Israel OKs weapons for Abbas’ police

Israel said Wednesday that it had authorized a shipment of 25 armored vehicles and 1,000 rifles to bolster a promised Palestinian police crackdown on armed militants in the West Bank.

The shipment was proposed by Russia two years ago but stalled by Israeli opposition. Approval of the plan is aimed at building trust with the Palestinian Authority’s leaders as Israel prepares to restart formal peace negotiations with them.

Israel also will allow the Gaza Strip to resume strawberry and flower exports, which have been blocked since September. The exports earn $14 million a year for the impoverished territory, according to the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce.

Both decisions were announced as Israeli and Palestinian leaders prepared for a U.S.-sponsored peace conference scheduled for next week in Annapolis, Md. Palestinian and American officials have been pressing Israel for concessions to improve the climate at the gathering, which is intended to muster Arab nations’ support for the renewed peace effort.

-- Opposition to plan

Israeli opposition leaders and the country’s internal security service, Shin Bet, objected to the Russian shipment, arguing that the vehicles and weapons could eventually fall into the hands of Hamas and other militant groups fighting Israel.

Hamas gunmen seized control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah-led police forces in June, capturing large quantities of weapons that other countries had supplied to the police with Israel’s approval.

Criticizing the promised new shipment, right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu told Army Radio, “We will one day see Hamas sitting on the armored vehicles, firing at us.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert authorized the arms deal, which also includes 2 million rounds of ammunition.

In preliminary peace talks, Olmert has been telling Abbas that there can be no Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank unless his Palestinian police force moves to disarm the militias of Hamas and other radical Islamic movements hostile to the Jewish state.

Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza in 2005, only to receive continued cross-border rocket fire from militants there.

To advance the goal of a peace settlement, Abbas has deployed hundreds of additional police officers to West Bank cities in recent weeks. U.S. officials say the police have begun to restore order in the unruly West Bank city of Nablus.

Israeli officials said Wednesday that another 25 vehicles could be sent to Abbas’ forces if they made progress against the militias.

-- ‘Zionist gift’

A Hamas spokesman, Sami abu Zuhri, said Israeli approval of the arms shipment demonstrated that Abbas was working “hand in hand with the occupation” and against Palestinian “resistance.” Hamas’ armed wing branded the promised shipment a “Zionist gift.”

The resumption of Gaza’s flower and strawberry exports, which pass through Israel to Europe, opened a significant crack in the Israeli policy of isolating the coastal enclave to punish Hamas for near-daily rocket attacks against border communities in the Jewish state.

Most commercial trade across Gaza’s border remains halted, although food staples and humanitarian aid reach the territory.

Abbas has objected to the closure as a form of collective punishment for Gaza’s 1.4 million people, even though it is aimed at isolating his Hamas rivals. Israel has defended the policy as a sanction against Hamas for running a “hostile entity,” but Agriculture Minister Shalom Simchon said Israel would soon allow exceptions for other traded goods.

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boudreaux@latimes.com