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Hudna - A Dangerous But Interesting Experiment

(Yediot Ahronot - Hebrew Felix Frisch - Ephraim Halevy, head of the National Security Council and former head of the Mossad, told a meeting at Tel Aviv University Tuesday that Israel has clarified that it is not a party to the Hudna agreement and that Israel requests the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure and the confiscation of illegal weapons in the PA. He then asked: "Is Hamas beginning to change in response to the pressures of a new reality within Palestinian society? Will the PA's threat to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure lead Hamas into a period of absorption within the PA, where as a political movement it will seek to build its strength until it can take over the government?" He emphasized that the hudna might have begun as a temporary cease-fire to regroup, but if it should be extended and should last two years, "two years in the Middle East is a long time. For Hamas, it's a hudna, and for Israel, it's an interim agreement." Halevy predicted that the intifada is nearing its end, though there is a list of additional concerns on Israel's security agenda. According to Halevy, in the coming year Israel will have to deal "one way or another" with dismantling the threat on its northern border from Hizballah's long-range rockets. Halevy raised the possibility that the Iranians and Syrians may prefer to abandon Hizballah in order to escape the political isolation in which they find themselves in the wake of the Iraq war, a possibility that greatly concerns Hizballah secretary Sheikh Nasrallah.
2003-07-02 00:00:00
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