The Palestinian governor of the West Bank town of Nablus thinks that Israel’s roadblocks in the West Bank are a political strategy designed to cut off communication between and access across Palestinian cities. We think it might have something more to do with the fact that the only alternative is for Israel to constantly shell the Palestinian Authority into even pretending to crack down on terrorists:
As Israel pursued a series of air and artillery strikes at the weekend against rocket launch sites in northern Gaza, the Palestinian interior minister vowed to crack down further on armed groups saying he would deal “firmly and seriously” with illegal weapons manufacturing workshops and storage sites. The strikes on Gaza are part of an ongoing offensive against Palestinian militant groups that has intensified since Wednesday’s suicide bombing of an open air market in the coastal city of Hadera, which killed five Israelis.
The Palestinian government won’t crack down on terrorism on their own, and there’s only so long that Israel can militarily prod them into doing so. The governor of Nablus would be well-advised to spend a little less time complaining about the Israeli roadblocks meant to stop terrorists and a little more time working to convince the Palestinian terrorists to stop making it necessary for Israel to install roadblocks.
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