Israel to aid Abbas due to militant disarm pledges

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Israel to aid Abbas due to militant disarm pledges
But terror leaders say no one asked them to turn in their weapons
Posted: July 2, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says a decision by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to disarm terror groups, including the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, enables the Jewish state to bolster Abbas with funds and prisoner releases.

But senior leaders of the Al Aqsa Brigades, Abbas' declared military wing, denied claims Abbas asked the terror group to turn in their weapons, stating PA officials instead offered them refuge and encouraged them to continue their "resistance" activities.

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Olmert told his cabinet at a weekly meeting yesterday that Abbas' weapons ban creates paths for cooperation. He said Israel will release some 250 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to Abbas and unfreeze some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax funds it has withheld since Hamas was elected to power in 2006.

Abbas pledged during a summit last week with Olmert he would immediately dismantle all militias in the West Bank not connected to security forces of his Fatah party. Abbas deputies have been telling the international media the past few days the Al Aqsa Brigades agreed to turn in their weapons in exchange for guarantees Israel not try to arrest or kill them.

Abbas' office issued an official decree for all armed groups to turn in their weapons.

"On the basis of the declaration of a state of emergency in the Palestinian territories, and by virtue of my authority, all armed militias, groups and brigades that do not belong in practice to the security services shall be treated as illegal organizations," read the first order.

"The government must halt the phenomenon of armed groups, prevent the bearing of arms and confiscate guns, explosives and any type of weaponry purchased illegally, since they endanger the public order," the decree continued.

Olmert said the decree would enable Israel to bolster Abbas.

"Some of the steps already taken by the Palestinian government ... will help us find, slowly and cautiously, paths of cooperation between us and them, which without doubt will enable us to advance on the diplomatic track," Olmert said yesterday in a statement to reporters.

But terror leaders denied Abbas was making them disarm.

"No one from Abbas' office ever asked us to disarm," Nasser Abu Aziz, the deputy commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank, told WND. "We will never disarm until all issues are settled, including a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Jerusalem and the right of return for all Palestinian refugees."

Abu Yousuf, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Ramallah and a member of Fatah's Force 17 militia, told WND Abbas' claims the Brigades will disarm "are more of a message meant for the Israelis, the Americans and the international community."

"No one (from Abbas' office) addressed a single member of the Brigades and asked us to turn in our weapons," he said.

Zacharias Zubeidi, leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, told WND the decree from Abbas' office for armed groups to be dismantled "has nothing to do with the Brigades. It's meant for Hamas. Abbas recognizes the Brigades as a legitimate source of resistance."

Together with the Islamic Jihad terror group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades took responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years. The Brigades regularly carries out shooting attacks and has taken credit for firing hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip aimed at nearby Jewish population centers.

Many members of the Brigades openly serve in Fatah militias, including Force 17, Abbas' presidential guard units which serve as de facto police officers in the West Bank.

Fatah offers Al Aqsa Brigades leaders shelter

Sources in the Al Aqsa Brigades said officials from Abbas' office encouraged them in recent days to tell members of the international news media they are ready to hand in their weapons.

"But on the ground, not a single weapon has been turned in and it will remain this way," a Brigades source said.

Brigades sources said Fatah officials have invited some Brigades leaders to seek shelter in PA security buildings in the West Bank.

Some Brigades members the past few years have lived regularly in PA compounds, including the Muqata, late PLO leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.

The Brigades sources said they were asked to leave the compounds last month, after the Israel Defense Forces threatened operations to arrest Brigades members. But the Brigades sources said they were told this week they could return to the PA compounds.

"It seems the threat of arrest from Israel for the time being is no longer there," said a Brigades leader.

Olmert blasted as a 'hypocrite'

David Baker, a spokesperson for Olmert, would not comment to WND about the terror groups' denials they were asked to disarm.

According to senior Palestinian officials, the U.S. is slated this month to send weapons to bolster Fatah in the West Bank. The planned weapons shipments were approved by Israel, according to diplomatic sources.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week said the U.S. would provide financial aid to Abbas. She said she will ask Congress to rework a previous $86 million aid package to Abbas that was lowered following concerns by lawmakers some of the money would end up financing terrorism. Hamas pledged in a WND interview to seize the incoming U.S. aid.

The U.S. aid to Abbas comes after Hamas last month took complete control of U.S.-backed security compounds in the Gaza Strip that reportedly contained large stockpiles of American weapons.

The U.S. in recent years reportedly transferred large quantities of weaponry to build up Fatah forces against rival Hamas. Hamas officials told WND in multiple interviews they would seize the American weapons.

Last week, Hamas provided WND a list of what the terror group claimed were over $400 million in U.S. weapons they obtained. After the WND article was posted, it was translated to Arabic and featured prominently on official Hamas websites.

Meanwhile, Uri Ariel, a Knesset member with Israel's National Union party, dug up a petition signed by Olmert in 1994 against plans to arm then-PLO Leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization with guns. Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem at the time.

The petition was presented to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had just signed the Oslo Accords evacuating strategic territory to Arafat. The Jewish state facilitated the transfer of thousands of high-powered assault rifles to Arafat's militias.

"Giving weapons to Arabs who took part in the murder of their own brothers and of Jews is an unethical act, and is an unjust endangerment of Jews and Arabs," read the 1994 petition signed by Olmert.

Ariel noted Olmert's government has already allowed weapons to be transferred to Abbas he said were used to kill Israelis and he blasted as "hypocritical" plans by Olmert to facilitate more weapons transfers to Fatah.

Ariel said it is "worse" to provide Fatah weapons now than it was in 1994.

"Before the Oslo Accords, it could have been claimed that we should experiment with strengthening the Palestinian moderates against the extremists – but today, after 1,500 Israelis have been murdered in terrorist attacks, it is clear the experiment has failed. Now that we have given them guns and they were turned against us, it would be madness and total folly to try this ridiculous recklessness again," he said at a Knesset debate yesterday.

Ariel said he plans to flaunt the petition with Olmert's signature at every Knesset session dealing with the topic of arming the PA.

Israel has multiple times facilitated the transfer of U.S. weapons to Fatah. Abu Yousuf, a Fatah militant, previously told WND U.S. funds and weapons being transferred to his group would be utilized to "hit the Zionists."