| Ander Nieuws week 22 / Midden-Oosten 2010 |
The Australian
May 21, 2010
John Lyons, Middle East correspondent
A huge deployment of NATO troops in a future Palestinian state may prove crucial in countering fears it would become a base for attacks on Israel.
In the first new element to arise from the indirect proximity talks that began this week, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are reportedly prepared to consider the proposal.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to a deployment in talks with US special envoy George Mitchell yesterday, and the newspaper Israel Hayom reported that advisers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not dismissed the idea of foreign troops on the Palestinian side of a new border.
The paper said the proposal was the idea of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who suggested sending 40,000 troops to the Palestinian territories.
The report gained credibility as Israel Hayom is close to Mr Netanyahu, who has a good personal relationship with Mr Sarkozy.
The troops would be intended to guarantee that after an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Islamic militants would be unable to smuggle weapons into a Palestinian state to attack Israel.
After yesterday's meeting between Mr Abbas and Mr Mitchell, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat surprised many with an optimistic assessment that agreement could be reached on a Palestinian state in the four months allowed for the proximity talks.
"We are focusing on final-status issues like borders and security," Mr Erekat said. "We hope that in the next four months we can achieve the two-state solution on the 1967 borders."
The talks are being held amid reminders of the instability to Israel's north and south.
The Haaretz newspaper reported that the Israeli military was putting together a plan for the mass evacuation of civilians in the event of missile attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The paper said Israeli authorities were assuming that in the event of a new war with Lebanon, many rockets would be fired into Israel's north, while rockets with heavier warheads would be aimed at the greater Tel Aviv area.
During the 1991 Gulf War the authorities had a mixed reaction to civilians fleeing their homes, the paper said, but "this time" they would treat any such evacuations as a given.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nazrallah has admitted having up to 20,000 missiles along Lebanon's border with Israel, but many analysts believe the total could be closer to 40,000.
Meanwhile, to Israel's south, a Palestinian human rights group has reported that the ruling Hamas party has destroyed 20 homes, claiming they were illegally built. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said: "Twenty families - about 150 people - lost their homes."
The group urged Hamas not to proceed with 180 more West Bank demolitions. Hamas has been a constant critic of Israel's mass demolition of Palestinian-owned homes in East Jerusalem.
Hamas this week executed three convicted murderers by firing squad.
Copyright 2010 News Limited.
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