Sunday, September 11, 2005

The handover of Gaza

The PA officially 'took control' of Gaza today as the IDF began to remove forces from the territory. But Palestinians fear that the departure of Israeli authority will leave them worse off. They wonder "whether the Israeli departure represents real liberation or will merely aggravate woes such as lawlessness, factional fighting, corruption and rampant unemployment," the Associated Press reported.

The PA is receiving approximately 50 greenhouses left behind in the community of Atzmona and more than 150 public buildings, including 21 synagogues. The thing I like about this is that we did not destroy the synagogues in Gaza. The whole debate surrounding this idea bothered me, as I don't feel we should be destroying our own places of prayer.

The final point I wanted to take from the article on Arutz Sheva is the changeover in authority represents a severe test for PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), who faces a rival de facto Hamas authority in Gaza. Islamic Jihad terrorists also have raised their profile and staged a full-scale training exercise Saturday night toward celebrating what they called the success of terrorist attacks in forcing Israel to withdraw.

I think what is going to happen in Gaza is going to be very telling on the reality of whether the Palestinians 'truly' want a State in Gaza and in the 'West Bank.' I have a feeling, as I have stated before, that there will be a lot of inter-Palestinian violence before any stability is truly capable. I also like that the IDF commanders are warning that attacks coming from Gaza will be met with a firm military response. One even went so far to remind the Palestininans that the Israeli's have mortars also.

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