Officials: EU could pull observer mission if Rafah stays closed
European monitors could end mission if crossing not reopened; officials deny that Rafah is security risk.
By Amos Harel and Haaretz CorrespondentAmerica and European representatives have warned Israel that European states may opt to pull their monitors out of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt unless Israel agrees to keep it open.
Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator in the region, and Italian Brigadier General Pietro Pistolese, the European Union's chief monitor at Rafah, gave the warning to Defense Minister Amir Peretz prior to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's arrival in the region. On Rice's last visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, in November, she pressured the sides into signing the agreement that opened the crossing.
In a September 29 missive to Peretz - a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz - the two wrote that the Rafah crossing has largely been closed since the June 25 "unfortunate event" (their term for the kidnapping of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas). They added that the closure's negative impact could be far more extensive than the suffering of Palestinian travelers stuck on either side of the c rossing.
After receiving the letter, Peretz ordered the crossing opened for two days this week.
According to Dayton and Pistolese, the monitoring team has completed nine months of its one-year tour, which could be extended by six months. But if Israel does not fulfill its obligations under the agreement, including keeping the crossing open, they believe that it will be difficult to convince some EU countries to extend the mission.
The two also noted that they have drafted a new security plan for the Karni crossing between Gaza and Israel, including upgraded Palestinian security procedures at the site, improved facilities and an additional European monitoring team. "Our presence at Karni is very important. We feel the closure of the Rafah crossing will have a direct negative impact on the Karni arrangement," they wrote.
Dayton and Pistolese included a monitoring team report that contained a positive review of the PA's performance at Rafah until its late June closure. The crossing, they said, does not constitute a security risk; the security procedures are good and meet international standards, and most Palestinian officers and officials serving there demonstrated a real desire to improve their performance.
Israeli security sources disagree with this conclusion, claiming that the Rafah arrangement is still problematic despite various Israeli-instigated amendments, and that terror groups exploit the loopholes to smuggle in wanted men.
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A member of the PA presidential guard and an EU observer watching Palestinians board a bus before crossing the border from Gaza to Egypt at Rafah during its temporary opening Wednesday. (AP) |
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I am afraid there are no real options at the moment. Who would you suggest to govern this country?
And where is the promise to open it on Ramadan?
But that doesn’t answer my question. How long can the people of Israel live with this government? To give you an example: the public is making a fool out of the German defence minister, because he has shown much incompetence. But this is no problem, because Germany as a country is not threatened. I wonder however how can Israel live with such a situation? There should be mass demonstrations, but I don’t see them!
Soon there will be another war. This time the rocktets will not come only from the north, but from Gaza and we do not look out from the WB as well.
Precondition: "honor all agreements with Israel" Why not be more precise: "honor all agreements with Israel just as Israel does vice-versa." Hamas should have no problem to accept THIS precondition.
Since you are so in fvor for open Gaza borders through which the Palestinians, with ot wothout state, can smuggle weapons as much and as heavy as they want, so assume that you do not have a problem with a nuclear reservoir in Korea? I do not see the difference, both are threats to world peace. A Palestinian state yes, an army no.
The monitors are a big hoax as are the UNIFIL troops. They could try to fulfil their mission but they never intended to do so. Mr. Pistolese didn’t confiscate a single pistol. In Lebanon, Hizbullah is in exact the same position as on July 12th, with one big change: they are better armed than before. The Olmert troika, especially Livni are hiding the truth, namely their complete failure, before the Israeli public. My question is: For how long?
If Israel wanted Gaza, why did it pull out last year? Nobody wants Gaza, the Egyptians didn't want it back in 1977, Arafat didn't want it in 1993 and Rabin said he was rather it fell into the sea. As for the starvation campaign, exactly how Palestinians have died of starvation? It must be nice to live in a fairy land.
reverse the "unfortunate event" and then we will open the crossing. its that simple.
And until "the time is right" we'll check with Abbas from time to time to see whether the stew is done, burnt or (dream of dreams) evaporated.
your post looks like one posted by a Palestinian and the whole text reads like Muslim propaganda. Of course you are perhaps and Arab-Israeli ? Mike P.S. Good try though :-)
The Palestinian people are the main obstacle to the expansion of Greater Israel. How dare they object to the theft of the land that Israel needs? They are to be punished, herded into ghettos, bullied, starved, shot, shelled and killed from the air. When they learned their place in the world, and resolved to say "Yes, massuh" when an Israeli gives them an order, all will be well.
Unilaterally we pulled out from all of Gaza! we have let them free in Gaza. We are no more occupiers of Gaza. So according to our announcement we have nothing to do with Rafah Border Gate management, and that gate must be run by the Palestinians alone. If not then we are big liars, we are still occupying Gaza, we are criminals jailing the Palestinians in a huge prison life sentence for all of them until they die. We desserve to go back to Europe of the 1930s for further actions against us.
The EU people were intended only as windowdressing on the Rice-Mofaz Fraud. There was never any intent, then or now, to allow Palestinians in Gaza to have an independent separate existence.
Israel wants the observers out so it can take control of the crossings once more
The Rafah Agreement was a fraud perpetrated by Rice and Mofaz on the Israeli Pa, American and Eu public. It lent credence to the notion that Gaza had been freed when in fact, Israeli defence forces maintain full control. Gaza is just an open air prison where the inmates have control of the inside, but have to beg for food and water.
Why even allow one sentence to be spoken about easing conditions for the Paleos...so long as Shalit is being held. Shalit's release should be the first pre-condition for considering any and every request concerning the Paleos. And until he is released, and in good condition, every screw should be tightened, every moving car and every gathering of Paleos should be rocketed. Do you have any real men there?
They cannot protect Israel from tons of weapons and money being smugglng in. They are just observer and like the Lebanon situation, they have no mandate to act.