Palestinians complain to US about Israeli West Bank raids

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"Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says he sent a letter to an American peace monitor to complain that recent Israeli military raids in the West Bank undermine his administration.

Israeli troops have launched several incursions this week in the West Bank city of Nablus. Palestinian forces had recently deployed in the city as part of a security plan integral to the U.S.-backed peace talks.

Fayyad said in an interview with The Associated Press Friday that the operations are damaging his efforts to restore order. He said he delivered the same message in a letter to Lt. Gen. William Fraser III, a senior Mideast envoy for the Bush administration.

Fayyad said "Israel increased its military actions by 50 percent in the first half of this month compared to the same period last month. What does that mean if not that Israel is trying to undermine the Palestinian Authority?"

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/11/africa/ME-Israel-Palestinians-Talks.php

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1. I'm sure the U.S. will take swift action

Like some bonus helicopters or tanks or something to Israel's military for the good job assaulting the Palestinian population.

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2. Israel cancels decision to close West Bank shopping centre

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"The Israeli military cancelled Thursday an earlier decision to shut down the West Bank's largest shopping centre, located in the northern city of Nablus, its owners said. The cancellation, however, did not affect the assets of one company, which owns several of the shops and businesses in what is known as Nablus Mall.

The Nablus Mall was built four years ago through the cooperation of several Palestinian companies and entrepreneurs and most of its 80 shops and business offices were either sold or leased.

Some of the major shareholders in the mall kept for themselves a number of offices, from where they run their businesses.

One of the owners, who declined to be named, of the company whose assets Israel was still after said it would start legal proceedings to cancel the seizure order."

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3. Unease Over West Bank Raids

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"When Faris Abu Hasan was deciding where to send his two young daughters to school, one factor stood out above all others: test scores.

So Abu Hasan opted against the beleaguered local government school, and chose instead the Islamic Basic School for Girls, where the classes were small and the teachers offered individual attention in math, science, history and English.

"I wanted them to go to the best school in Nablus. And this is the best school in Nablus," said Abu Hasan, a lawyer.

But the school is associated with Hamas, the Islamist movement that Israel considers a terrorist organization. One night last week, the Israeli military raided the school -- confiscating computers, trashing desks and ripping student artwork from the walls. The school was ordered shut for three years.

The operation was part of a much broader crackdown that Israel has recently initiated in the occupied West Bank against Hamas's extensive social services network. While Hamas is probably best known for its military wing -- which champions attacks against the Jewish state -- it is the group's sponsorship of schools, medical centers, orphanages and food banks that gives it much of its power and helped it sweep Palestinian elections in 2006.

With a fragile truce holding in Gaza, Israel has turned its attention to undercutting Hamas's charity work in the West Bank. The effort is needed there, Israel contends, to keep the group from seizing power from the more pragmatic Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, much as it did in Gaza last year.

But the raids have also sown resentment and have put the Palestinian Authority in an awkward spot: Although Hamas is seen by Fatah leaders as a mortal threat, it also provides valuable services that the Palestinian Authority can't easily replicate. Every time Israel cracks down and closes a school or a medical center, it leaves a void that makes people more dissatisfied with the Authority."

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