<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/world/middleeast/28cnd-mideast.html> December 28, 2006 Israel Confirms Arms Shipment Sent to Aid Abbas By STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM, Dec. 28 — After coordination with Israel and the United States, Egypt has sent a shipment of weapons and ammunition into the Gaza Strip to forces loyal to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Israeli officials said today.
Senior Palestinian officials denied the report, including the spokesman for Mr. Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, calling the story "Israeli propaganda aimed at aggravating the situation between Fatah and Hamas."
But Israeli officials confirmed a report in the Haaretz newspaper that the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, approved the shipment in his meeting Saturday evening with Mr. Abbas. Four trucks with some 2,000 automatic rifles, 20,000 ammo clips and some 2 million bullets passed from Egypt through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, they confirmed, and were handed to Mr. Abbas's Presidential Guard at the Karni crossing.
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, an Israeli cabinet minister and former defense minister, appeared to confirm the transfer to Israeli Army Radio, saying that the weapons are intended to give Mr. Abbas "the capability to hold his own against those organizations that are trying to spoil everything." That was an apparent reference to Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and rejects previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements that call for a permanent two-state solution.
American officials were circumspect, but said that various efforts to boost Mr. Abbas's forces were taking place. They included training of the Presidential Guard and the likely return to the Palestinian territories of a thousand or so well-trained but aging Fatah fighters, the Badr Brigade of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who are currently living in Jordan.
The Bush administration is seeking congressional support for up to $100 million in funds, mostly for salaries and training, to bolster Mr. Abbas and his security forces and extend their control over the Gaza crossing points.
A senior American official insisted that the aim was not to promote civil war with the ruling Hamas faction, but to help Mr. Abbas and Fatah and "to provide deterrence and balance" in Gaza, where Hamas is especially strong.
The Abbas-Olmert meeting — like the arms transfer, Mr. Olmert's agreement to hand back $100 million in withheld Palestinian funds to Mr. Abbas and strong suggestions that a big prisoner exchange is forthcoming — are part of a broader American and Israeli effort, in coordination with moderate Arab states like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, to boost Mr. Abbas, weaken Hamas and show some movement on the stalled issue of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
But officials involved consider their efforts something short of a plan, because Fatah remains weak, Mr. Abbas is considered unpredictable and too wedded to the Fatah old guard, and conditions are not ripe for a major attempt at finding a comprehensive settlement.
Still, the officials say, given the problems of the region — the American difficulties in Iraq; the growing influence of radical Iran; Israel's summer war with Iran and Syrian client, Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon, and Hamas's sway over Gaza — some efforts are needed to alter the status quo and promote the cause of moderate Palestinian political goals.
"The most important thing for us is to get a process going between Abbas and the Israelis," the American official said. "If the Palestinians end up with a consensus supporting Hamas, you push off any real peace process for a long, long time. If they opt for this kind of unity, fine, but then there is nothing we can do for them and there will be no Palestinian state, and it's not a good outcome."
Mr. Abbas has called for early presidential and parliamentary elections, which Hamas opposes. But the Americans were pleased by his call. They would have liked him to confront Hamas six months ago, the official said, but fear that if Mr. Abbas waited much longer, his position would be even weaker. "The longer that goes by, the harder it is for him," the official said. "We've been trying to explain to him that every option is risky now, but that the status quo also has its downside. Doing nothing and getting weaker does not help."
Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, in an interview published in Haaretz's weekend magazine, talked gingerly about "a detailed operative plan" to negotiate with Mr. Abbas, a set of ideas she has discussed with the United States secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and Abbas aides. Ms. Livni said: "My vision says that the two nation-state principle is not only an Israeli gift to the Palestinians but advances Israeli interests."
But a Foreign Ministry official said that "there's a Livni vision but no Livni plan per se," a comment echoed less politely by an aide to Mr. Olmert, who does not care for grandstanding by his cabinet ministers.
But her thesis — largely shared by Mr. Olmert, too — is that Israel, the West and moderate Arab states want Mr. Abbas and Fatah, whatever their weaknesses, to win out over Hamas, the Foreign Ministry official said. "So they should have guns, and resources for patronage, and there should be a political vision and framework for moving forward, so that if Palestinians do choose the right path, there is something real and tangible for those who believe in a two-state solution."
In essence, Ms. Livni is suggesting talks with Mr. Abbas that result in a Palestinian state in temporary borders — effectively the second stage of the moribund road map peace plan — with Israel pulling back in the West Bank to the current route of the separation barrier.
Mr. Abbas has repeatedly rejected the idea of a Palestinian state in temporary borders, seeing it as a trap, because there would be no guarantee that Israel would move farther toward a final settlement.
"But it's possible that now Palestinian moderates need some political ammunition to show people that negotiations will bear real and tangible results," the Foreign Ministry official said. "We need to strengthen the political horizon that Palestinian moderates can offer."
Then, he suggested, with such results in hand and a period of visible reform in Fatah, new elections could result in Hamas's defeat, and then a stronger move to dismantle Palestinian terrorist organizations, as called for in the first stage of the road map, which did not foresee one of those organizations, Hamas, running the Palestinian Authority.
"There's no perfect solution now, but how can we move in the right direction," he asked, with a weak Israeli government, a weak Palestinian president and Hamas in power?
"Abbas has got a lot of work to do — in Fatah, in his own office, with the security forces," the American official said. "We'll continue to help," he said, pointing to the likely visit next month by Ms. Rice. "But Abbas has to make some choices."
Mr. Olmert is already facing criticism from his right for his concessions to Mr. Abbas, including the money and arms transfer, given the involvement of Fatah militants like the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in firing rockets into Israel. Israeli opinion, after the summer war and the Gaza rockets, is generally opposed to handing back large portions of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/806567.html> With approval of Israeli gov't, Egypt transfers thousands of rifles to Fatah By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
Egypt transfered a large quantity of arms and ammunition to Palestinian Authority security organizations in the Gaza Strip yesterday. The move was carried out with Israel's approval and was made in an effort to bolster Fatah affiliated groups, following clashes with Hamas paramilitary organizations.
The shipment included 2,000 AK-47 rifles, 20,000 magazines and two million rounds of ammunition. The arms and ammunition were transfered from Egypt to Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing, in coordination with the Israel Defense Force and with the government's authorization.
The four trucks carrying the weapons were accompanied by Military Police, and crossed into the Gaza Strip through the Karni crossing, where PA security personnel received the shipment.
Senior members of various Fatah affiliated groups in the Gaza Strip have complained of their inferior firepower when confronted by Hamas forces. One of the main reasons they point to for their inability to counter Hamas is the fact that the radical Islamic organization controls most of the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip through tunnels running from Sinai to Rafah in the South.
The issue of reinforcing the Fatah forces was the subject of discussions among Israeli, Egyptian and American officials. A decision was made during the meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday.
During the meeting, Abbas also promised to deploy men from his Presidential Guard along the Philadelphi Route to prevent smuggling, and also in the northern Gaza Strip, to prevent the targetting of Israeli towns with Qassam rockets.
Abbas traveled to Egypt yesterday for a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. At the end of their meeting, Abbas said that Israel has not rejected the possibility of establishing a "back channel" - closed to the media, but not secret - through which negotiations could be held toward a permanent settlement.
Abbas said that this matter was raised in his meeting with Olmert and that the Israeli leader had promised to evaluate his proposal.
The Palestinian leader added that the Americans have also not rejected this option.
The proposal for a back channel involves the participation of Quartet representatives in the talks, and Abbas said that the visit of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region in January will "be the right time to manifest this idea and discuss it seriously."
Palestinian sources told Haaretz yesterday that Abbas is trying to revive the idea of negotiations for a permanent settlement, because he is wary of an initiative to set up a Palestinian state with interim borders.
The same sources said that the Palestinian leadership is closely following the proposal put forth by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, which is backed by the U.S. and which Hamas may be willing to accept in return for a complete cease-fire for a five-year period. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>