JPost Exclusive on Al Aksa Brigades Intransigence Not Really Exclusive
Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas has decided to start his terrorist disarmament campaign close to home, leading with his "disarm yourself before trying to disarm others" strategy. Sure, it's kind of a self-defeating step (weakening his own presence in the public before trying to weaken the presence of other terrorist groups might perhaps be, according to some schools of thought, backwards) - but at least it's a step.
Except now JPost headlines a story saying that it looks like Abbas might not even be able to accomplish that:
The Palestinian Authority announced on Sunday that it planned to disarm the Brigades and absorb its members into the PA security forces, but these gunmen seem anything but ready to disarm... Hassan Abu Ali, the group's commander here, claimed that the brigades have developed a new rocket, the Aksa-3. These rockets have a maximum range of 17 km., he tells The Jerusalem Post... "Retaliation will come from Gaza if the West Bank is attacked," he said. "[Palestine] is one homeland."
Abbas's inability to stop the suicide bombers from Islamic Jihad had already led Prime Minister Sharon to call off his meetings with the Palestinians. And now Abbas's inability to control even his own people has led Defense Minister Mofaz's to state over the weekend that Israel cannot "reach peace with the current Palestinian leadership" because Abbas "has nothing backing him".
Except now JPost headlines a story saying that it looks like Abbas might not even be able to accomplish that:
The Palestinian Authority announced on Sunday that it planned to disarm the Brigades and absorb its members into the PA security forces, but these gunmen seem anything but ready to disarm... Hassan Abu Ali, the group's commander here, claimed that the brigades have developed a new rocket, the Aksa-3. These rockets have a maximum range of 17 km., he tells The Jerusalem Post... "Retaliation will come from Gaza if the West Bank is attacked," he said. "[Palestine] is one homeland."
Abbas's inability to stop the suicide bombers from Islamic Jihad had already led Prime Minister Sharon to call off his meetings with the Palestinians. And now Abbas's inability to control even his own people has led Defense Minister Mofaz's to state over the weekend that Israel cannot "reach peace with the current Palestinian leadership" because Abbas "has nothing backing him".
