Friday, June 24, 2005

The "Weak" Palestinian Forces Roused to Action

One of the standard fictions of the Middle East conflict is that Palestinian forces are "too weak" to crack down on terrorism. But as the AP reported today, Palestinian forces were roused to action by an attack on a Palestinian police station. The AP noted the irony:


Abbas fears a broad crackdown on militants would lead to internal unrest and
possibly civil war.
In Jenin, however, Palestinian security forces tried to hunt down and arrest Said Amin, the militant accused of leading the group that carried out Thursday's attack on the police station. After firing on the police station and killing the officer, the group headed to the house of Jamal Shati, a Palestinian lawmaker, and burned his car.

It will be interesting to see if the media picks up on this.