IMRA Newsletter
Dichter: W. Bank will turn into Gaza after Pullout [Raanana-Kfar Sava the next Sderot]
JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST
Jan. 4, 2005
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid1104808686430&p=1078027574097
The security situation in the West Bank is not likely to change after the anticipated election for Palestinian Authority chairmanship scheduled for January 9, Shin Bet head Avi Dichter told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.
Dichter told committee members that if the IDF were to withdraw from the West Bank, terror groups would develop an infrastructure as wide and effective as in the Gaza Strip.
The Shin Bet head also said that there are at least five anti-aircraft rockets in Gaza. Dichter noted that the IDF's presence along the Philadelphia Route is crucial to preventing terror organizations from smuggling more sophisticated weapons from Egypt's Sinai.
Dichter told the committee that an IDF redeployment in Rafah will turn southern Israel into south Lebanon, Army Radio reported.