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Shin Bet: PA Is Crumbling, Fatah in Disarray

Arieh O'Sullivan (Jerusalem Post) - The PA is crumbling, its leader Mahmoud Abbas is too weak to enforce law and order, his Fatah party is in disarray, and Hamas is taking control of the Gaza Strip, Diskin said. "(Abbas) has no apparatus to control Fatah. He is a general without soldiers. Giving him more weapons won't give Fatah strength." Diskin said the Palestinians were making enormous efforts to acquire rockets and other weapons in the West Bank, smuggled in from Sinai. Hamas and other groups took advantage of the chaos after the IDF abandoned the Philadelphi corridor to smuggle in huge amounts of weapons and arms as well as return wanted fugitives. In one incident, a Hamas convoy of 15 jeeps crossed one day and returned laden with arms and explosives. According to the Shin Bet, 3,000 rifles, 1.5 million bullets, 150-200 rocket-propelled grenades, and hundreds of kilograms of explosives have been smuggled in so far. The Shin Bet believes Islamic extremists who follow an al-Qaeda ideology were still targeting the Sinai resorts and that Israelis should stay away. "There is a strong infrastructure of world Islamic Jihad there, stronger than even the Egyptians themselves were aware of," Diskin said.
2005-09-22 00:00:00
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