Gary Fitleberg, December 22, 2004

The Israeli army is allowing 1,000 Palestinian Authority policemen to carry arms in the disputed territories of Judea & Samaria (wrongly called "West Bank" before Thursday’s local elections.

The army also is planning to help Arab "Palestinian" officials to drive freely between towns to set up polling booths, Israel Radio reported. There also are plans to keep army operations in the territories to a minimum in upcoming days in order to help facilitate smooth elections.

Competition between Fatah and Hamas reportedly is fierce and there are concerns that Hamas may win a significant amount of votes.

Israel also armed the so-called PA/PLO "security forces" such as the Force 17 and Tanzim after the Oslo peace pact was signed arming the terrorists for their bloody campaign of hatred, incitement, terrorism and violence in a very costly mistake.

Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs.

Copyright © 2004 Gary Fitleberg