March 28, 2005

Israel Says Palestinians Abet Smuggling of Antiaircraft Missiles

By STEVEN ERLANGER

The New York Times

TEL AVIV, March 27 - Palestinians have smuggled several Strela antiaircraft missiles into the Gaza Strip with the help of members of the Palestinian military intelligence service, which is led by Moussa Arafat, according to Israel's defense minister, Shaul Mofaz.

"This crosses a red line for us," Mr. Mofaz said in an interview in his Tel Aviv office Sunday night. He said he had ordered the Israeli commander in Gaza, Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, to meet with Mr. Arafat, a cousin of the late Yasir Arafat, "and demand that they better put their hands on the smugglers and the Strelas and hand them over to us."

There have been vague reports of Strelas being smuggled through tunnels from Egypt into Gaza before, but rarely with this kind of specificity.

The Strela, a shoulder-fired missile developed in 1968 and then modernized, can be used against low-flying aircraft like helicopters, which are crucial for Israeli intelligence, especially after withdrawal from Gaza. Still, most Israeli helicopters and aircraft can deal with the missile, said Iftah Shapir of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.

But for Mr. Mofaz, a former Israeli military chief of staff, the Strelas are a telling example of how little the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, has been able to put his stamp on the competing Palestinian security services. "It's a one-man show," said Mr. Mofaz. "There's a big gap between Abu Mazen's intentions and what we see in the field. All the others continue to act in the same way as before."

Not only are the Palestinian commanders rivals, Mr. Mofaz said, "you don't see all the leadership united around Abu Mazen," in particular the holdover prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, known as Abu Alaa. "We know Abu Mazen and Nasser Yousef," who is the interior minister, "want to coordinate Gaza disengagement with us," Mr. Mofaz said. "But Abu Alaa is speaking about not coordinating with us."

Mr. Mofaz, who was interviewed just before he flew to Washington for meetings with senior American officials, clearly wanted to explain why Israel was not moving more quickly to keep its promises to Mr. Abbas at the Feb. 8 summit meeting in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. There, the Israelis agreed to return security control over five cities in the West Bank to the Palestinians by the end of February.

Jericho and Tulkarm have been handed over, but Mr. Mofaz has ordered a halt in negotiations about the other three, Qalqiliya, Ramallah and Bethlehem. The Palestinians, he insists, have not yet kept their promises to disarm the 17 wanted fugitives in Jericho and 35 in Tulkarm, ensure that they abandon their military organizations and swear to give up terrorism, keep them under security control and ensure that they remain within the city limits for at least six months.

"They agreed to all these things at Sharm, but they've had Jericho back for two weeks and Tulkarm more than one week and we don't see them dealing with the fugitives as we agreed," Mr. Mofaz said. Even more, he said, "another 10 to 12" wanted men have moved into the city of Tulkarm "to seek immunity." The Israelis have provided the Palestinians with names, "but nothing is being done."

The Palestinians complain in turn that Israel is dragging its feet on its commitments, is pocketing Palestinian concessions, continuing to thicken settlements and is harming Mr. Abbas instead of helping him, giving those who oppose a truce and negotiations with Israel more ammunition, and making it more likely that the radical Islamic group Hamas will do well in the July 17 parliamentary elections.

Mr. Mofaz rejects that criticism, insisting that he has done what Mr. Abbas asked. Israel, Mr. Mofaz said, has removed 288 checkpoints in the West Bank, extended checkpoint hours, opened the main road through Gaza, allowed more Palestinians to work in Israel and even cleared police cars for the security services through the Ashdod port. "The Palestinian people feel there is a change. But we don't feel there is a change in the Palestinian security groups fighting against terrorism."

The security forces "have a lot of disagreements about who will be the commander, who will lead and who will go to pension," he said.

At the same time, Mr. Mofaz thinks the main Palestinian political grouping, Fatah, is losing ground rapidly to Hamas, which has agreed to a period of quiet with Israel but emphasizes its military resistance to Israeli occupation, which in the past has meant terrorism. The Palestinians hold legislative elections on July 17 for the first time in nine years, and Hamas will take part.

"My fear is that Hamas will be too strong in the Palestinian Parliament," Mr. Mofaz said. "If Hamas becomes part of the Palestinian Authority and leaves terrorism behind, I believe it's some kind of solution. But, and it's a big but, we should make sure that all of Hamas's infrastructure for terrorism will be dismantled."

For now, Hamas is continuing to regroup and rearm.

Mr. Mofaz is directing military planning to dismantle the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four small ones out of the 120 in the West Bank. "It is one of the most complex missions the State of Israel has faced in its history," he said. Having been commander of the West Bank and Gaza, he knows the settler leaders and is meeting with them, telling them that the evacuation, democratically decided, is vital for the future of Israel, which he loves as much as they.

But only now that the political battles are nearly done will it be possible to know how many of the nearly 9,000 settlers will leave quietly for new lives, and how many will resist the police and the army, he said. "It's very difficult to predict the percentage right now, and that will make a big difference," he said.

Mr. Mofaz is intent on cordoning off Gaza to prevent nonresidents or those seeking confrontation from reinforcing the settlers; he wants the evacuation to be continual and rapid - no more than four weeks, and very likely fewer.

And he has told the cabinet that he will start cracking down on those settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank or Israeli troops there, stoning soldiers and slashing the tires of their jeeps. "We can't close our eyes," he said. "You have to stop it now and deal with it and not postpone it. Because the timetable for disengagement is short, deterrence should begin now. The disengagement is a big challenge for Israeli democracy, Israeli law and Israeli decision makers," he said, "to take the right decisions for the State of Israel and implement them in the right way."