Thursday, June 26, 2008

PA: We Drafted Terrorists into Our Police Force


Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Radhi Assida, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), said at a Berlin conference that he has drafted terrorists into the security forces in order to "neutralize" them. He told Reuters News Agency the terrorists were people who had "lost their way." Assida claimed that his 220-man force for the most part has disbanded Muslim terrorists groups. Israel has agreed to the deployment of American-trained armed policemen in Shechem and Jenin, which are considered major terrorist hubs. Israeli military officials have commented that the PA police do not try to confront terrorists and that they are able to function only because the IDF carries out counterterrorist operations at night, when the police are not on duty.

The PA wants to bring in heavy weapons, but Israeli officials have reminded observers that previous weapons given to the PA were used in terrorist attacks against Israel.

Assida also complained that financial aid to the PA is "pointless unless the Israelis ease the pressure on us."

Assida charged that donations for police vehicles do not help because Israel allegedly prevents them from going to villages where criminals are located. He said that when he told the IDF his forces are cracking down on terrorists, "They told me, 'How can that be? You haven't killed any yet.'"

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