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Will Abbas Preserve Security Coordination with Israel?
(Al-Monitor) Shlomi Eldar - In October 2018, the PLO Central Committee recommended that security coordination with Israel be severed. President Abbas was selected to head a committee tasked with ceasing security coordination, but cooperation never ended. Abbas hosted Israel Security Agency Director Nadav Argaman at his home in Ramallah and told him explicitly that if Israel implemented the law withholding funds to offset payments to terrorists, the PA would immediately sever all security coordination. But after Israel began implementing the law in February 2019, Abbas never made good on his threat. An Israeli security source discussed the "network of security coordination" with the PA. "The main thrust of the Israeli effort is to maintain the stability of the PA and to assist it in overcoming internal and external threats from Hamas and cells associated with the Islamic State. In return, they do everything they can to prevent attacks by individuals or groups that could get the Palestinian Authority into trouble with Israel." Even if Abbas announces that he is halting security coordination, past experience shows that there are words and then there are (different) actions.