World
Back To Reality
Abbas' honeymoon is brief as Israel calls for a crackdown a er terror attack.
DAN BARON
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Sderot, Israel
T
JILT
1/20
2005
34
he optimism that accompa-
nied Mahmoud Abbas' Jan. 9
election as Palestinian
Authority president appears to be van-
ishing.
In the latest evidence of the pres-
sures that both Abbas and Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are fac-
ing, a dusty Israeli border town went
on strike this week.
Sderot's businesses and municipal
services were shut in a strike declared
to mourn six residents lost to
Palestinian terror and a demand for
action from the government.
Yeshiva students held a prayer vigil
in the main square.
Children, on an impromptu day off
from school, spoke of mounting a
protest march toward Beit Hanoun, a
Palestinian town just over the nearby
Gaza Strip boundary favored by
Hamas for launching its rocket and
mortar salvoes.
"Without even noticing, the Israeli
government has turned 20,000 towns-
people into hostages," said Itzik
Ohayon, whose son, Afik, was killed
by a Hamas-made Kassam rocket last
year.
"I am sorry to say it, but this is not
a civilized country"
Many in Sderot, a hardscrabble
industrial town that has slumped into
poverty during the last four violent
years, accused Sharon of ignoring
them and of failing to provide a mili-
tary solution.
The strike occurred just a day after
the prime minister gave Israeli security
forces an unofficial carte blanche to
crack down on Palestinian terrorists.
This move would lift restrictions put
on them after Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat's death last November in an
attempt to boost Abbas.
Although Israeli troops killed two
Islamic Jihad gunmen who tried to
attack their vehicles in central Gaza
overnight, this was far from the major
sweep many expected. Some observers
speculated that Sharon wanted his
tough talk to be heard in Ramallah
before becoming a fact on the ground.
An Israeli soldier watches as an armored bulldozer clears a path during an operation
against Palestinian terrorists in Zeitoun, near Gaza City.
Abbas responded quickly.
Convening ministers for the first time
since being sworn in, Abbas ordered
Palestinian Authority security forces to
prevent all attacks.
"Abu Mazen and the Cabinet gave
clear instructions to the security chiefs
to prevent all kinds of violence,
including attacks against Israel," a
Palestinian minister without portfolio,
Kadoura Fares, told Reuters, using
Abbas' nom de guerre.
Israeli officials were cautiously opti-
mistic at the order, the strongest issued
by the Palestinian Authority against
terrorists since the years of the Oslo
peace process. But they emphasized
that Sharon wanted to see a crack-
down on terrorists before resuming
contacts with Abbas, which he sus-
pended after Palestinian terrorists
killed six Israelis at Gaza's Karni cross-
ing late last week.
Such a crackdown seemed unlikely.
Abbas' office offered no explanation of
how security forces would confront
the roving gunmen in Gaza and the
West Bank with whom, in many cases,
they have family or ideological ties.
And spokesmen for the various ter-
rorist groups lined up to say that they
would not lay down their arms unless
Israel agreed to a cease-fire, although it
was unclear what this meant.
But there was no talk of civil war in
the West Bank and Gaza, a bright spot
for Abbas, who some political experts
fear could be at risk of assassination
given his calls to end armed attacks.
One media report said the
Palestinian Authority president sought.
to incorporate gunmen from the Al
Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist
group linked to Abbas' Fatah move-
ment, into his security forces, a tacit
bid for calm that Israeli officials were
not quick to rule out.
Sderot residents said they want some
stability after days spent waiting for
the wail of custom-designed radar
sirens that warn of incoming rockets.
Many are concerned that the securi-
Mahmoud Abbas places his hand on
the Koran while taking the oath of
offi ce as Palestinian president.
ty situation will only worsen after
Israeli troops and settlers leave Gaza
under Sharon's withdrawal plan.
"The army can go in hard, and do
what needs to be done," said Sderot's
deputy mayor, Shai Ben-Yaish. "But
then we have to find some sort of
peace settlement. There is no way of
avoiding negotiations, in the end." ❑