July 10, 2009: Fatah, the Palestinian faction that controls the West Bank, recently broadcast a discussion featuring the former Palestinian Minister of Prisoners, Ashraf al Ajrami, who praised the Fatah security forces for their efforts during the 2000-5 Palestinian terror campaign against Israel. This campaign killed over a thousand Israelis, mostly civilians attacked by suicide bombers inside Israeli cities. Over 5,000 Palestinians died, as Israel sought out the terrorists and took apart their organization. This defeated the Palestinian terrorism operation by going after the leaders and technical personnel. The U.S. adopted that strategy to successfully shut down Iraqi terrorists by 2008.
Currently, an American training team is helping to rebuild the Fatah security forces, and the Palestinians openly admit that these men would be in the forefront when the next terrorism campaign against Israel gets started. Israel recently agreed to provide the new Fatah security force a thousand AK-47s. The Israelis are aware of Palestinian attitudes towards terrorism and their security forces. Many Israelis are fluent in Arabic, and can receive the Palestinian TV and radio broadcasts. But Israel is under a lot of pressure from the United States and Europe to make peace with the Palestinians, and to help Fatah maintain order in the West Bank.
