastructures.

Abu Mazen and Dahlan are making an effort to sell the version that goes: The calm which we have created in the field will eventually lead to much greater international support for the PA. The PA will be strengthened as a result of this support, and then it will be able to deal with the terror infrastructures with the aid of the Palestinian street. Israeli officials claim that this is a theoretical version, which has not proved itself up to now.

This article an in the August 1st issue of the Yediot Aharonot

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR