When discussing the future of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been crystal clear: There is no place for the Palestinian Authority.
Explaining his objection, Netanyahu pointed to the fact that the PA incites terror, promotes terror, educates generations of Palestinians to hate Israel and seek its destruction, and even pays financial rewards to terrorists.
In practice, Netanyahu’s claims were adopted by the international community. The resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council to adopt the 20-point plan of US President Donald Trump specifically provided that the Board of Peace would administer Gaza until the “Palestinian Authority has satisfactorily completed its reform program.”
While the PA has rightfully been excluded from Gaza, it still maintains its position in Judea and Samaria.
When unpacking Netanyahu’s claims, an unequivocal pattern emerges. All of the reasons given were fundamental breaches of the commitments of the PLO given in the Oslo Accords.
From the Israeli point of view, the Oslo Accords were meant to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In contrast, for the Palestinian leadership – as it itself has noted, explicitly or by inference – the Oslo Accords were nothing more than a Trojan horse to implement the PLO’s Plan of Stages toward the destruction of Israel. Considering its driving motivations, it is not surprising that the PA has breached almost every single commitment of the PLO.
One of the more fundamental and dangerous breaches of the accords relates to the “Palestinian Authority Police Force.”
Beyond Oslo
When defining the “Palestinian Authority Police Force,” the accords envisaged a domestic police force, limited in size and in the weapons it could possess. In Judea and Samaria, that force was meant to be no bigger than 12,000 people, carrying approximately 8,000 weapons.
Despite the clear provisions, already by November 1995, just one month after the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement, the largest and most comprehensive of the Oslo Accords, it was already clear that the PLO-PA did not intend to respect the limitations.
What began, in 1995, as an addition of a few thousand “policemen” has developed over time into a 70,000 strong terror army. The personnel in this force do not merely undergo law-enforcement training; they receive full military training. Some are even sent to the military academies of foreign countries hostile to Israel. They are trained to use artillery, RPGs, mortars, and how to fast-rope from helicopters, fully armed, on zip lines.
While the Oslo Accords gave Israel an absolute veto over each recruit into the Palestinian police, that provision seems to have been forgotten along the way.
The question therefore arises, why does the PA need a 70,000 strong security force? Is Palestinian society particularly criminal? No. Who are the enemies of the PA? The Jordanians? The Egyptians? The Syrians? No, no, and no.
What, then, is the purpose of the massive PA terror army?
The PA has always been dominated by Fatah, the party of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. Useless commitments aside, in practice, Fatah is no different from Hamas. Both strive to destroy Israel and murder Jews. The differences between them are limited to the timing of the use of mass murder to achieve political goals and who controls the multibillion-dollar purse strings of the PA.
Thus, when Arafat initiated, in September 2000, the terror campaign that resulted in the murder of more than 1,000 Israelis, it was not a surprise to see that members of the PA “Police Force” were not only participating in the terrorism, but often leading it.
The next threat
Over the years, more and more terrorists were intentionally recruited into what morphed into being the Palestinian Authority Security Forces. In parallel, under the erroneous premise that the PA would actually fight Palestinian terror, the US and the European Union became patrons and donors to the PASF.
During the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, over 6,000 Gazan terrorists invaded Israel. Half were trained and armed operatives belonging to terrorist organizations (Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and others). The other half were additional terrorists who were Gaza residents, not necessarily members of those organizations. The terrorist squad that penetrated farthest reached the city of Ofakim, 22 kilometers from Gaza.
The PASF is now more than 10 times the size of the terror force that carried out the massacre. It is better armed and better trained. All it is waiting for is the order to attack.
As opposed to the lightly populated Gaza border area, millions of Israelis live in the 22-km. radius around the Green Line, and are potential victims. Instead of Hamas terrorists riding white Toyota pickups, the PA army terrorists would breach the Green Line in the armored vehicles they have been given. Every checkpoint would be overrun, and no additional obstacles would prevent them from carrying out another, greater massacre.
It has to be understood that in the eyes of the Palestinian leadership, the October 7 massacre was a quintessential success. It does not give a damn that Palestinians died, or that Gaza was destroyed. What it sees are the incredible rewards reaped. Israel is being constantly vilified and threatened with being a pariah state. Arrest warrants have been issued for Israeli leaders. Western countries led by France have granted official recognition to the fictitious “State of Palestine.”
Internally, the PA is falling apart. It is suffering from severe, albeit self-inflicted, financial difficulties. While 90-year-old Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah cronies are desperately clutching to their dictatorial positions, under the surface the battle for succession is raging. Each candidate, a terrorist in his own right, sees himself as the rightful heir, and the death of Abbas will, with a high degree of probability, plunge the PA into chaos.
In the meantime, successive Israeli governments have adopted the same policy: Close your eyes and ignore reality. To those who see and understand the danger posed by the PA’s terror force, they have the same response they had regarding Hamas on October 6, 2023. The PA is deterred. The intelligence units will provide a sufficient warning. The PA is more concerned with providing for the Palestinians than murdering Jews.
Netanyahu was absolutely correct to oppose any PA involvement in Gaza. The PA is a huge part of the problem and no part of the solution. But if that understanding does not have consequences for the way Israel deals with the PA in Judea and Samaria, then the path to the next massacre will be short.
If Israel does not act swiftly to dismantle the PA terror force, it may have no choice other than to again count the victims.■
Maurice Hirsch is the director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. He served for 19 years in the IDF Military Advocate-General’s Corps. In his last position, he served as director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria.