The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) charged today that the general closure of Judea and Samaria during this holiday season announced by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman today “in light of security assessments” shows that Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) is no peace partner. The IDF spokesman said that “the IDF will increase its alertness in order to ensure the safety of the citizens of Israel, while preserving, to the best of its ability, the daily life of the Palestinian population.” The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that “In Israel, the army and security forces have been put on high alert in advance of the holiday due to 11 specific terror alerts including kidnappings, bombings and rocket attacks, as well as other general alerts. Beginning Wednesday morning, police are deploying to markets, cemeteries and synagogues, according to Ynet. IDF troops will increase their numbers along the security fence and near eastern Jerusalem. No traffic from eastern Jerusalem will be allowed to enter the rest of the country.” Israeli embassies and Jewish Agency offices have also added security measures. (‘Israel increases security ahead of holiday,’ Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 8, 2008).

The ZOA raises the question why, if Abbas’ PA is genuinely a peace-seeking, moderate Palestinian leader who is allegedly preventing and fighting terrorism against Israel, does such a closure of the territories needs to occur?

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “How are we to understand that Israel’s Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni and the US’ George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice repeatedly praise Mahmoud Abbas as a moderate peace-seeker who is sincerely devoted to fighting and preventing terrorism while the IDF finds itself obliged on Jewish holy days to mount a massive security effort to prevent Palestinian terrorism emanating from Abbas’ PA? Why hasn’t Mahmoud Abbas given a speech in Arabic to which own people warning that there will be terrible repercussions for any Palestinians who engage in terror and kidnapping? Why isn’t he rounding up and jailing terrorists and potential terrorists to ensure a safe holiday season? And if can’t or won’t, why are we negotiating with him?

“Why is America and Israel negotiating with Mahmoud Abbas to discuss more land concessions and even statehood while Abbas continues to be unwilling or unable to stop terrorist attacks emanating from Judea and Samaria, a territory he allegedly controls? If he cannot be motivated to stop terrorism when he is still seeking Israeli concessions, what possible motivation will he have to do it when he has received all these concessions? I have been told personally by former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief-of-Staff, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon that last year, Israeli forces prevented 186 terror attacks.

“One would have thought that the much-vaunted peace process that is supposed to be in progress with Abbas would mean, among other things, that terrorism and incitement to hatred and murder within the PA would be something of the bygone past. One must also wonder why the Olmert government is still proclaiming Abbas as a moderate and peace partner, when Abbas has taken absolutely no action to fulfill signed Palestinian commitments under the Oslo agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan to arrest terrorists, confiscate their weaponry and end the incitement to hatred and murder that permeates the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps.

“If this is the situation today, 15 years after the start of the Oslo process, what can the Olmert-Livni government believe and expect will be the situation this time next year or the year after?

“In these circumstances, it is dangerously unrealistic to proceed with a signed agreement with a PA regime that, to this date, has never honored a single one of its commitments. The Olmert government’s drive for creating a Palestinian state regardless of what Palestinians think and do is bound to lead to still more bloodshed and disaster. We have no reason for assuming that a sovereign Palestinian state, in a Judea and Samaria ethnically cleansed of Jews, will be any more peaceable, any more conciliatory or any more responsible than the current terror-promoting and terrorist-protecting regime.

“At no time has giving violent movements control of a country been a sound method for preventing terrorism or producing peace. Iran, Syria and North Korea are all sovereign states – they are not lovely and peaceful. On the contrary, regimes like these in control of a country have greater capacity to inflict harm and advance their illiberal, violent agendas. The massive security operation that Israel is obliged to put in place to protect the country during a major holiday is stark and sad testimony to these truths.”