Evidence continues to pile up that should dislodge the fantasy-based policymaking that currently prevails in the State Department. But no sign yet that anyone is taking that evidence into account.
“80,000 illegal arms hidden in W. Bank,” by Yaakov Katz in the Jerusalem Post:
Over 80,000 illegal weapons are believed to be in the hands of West Bank terrorists, according to the IDF’s latest assessments of the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas may be facing serious threats his West Bank stronghold.
The weapons are mostly held in private homes or hidden in caches throughout Judea and Samaria.
According to the latest assessment, and contrary to earlier predictions, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post this week that Hamas was just as strong as Fatah in the West Bank and could pose a genuine threat to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s security forces.
On Monday, the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported that Fatah security forces had recently thwarted an attempted coup in the PA by Hamas.
Hamas had tried establishing a military force in the West Bank similar to its Executive Force in the Gaza Strip, which then planned to attack PA institutions and take over the government, according to the report. “They have weapons and explosives and, more importantly, they are highly motivated,” a senior defense official said.