Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005 | 8:04 a.m.
On her last visit to Israel a few days ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice found out that the negotiations for the opening of Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt were approaching an agreement but there were still some difficulties to be solved. She decided to act and after a long night of hard work and of putting pressure on the Israeli representatives, succeeded to accomplish an agreement.
The agreement provides that the Palestinian Authority will have the exclusive right to decide which individuals will be allowed to travel through the crossing.
This is a dangerous concession by the Israelis.
The Palestinian Authority does nothing to stop the activities of terrorist organizations. They are allowed to operate and carry out daily terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. After the Israeli pullout from Gaza, the Palestinian Authority allowed terrorists to transfer armaments from Egypt, and Gaza has now become a storehouse of every kind of missile capable of carrying deadly warheads into Israel.
I believe that at Rafah crossing, the Palestinian Authority will also do nothing toward stopping Islamic militants from traveling through the crossing.
Al-Qaida will exploit this new development and its members will infiltrate the Palestinian territories.
There is no doubt that they will do everything in their power to sabotage and stop the peace process.
This situation will be a direct result of Secretary Rice's actions in pressuring Israel to make concessions regarding Rafah crossing. In my opinion, it is not in the interests of the United States to pressure Israel, our only true ally in the Middle East, to make concessions that are not in its interest.
Gene Mayer
Henderson
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