Word: jihadization
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...That's a major problem for Arafat, since any cease-fire would ultimately require the Palestinian Authority to begin re-arresting the Hamas and Islamic Jihad members released when the current intifada began. Arafat will have to convince his own security forces, who have been on the frontline of confrontation with Israel, that they need to once again round up some of the Islamist militants alongside whom they've fought these past nine months, in order to ensure Israel's security - and in exchange for no political gains beyond, perhaps, the easing of some of the collective punishments imposed...
...happened. In fact, he's being offered a lot less than last year, and it's unlikely that any Israeli government will ever again trust him as a negotiating partner. But the Israelis still need him, because he remains the frontline of their defense against Hamas and Islamic Jihad...
...tangible gains. Indeed, on the weekend that he made his call, all West Bank and Gaza Palestinians were facing the harshest crackdown in years on their movements and livelihoods. Sections of Arafat's own Fatah movement that have openly defied him for months met Sunday with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other radical factions to discuss the latest cease-fire efforts, and vowed to fight on. Arafat will find it difficult to persuade his security forces to once again begin rounding up the Islamists alongside whom they've fought over the past nine months, in pursuit of a diplomatic strategy...
...What Arafat has done is to issue orders that the shooting should stop, but there's no evidence yet that he's arresting large numbers of Hamas and Islamic Jihad people, which is equally or more important to the Israelis. In other words a lot of the shooting has been done by Arafat's own Fatah people, so he's in a position to say, "Let's stop this." What the Israelis are waiting to see is whether he said "Let's stop this for a little while and then start again," or "Let's stop it and give...
...militant Islamists who have always opposed the peace process appear to be reviving their tested tactic of stepping up terror strikes inside Israel proper to sabotage any movement back towards the negotiating table. On Wednesday, Islamic Jihad detonated a car bomb near a school in the Israeli coastal resort of Netanya, and further attacks are likely. Even more worrying for Arafat are the growing signs of factionalism within his own Fatah organization, whose militant rank and file shares the sentiment on the Palestinian street against resuming cooperation with Israel. On Tuesday, members of the Fatah Hawks organization kidnapped two Newsweek...