Rice To Promote Palestinian State

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, taking her seat prior to testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday, will be promoting a sovereign Palestinian state during her visit to the Middle East next week. Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will arrive in the Middle East early next week, is promoting a new initiative to establish a temporary, sovereign and armed Palestinian state. Rice will try to promote her initiative soon through extensive international shuttle diplomacy, which will include Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf states. Her journey is to begin on Sunday, and she is expected to arrive in Jerusalem on Monday.

Rice’s initiative will circumvent the first step of the Middle East Road map that she herself pioneered in May 2003. That first step required that the leaders of the Palestinian Authority must first disband and disarm all Palestinian terrorist groups – some of which remain under the command of and loyalty to Mahmoud Abbas.

The Rice initiative was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting between Egyptian President Hosnai Mubarak and King Abdullah II of Jordan. That meeting took place in Cairo.

Meanwhile, over the past few weeks, the United States has provided 7,000 assault rifles and more than 1 million rounds of ammunition to militias associated with Fatah, which is commanded by Palestinian Authority president Abbas, even though the armed wing of Fatah, the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades, is defined under US law as an FTO – a Foreign terror organization. The Bush administration will provide $86.4 million to strengthen security forces loyal to Abbas, including Force 17, Abbas’ security detail, which also serves as de facto police units in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

The U.S. rationale in providing arms to Fatah is to aid that party in its rivalry with Hamas, also defined under U.S. law as a terrorist organization. U.S. government officials confirmed the financial aid is set to be transferred to Fatah.

The American government expectation remains that a multi-million-dollar grant will be used to “assist the Palestinian Authority presidency in fulfilling PA commitments under the Road Map (peace plan) to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and establish law and order in the West Bank and Gaza,” according to a U.S. government document.

However, Abu Yousuf, one of the commanders of Fatah’s “Force 17,” told Aaron Klein, bureau chief of the World Net Daily online news service, that while some of the weapons may be used in confrontations against Hamas, the bulk of the American arms would be utilized to “hit the Zionists.” Some members of Force 17 are also openly members of the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades.

Abu Yousuf declared that because there is a major conflict with Israel, U.S. weapons provided to Fatah may be shared with other “Palestinian resistance organizations.”

Abu Yousuf said some of the U.S. weapons his group received would be used against Hamas.

“The first place of these U.S. weapons will be to defend the Palestinian national project, which is reflected by the foundation of the Palestinian Authority. If Hamas or any other group under the influence of Iran and Syria wants to make a coup de etat against our institution, these weapons are there to defend the PA,” said Abu Yousuf.

“We don’t want to go to civil war with Hamas, because this is what both the U.S. and Israel want. This is our last option. We hope our brothers in Hamas won’t oblige us to find ourselves in confrontation,” Abu Yousuf said.

But the Fatah militant said the new American weapons may also be used to target Israelis.

He admitted previous American arms supplied to Fatah were used in “resistance operations” against the Jewish state.

“If Israel will deliver what it promised to Abu Mazen (Abbas), [meaning a] withdrawal from Palestinian lands, including east Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, remove all the checkpoints in the West Bank, release our prisoners, and find a clear solution for our refugees, we’ll control our forces and the distribution of weapons.

“But if Israel doesn’t deliver, and we find ourselves manipulated by Israel, we cannot guarantee members of the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades and Force 17 will not use these weapons against Israel. Our goal is to change the occupation,” said Abu Yousuf.

“It’s unnatural to think these American weapons won’t be used against the Israelis,” he added.

The Al-Aksa Brigades, together with Islamic Jihad, has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv in April that killed American teenager Daniel Wultz and nine Israelis. The Brigades also has carried out scores of deadly shooting and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in recent months.

All Brigades leaders are also members of Fatah. Abbas last June appointed senior Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades leader Mahmoud Damra as commander of Force 17. Damra, who was arrested by Israel in November, was on the Jewish state’s most-wanted list of terrorists.

Abu Yousuf said the American weapons shipments may be shared with other Palestinian terror groups. He said that during large confrontations with Israel, such as the Jewish state’s 2002 anti-terror raid in Jenin, Fatah distributed weapons to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

There are precedents for Hamas-Fatah cooperation in sharing military equipment, from the earliest days of the Oslo process.

In May 1995, the commanders of the Fatah formally announced to the Voice of Palestine radio news of the Palestinian Authority that Fatah would license and distribute arms belonging to Hamas. The Palestinian Minister of Justice at the time, Friej Abu Medein, declared that his understanding was that the Hamas would “leave their weapons at home.”

In October 2000, Fatah general secretary Marwan Barghouti organized a joint military command with all Palestinian factions, in order to carry out attacks against Israel.

Barghouti is currently serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison for murdering 13 Israelis in five attacks. Barghouti gave the orders to commit the acts of premeditated murder.

Menawhile, Hamas’ spokesman Abu Abdullah declared to World Net Daily that U.S. weapons to Fatah would eventually fall into the hands of Hamas.

“These American weapons will one day be the property of all the Palestinian people and its resistance, including Hamas,” Abu Abdullah said. “The U.S. gives weapons to Fatah during internal Palestinian clashes, but one day when we go back to carrying out operations together, these [weapons] will be shared.”

©The Bulletin 2007