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PA Offensive Capabilities Increasing, With US Help
by Nissan Ratzlav-KatzFatah terrorists are receiving US arms & training, while Hamas terrorists are preparing missile & anti-tank divisions. IDF officer criticizes: IDF's operations are not targeting the Hamas build-up. Speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, the IDF Southern Command chief warned that the Palestinian Authority's ruling Hamas organization is planning to establish missile and anti-tank units. The new units were decided upon in light of the lessons Hamas learned from the Hizbullah's successes against Israel during the recent war in Lebanon, the IDF commander explained. "Hamas is establishing an organized division with anti-tank capabilities and with missiles that could reach threatening distances," Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant told the Knesset committee. Anti-tank missiles caused about a third of the IDF casualties in Lebanon during the recent campaign against the Hizbullah. Military analysts, as well as Hamas propagandists and strategists, have noted that long-range missiles of the type used by Hizbullah deployed in Judea, Samaria and Gaza would place many Israeli strategic facilities in danger. In an initiative presented as an effort to counter the growing strength and influence of Hamas, the United States has been arming and training a militia affiliated with the Fatah terrorist group, headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The premise for the American support is that Fatah and Hamas are headed for a violent civil war, and the US prefers a Fatah victory. Maj.-Gen. Galant told the Knesset Committee that IDF operations in Gaza, no matter how extensive, have all been part of general security operations, "and were not specifically intended to degrade the strengthening Hamas or its building up of its forces." Overall, he said, "the strength of Hamas has grown immensely and significantly since the Disengagement." Smashing success. The IDF commander described a complex system of tunnels along the Philadelphi Route, "most of which are camouflaged and not even dug up. The minute there is an order for smuggling, they dig out an opening and connect to a preexisting tunnel; and after the smuggling is completed, they cover it over." He said that Hamas has begun building an army-like hierarchical infrastructure, including special forces, brigades and battalions. In part, these units are meant to counterbalance such forces currently under the command of the Fatah organization, headed by Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). "It is reasonable to assume that, in the future, Hamas will put into the field a force of thousands of terrorists, organized and well armed... with weapons systems and night-vision systems, which will form a division. In addition, Hamas is constantly working to increase the range of the Kassam [rockets] - and the technology is within reach." According to security analyst Aluf Benn, American security coordinator General Keith Dayton presented Quartet representatives in London last week with a program for training the PA's presidential guard - Force 17, controlled by Abbas - using Egyptian, British and Jordanian instructors. PA sources say the training by Americans started more than a month ago, at a compound near the Intercontinental Hotel in Jericho. In the past, official PA militias were found to have used weapons provided by the US and Israel in terrorist attacks on Jewish targets. Earlier this month, in an interview with WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein, a Force 17 terrorist implied that weapons supplied to Fatah from the United States would be transferred to the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which is recognized as a terrorist organization under US law. Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-11-01 |
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