Abbas and Lieberman
Photo: Motti Kimchi, AFP
Abbas: Israel most to lose in termination of security ties
Speaking in response to comments by Avigdor Lieberman in which he dismissed PA president's announcement that all security ties with Israel would be halted until Temple Mount crisis resolved, Mahmoud Abbas insists Israel 'relies on us' and stands with most to lose.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday Israel would be the party most adversely affected by the termination of security cooperation with the Palestinians, following his announcement Friday
that they would frozen until the crisis involving the installation of metal detectors at the Temple Mount is resolved.
“The Israelis will lose as a result of this. If Israel wants to return to the coordination between us, it will have to reverse the steps it has taken,” Abbas said.
The comments were made in the wake of claims expounded by Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman that the Palestinians were the ones who stood to lose as a result of Abbas’s unprecedented decision, which he cavalierly dismissed.
"That’s their decision. It's not like the security coordination is an Israeli need. It's a Palestinian need first and foremost. If they want it, they'll continue (coordination), if not they won't … We’ll manage either way,” Lieberman said.
Mahmoud Abbas and Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: AFP, Motti Kimchi)
Security arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians include daily conversations between the IDF and the Palestinians security apparatus designed to prevent terror attacks and to arrest terror cells, to locate terror infrastructures and provide succor to Israelis who inadvertently or intentionally enter area A inside the West Bank.
Moreover, the coordination is intended to provide support for the IDF conducting operations inside area A, to coordinate Palestinian police movements between West Bank towns and villages, and to deal with public riots and disturbances in Palestinian Authority cities.
“Israel is interested in fighting terror through us, and it relies on us. It doesn’t carry out its duties and we are not accepting this,” Abbas added.
“We have made a decisive decision particularly on the security coordination, as well as on every form of coordination between us and the Israelis,” he said. “The Israelis need to understand that they lose from this, since we have an extremely significant obligation to guard our security and theirs. We, as the State of Palestine, are convinced that there is no alternative than to fight terrorism everywhere.”
Abbas also emphasized his opposition to the installation of metal detectors around entrances of the Temple Mount, which inflamed the Palestinian public and led to fierce fighting in east Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank.
“We won’t agree to it since the sovereignty over Al-Aqsa belongs to us,” he declared. “It is our duty to supervise it and our duty to stand at its gates,” Abbas concluded.
Commenting earlier on the terrorist, Omar al-Abed, 19, from the village of Kobar, who stabbed three Israelis to death and wounded one on Friday night in the West Bank settlement of Halamish (Neve Tzuf), Defense Minister Lieberman said the first thing to do was demolish his home, before delineating on other punitive measures against him.
"Firstly, we want to demolish the terrorist's home, which is without a doubt, after so many years, the most effective tool. We will revoke entry permits to Jerusalem, entry permits to Israel and work permits in Israel from the entire extended family."
