The U.N. Mideast envoy on Tuesday said the Palestinian Authority has made no progress toward combating terror attacks against Israel and is "in real danger of collapse."
[This is the best news I've heard all week!--Jen]
Terje Roed-Larsen's assessment received a rebuke from the Palestinians and praise from the Israelis, despite his criticism of Israel's lack of progress in dismantling new settlements and freezing settlement activity.
[They're working on it! Give them a little more time because the Israeli Right Wing is being stubborn.]
U.S. Ambassador John Danforth called it "a good ... balanced presentation" which stressed that progress toward peace must come through the political process and the road map endorsed by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.
He said the U.N. envoy's view of the Palestinian Authority's weakness raised an "alarm" and "a question of whether it's possible to have a negotiated peace if one side is so weak that there isn't anything to negotiate with."
Roed-Larsen painted a grim picture of lawlessness in the Palestinian Authority, its failure to institute critical reforms, and he blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
He lamented that there was "no sign" of the bold leadership needed to tackle Palestinian reform and move toward peace.
"The Palestinian Authority, despite consistent promises by its leadership,
[This is all that Arafat has ever offered: meaningless lip service to "peace."]
has made no progress on its core obligation to take immediate action on the ground to end violence and combat terror, and to reform and reorganize the Palestinian Authority," he said.
Roed-Larsen said the only explanation is "the lack of political will" to advance toward reform, which is critically needed in the security services.
"Despite a well-intended prime minister, the paralysis of the Palestinian Authority has become abundantly clear," he said.
"Clashes and showdowns between branches of Palestinian security forces are now common in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian Authority legal authority is receding fast in the face of the mounting power of arms, money and intimidation," Roed-Larsen said.
"The perceived Palestinian Authority abdication of responsibility" has led many residents of Rafah in southern Gaza to take matters into their own hands, including establishing a checkpoint to prevent Palestinian officials from entering the city or crossing into Egypt, he said.
The security problem has also spread to the West Bank.
"Lawlessness and gang rule is becoming common in Nablus," and "Jericho is actually becoming the only Palestinian city with a functioning police," he said.
The U.N. envoy stressed that "this collapse of authority cannot be attributed only to the Israeli incursions and operations inside Palestinian towns. The Palestinian Authority is in deep distress, and is in real danger of collapse."
Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. observer, disagreed, saying Roed-Larsen presented "a completely distorted picture."
"The Palestinian Authority has serious problems, but I would say that this is the direct result of Israeli policies and Israeli actions," he said. "We have occupation. We have an occupying power that has been engaged on a daily basis in illegal activities, war crimes."
[Actually, when the Israelis take down the settlements and settle in behind their fence in not too very long, the Paleostinians will no longer have this an excuse--which is all this ever was--and they will be left to live in the pigsty they created, just as Iraqi jihadis can no longer blame their woes on an "occupying" American force.--J.T.]
Al-Kidwa also criticized the U.N. envoy's support for Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and his failure to urge Israel to comply with the world court's advisory opinion calling for the destruction of the barrier it is building to seal off the West Bank.
As for peace, Al-Kidwa warned that "there is no road map without a cessation of settlement activities and a cessation of the construction of the wall."
Sharon may have the settlements ended (for the time being), but the fence is going to stay, because it's so obviously working as a barrier to terror attacks!
Of course, the PA has always contained the seeds of its own destruction and that is why President Bush planned his strategery the way he did, starting with his Rose Garden speech on March 24, 2002.
The deal is this--Arafat and his boys have to give up terror to get their state and that they're not going to do.
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