If it smells like a rat...

Funny just how much this reminds me of someone else who used to head the Palestinian Authority.

After repeated delays, Palestinian legislative elections will be held in January, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced Tuesday.
Abbas did not give an exact date for the elections, which were originally scheduled to take place on July 17.

This should remind people of Yasser Arafat, who after elections in 1993 or 1994 never again had elections, choosing to stay in power rather than risking his 'legacy' fall by the wayside with another usurping his status. Not that I am in favor of the alternative, but a major key to there being any chance that attacks on Israel cease requires that there be some sort of democracy in the PA.

The terrorist group Hamas, the biggest rival to Abbas' Fatah movement, appeared to have been set for big gains, and many analysts believe the delay was meant to give Fatah more time to shore up its standing with the Palestinian public.

The scariest news, however, is what is going to happen after next week's disengagement. According to reports:

Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz revealed to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that according to the agreement with Egypt, Egypt will be able to arm the PA Authority with tanks, personnel carriers and other weaponry.

The Palestinians simply cannot be trusted with tanks. There are two primary reasons that both the Palestinians and Israelis still exist: The Palestinians have no access to the types of weapons the Israelis do; and the Israelis do not use the weapons which they have against the Palestinians. If the Palestinians have tanks, is there anybody who believes that they will hesitate to use them against Israel!?

The committee head, Yuval Steinitz, described this revelation as a “bomb.” Steinitz reminded the members of the committee that Israel has been trying to prevent a sale of one hundred light personnel carriers by Egypt to the PA Authority.
In addition, Steinitz is warning about the possible results of Mofaz’s decision to allow the building of a deep-water port in Gaza and an airfield in Dahariya. “It’s enough just to mention the contents of the weapons ship “Karin –A” to understand the direction of the PA,” he said.

One can only hope that the PA will smartly decide that if they so much as move a tank the wrong way, Israel will destroy them within minutes; and that through waiting for a good time to strike coupled with democracy, the Palestinian people will turn against the terrorists in their midsts so as to build a new society. We will have to wait and see...