PA Security Forces / Marking their territory

The Israel Defense Forces operation in Nablus that ended yesterday received the expected torrent of condemnations on the part of the Palestinians. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad complained that the arrests in the Kasba would have destructive implications on the peace process.

On the face of it, Fayyad is right. Nablus is a city where the PA recently scored a rare success. In a few months, the Fayyad government and its security forces have managed to achieve the results it took Israel years to claim: 120 weapons were confiscated, a Hamas bomb making laboratory was uncovered, and the welfare network of the radical Islamic organization were brought under the control of the PA. No less important, for the first time in years there has been relatively calm in the city. The never-ending gun battles with armed gangs has stopped. Just at this time, the IDF and the Shin Bet opted to carry out a major operation, showing up the PA's security forces to be no more than collaborators with Israel, in the eyes of the Palestinian people in the West Bank.

But that is just half the story. The aggressive stance of the PA's security forces in Nablus had only targetted Hamas. They ignore other militant organizations, primarily the military wing of Fatah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

The weapons and materials for rockets found during the IDF operation suggest that at this stage, the PA's security forces are focused on neutralizing Hamas, whom they consider the main threat to its control in the West Bank.

Many of those arrested during the operation in Nablus are fugitives who refused to enter into the amnesty deal Israel offered to Fatah affiliated militants. A tacit agreement was reached between them and the PA in which they avoided attacks against Israeli targets and the Palestinian security forces did not confront them.

In order not to embarrass the PA, the militants were asked not to display their weapons during the day. Even those militants who agreed to the amnesty deal with Israel, which required that they surrender their weapons, retained a handgun in their possession, explaining that this was to serve for their personal safety in "internal Palestinian affairs."

Similarly in the case of Hamas militants, the PA's security services failed to meet the expectations of the Israeli security services. Deals were made with Hamas militants, in which they surrendered weapons and were released from detention, thus avoiding a direct confrontation between the Palestinian factions.

On the other hand, senior PA officials in Nablus have complaints that are difficult to dismiss. They say that all too often the IDF has been all too eager to carry out operations in the city at a time when the Palestinian security forces carried out their own operations against militants.

The most noteworthy case occurred six weeks ago in the Balata refugee camp, where the Palestinians security forces operated against armed gangs, and there had been gun battles. At that point, the IDF sent a force to carry out arrests, and the PA security forces had to leave the camp.

Another troubling development from this weekend's operations is the capture of rockets in the kasba. While these are still primitive copies of the Qassam, in itself a rudimentary weapon, the signs are growing that the Palestinians in the West Bank are seeking the kind of capability for ballistic attacks their brethren in the Gaza Strip enjoy. The IDF and the Shin Bet regard any such development as a red line that must not be allowed to be crossed.

Of course, what the security forces can do in Nablus and Jenin, since Defensive Shield in 2002, is for now impossible in the Gaza Strip.

The coordinated barrage of seven rockets against Sderot yesterday are troubling, as is the signs of yet another technological breakthrough on the part of Hamas. A mass production of Grad-type Katyushas, a much more lethal and long-range weapon than the stone-age Qassam.