Israelis Cede More Control of West Bank Security

[Mosby]

JERUSALEM — Israel has agreed to give the Palestinian security forces more freedom of action in four West Bank cities, Israeli and Palestinian security officials said Thursday, a move that implies a reduction in Israeli military activity in those areas as the Western-backed Palestinian forces assert more control.

The Israeli military also recently removed several significant checkpoints inside the West Bank, in line with a policy of easing movement and improving daily life for the Palestinians so long as calm prevails. A Palestinian can now drive from Jenin in the northern West Bank to Hebron in the south without being stopped and checked at any permanent roadblock along the way, the military says.

Israel has been under pressure from the Obama administration to halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and, together with the Palestinian leadership based there, to provide the basis for resuming stalled peace talks, but an Israeli Defense Ministry official denied the latest developments on the ground were directly linked.

“It is not that Obama came along and suddenly everything changes,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. “It is part of a gradual process.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world/middleeast/26mideast.html?_r=1&ref=world

[LaurenG]

1. This is good news. nt