Analysis

PA, Israeli officials meet to discuss shared security concerns

Sources say contact and consulting will continue, despite reports that sides planned to cut ties

By Avi Issacharoff
  • Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel's Middle East analyst, fills the same role for Walla, the leading portal in Israel. He is also a guest commentator on many different radio shows and current affairs programs on television. Until 2012, he was a reporter and commentator on Arab affairs for the Haaretz newspaper. He also lectures on modern Palestinian history at Tel Aviv University, and is currently writing a script for an action-drama series for the Israeli satellite Television "YES." Born in Jerusalem, he graduated cum laude from Ben Gurion University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern studies and then earned his M.A. from Tel Aviv University on the same subject, also cum laude. A fluent Arabic speaker, Avi was the Middle East Affairs correspondent for Israeli Public Radio covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and the Arab countries between the years 2003-2006. Avi directed and edited short documentary films on Israeli television programs dealing with the Middle East. In 2002 he won the "best reporter" award for the "Israel Radio” for his coverage of the second intifada. In 2004, together with Amos Harel, he wrote "The Seventh War - How we won and why we lost the war with the Palestinians." A year later the book won an award from the Institute for Strategic Studies for containing the best research on security affairs in Israel. In 2008, Issacharoff and Harel published their second book, entitled "34 Days - The Story of the Second Lebanon War," which won the same prize.
 15 February 2016, 3:07 pm
Illustrative: Palestinian police in the West Bank (Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Palestinian and Israeli sources told The Times of Israel Monday that a meeting held last week between officials from both sides aimed to reaffirm security cooperation, and not cut it off as had been previously reported.

The sources said high-level intelligence officials on both sides were maintaining contacts and consulting as well as passing information.

Both Jerusalem and Ramallah see security coordination as key to keeping the West Bank from falling to more extreme elements and terror groups.

Palestinian officials have threatened to cut off cooperation as the security situation between the sides has deteriorated over the past several months. A number of attacks by members of the Palestinian security forces, including one Sunday night, have also cast a shadow over continued coordination.

Last month, high-level government officials reportedly met to discuss the potential collapse of the Palestinian Authority, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructing ministers to act to prevent the breakup of the West Bank governing body.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks to Israeli journalists in the West Bank city of Ramallah, January 21, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Palestinians Authority officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, have warned several times in recent months that the PA could be dismantled in the absence of a peace process.

With little hope on both sides for a resumption of negotiations, Abbas has faced fierce calls to resign his position as president of the PA and call new elections, which have been put off since 2009.

Adiv Sterman contributed to this report.

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