Maj.-Gen. Gilad: Arafat Must Go

(Jerusalem Post) Caroline Glick - "There is no way to establish coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians as long as Yasser Arafat remains the Palestinian leader," Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad explained Monday to a Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center conference on "Post-Modern Terrorism." Gilad currently heads the military-political directorate in the Defense Ministry. Explaining that Arafat prevented outgoing PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas from taking concerted action to unify the PA's security forces and fight terrorism, Gilad argued that Ahmed Qurei will be equally unable to lead the Palestinians in building a non-terrorist and uncorrupt governing apparatus. Gilad explained that Arafat also prevents PA Finance Minister Salaam Fayad from ending the flow of funds to terrorist groups. IDF Intelligence research chief Brig.-Gen. Yossi Kupperwasser explained that radical Islamic terrorism flourishes in an environment of "non-accountability" like that Arafat has built in the PA. In the PA under Arafat, "no one is responsible for anything that happens....Hamas blows up a bus full of people and no one is responsible," he said. Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are "deeply involved" in Palestinian terrorist networks operating against Israel. Given that with "a $50 million investment in Palestinian terrorism a year you can cause $5 billion in damage to the Israeli economy, you can say that terrorism pays," Kupperwasser said.


2003-09-09 00:00:00

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