Moshe Phillips, a veteran pro-Israel activist and author, is the national chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI). A former board member of the American Zionist Movement, he previously served as national director of the U.S. division of Herut and worked with CAMERA in Philadelphia. He was also a delegate to the 2020 World Zionist Congress and served as editor of The Challenger, the publication of the Tagar Zionist Youth Movement. His op-eds and letters have been widely published in the United States and Israel.
It has a long history of “revolving-door justice” in which extremists are arrested in front of television cameras … and then quietly released.
Eight weeks after the Palestinian Authority supposedly undertook a major anti-terrorist operation in Jenin and other cities, Israeli forces continue to capture terrorists, weapons and bomb-making equipment there. It seems as if the P.A.’s efforts weren’t quite as extensive as the international news media portrayed them to be.
Over the past two months, The New York Times has repeatedly claimed that the P.A. was in the midst of “cracking down” on the terrorists when Israel suddenly—and for no apparent reason—sent its forces into the same area. Other major media outlets have circulated similar reports.
It’s interesting that the Times and other media have never done a follow-up story on what happened to the terrorists whom the P.A. supposedly arrested. After all, the authority has a long history of “revolving-door justice” in which terrorists are arrested in front of television cameras … and then quietly released. But when it comes to the P.A., history seems to be conveniently forgotten.
What makes the reporting about the P.A.’s alleged “crackdown,” especially interesting is what has not been reported: Its peace treaty with the terrorists. On Jan. 18, The Jerusalem Post and other Israeli media reported that the P.A. announced it had concluded a peace agreement with the terrorist forces in Jenin, which allowed them to continue operating in the city. For some reason, that part of the story never made it into the Times.
It was only when the P.A. made peace with the terrorists that the Israelis were forced to wage war on them. On Jan. 21, three days after the Jenin peace deal, Israeli forces entered that city in pursuit of the terrorists.
The fact that the Israelis are still capturing terrorists there two months later exposes the truth: The P.A.’s so-called anti-terror operation was a fraud.
Just last week, Israeli security forces uncovered large quantities of combat equipment and bomb-making materials in the P.A.-governed village of Qabatiya, near Jenin, and captured 12 terrorists there.
One of those arrested was Liwaa Jaaz, one of the top terrorists in Jenin. The Israelis also found two vehicles that were “loaded with weapons.” Is it possible that the P.A. security forces were unable to find Jaaz or his cars full of weapons? Not a chance.
We’re also learning more about previous Israeli anti-terror operations—details that couldn’t be released earlier for security reasons. For example, the army discovered a 220-pound bomb that terrorists were preparing—enough to knock out a tank. Is it conceivable that the P.A. security forces had no idea what these bomb makers were up to? Again, not a chance.
It could have rooted out the terrorists long ago if it wanted to. It just doesn’t want to. It regards them as its brothers in arms, not enemies.
Article VII of the first Oslo agreement, signed by Israel and the P.A. in 1993, authorized the P.A. to establish a 12,000-man “police force.” The authority proceeded to expand it into a 60,000-man “security force” that has become a de facto army, trained and armed by America’s CIA.
According to the World Atlas, the authority has the sixth-largest per-capita security force in the world. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy has described the P.A.-governed areas as “one of the most heavily policed territories in the world.”
The Oslo Accords state quite clearly what the P.A. security forces are required to do about the terrorists in cities such as Jenin: They must “apprehend, investigate and prosecute perpetrators and all other persons directly or indirectly involved in acts of terrorism, violence and incitement.” (Annex I, Article II, 3-c of Oslo II).
Yet the Palestinian Authority has never taken any of those actions. That’s why Israeli security forces have to pursue terrorists in those cities—because the P.A. refuses to do it, and the international community refuses to hold the P.A. accountable.
** This article was originally published on JNS.org
