IDF Held Meeting With Fatah Commanders Just Before J'lem Attack

Ezra HaLevi

Just before the murder of eight students at a Jerusalem yeshiva Thursday night, IDF officers held their first meeting in a long while with the Fatah terrorists commanding the PA security forces.“Following the violent demonstrations that erupted in the past week in the Judea and Samaria region, a coordination meeting took place today, March 6, 2008 between IDF officers and commanders of the PA security services at the headquarters of the IDF Judea and )

The meeting, chaired by division commander Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, included “the commanders of all the Palestinian security services,” according to the IDF Spokesman. The Fatah-controlled security bodies in Judea and Samaria include hundreds of Fatah Al-Aksa Brigades terrorists who officially joined the PA security in return for being removed from Israel’s wanted list. They do not include the large Hamas-run PA force in Gaza, which inherited many of the US-supplied weapons and infrastructure granted to Fatah there.

A large percentage of the terrorist murders over the past year have been carried out by members of the PA security forces themselves, including the killing of Ido Zoldan near Kedumim and hikers Achikam Amichai and David Rubin near Hevron. The IDF is being encouraged, however, to embrace the US-trained Fatah men as counterparts. “The participants discussed the continuing security coordination in Judea and Samaria, in particular with regard to the recent incidents in the region,” the IDF Spokesman said. “They also discussed the common need to ensure peace and quiet in the region and decided on the steps to be taken to achieve this. In addition, they agreed to continue the security coordination and to strengthen the coordination mechanisms to allow for the resolution of problems in real-time.”