Of the 50 terrorist attacks against Israelis that were thwarted during recent months, between five and seven were stopped by the Palestinians. The rest were foiled by Israel, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer in the Central Command told Haaretz.
The officer said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas produced results "only when all else had failed and a sword was hanging over him. There is no action against the terror organizations or the terrorist infrastructure."
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The officer was also asked how he defined the thwarting of attacks and how he explained the fact that officers in Military Intelligence and other Israeli officials say the Palestinians have stopped about half the attacks planned.
He responded that to him, thwarting an attack meant "hitting the entire chain that makes the attack possible."
He said the conflicting data stems from the fact that in many cases the Palestinians do gather information and weapons and even arrest those involved in terror during the period of calm, but they do not conduct widespread arrests or operate against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
A Palestinian security official who read the officer's statements said in response, "The Israelis are developing unrealistic expectations. Let's see them persuade a person who has been detained for no reason at a road block for four hours to provide information on his neighbor who is planning an attack."
The differing opinions are a debate over interpretation of the facts rather than over the facts themselves. So are the "grades" IDF officers and government officials are giving to Abbas's ability to govern.
Abbas has been deemed "a chick that has not grown feathers" by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and "a want-to but unable-to" by most IDF officers who have expressed an opinion, along with other negative statements that Abbas's associates say have insulted him.
Israeli officials will admit to an 80 percent drop in violence and an almost complete cessation of suicide bombings, but they don't like to see Abbas achieve this through talks with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and they criticize the pace of his security reforms.
A look at the implementation of obligations by the Israelis and the Palestinians in the first stage of the road map shows that both sides are fully implementing only what is convenient for them.
Two and a half years after the publication of the road map, Abbas was to have reached a complete unconditional cease-fire and a cessation of incitement, a renewal of security cooperation, prepared a constitution and held free elections, as well as to have collected illegal weapons and created a terror- and corruption-free security force.
Since Yasser Arafat's death, violence in Israel and in areas transferred to the Palestinians, like Jericho and Tul Karm, has declined almost to nil. Abbas has stood for election, and parliamentary elections are in the offing, as are municipal elections.
Security cooperation has started again, with dozens of explosive belts and cars and other weapons handed over to Israel.
However the PA, which has reached agreements with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and armed Fatah factions, is not arresting their members, although activists planning new attacks are arrested almost daily in Tul Karm, Hebron, Jericho and elsewhere.
Last week, the PA announced it was implementing its plan to reduce the number of its security organizations to three and retire hundreds of officers over the age of 60, among them senior leaders.
The reform is proceeding slowly to avoid internal crises, but it is proceeding.
"I know Sharon is operating under difficult circumstances, but so am I," Abbas told reporters last week.
Senior Palestinian officials warned that continued construction in the settlements and refusal to dismantle illegal outposts could lead to a break down in bilateral negotiations and in further peace talks
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