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De ontruiming van Gaza

Coordination picking up

Jerusalem Times
August 7, 2005
From: This week in Israel... Behind the news with Gershon Baskin

The presence of US Special Envoy, James Wolfensohn has certainly had an impact. The Wolfensohn team has placed the major issues on the table and has obliged the sides to make decisions and to coordinate.

This past week the Hamas and Jihad announced that there would not be any Qassam attacks during the disengagement. It seems that there is a real chance that the disengagement will not take place "under fire". This was also the first week that Israelis and Palestinians really seemed to be fully engaged in coordinating the disengagement. In a series of security meetings between the ranking officers in Gaza from both sides, the Palestinians submitted their operation plans for taking over the area from the Israelis in several phases over the next few weeks of Israeli withdrawals. The plans that the Palestinians presented were so well prepared (the Palestinians were assisted by General Kip Ward and his team in the disengagement preparations) that Israeli officers said that they has almost nothing to add to those plans; there were only a few questions of clarification. In discussions following the meetings with the Palestinian officers they praised the Palestinian plans, but questioned whether or not the capabilities of implementation would match the good planning. But Palestinian plans include some 55,000 troops and civilian popular forces engaging in attempts to prevent violence and looting. Mohammed Dahlan has prepared 40,000 tee-shirts with the words "From Gaza to the West Bank" - this along with thousands of flags will decorate the streets of Gaza in an attempt by the PA to show that victory belongs to them and not to the Hamas.

In general, this week both sides talked, in private and off-the-record, of a real and marked improvement in the coordination on almost all of the open issues. The presence of US Special Envoy, James Wolfensohn has certainly had an impact. The Wolfensohn team has placed the major issues on the table and has obliged the sides to make decisions and to coordinate. The issues regard access (Palestinians ability to use international borders including the future of the Gaza airport and seaport), movement (between Gaza and the West Bank and within the West Bank), and the economic regime (the future of the common customs envelope in Gaza). Decisions on these issues are expected to be made this week.

 
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