TRANSCRIPT translated by Toufic Haddad
Sharon: I insisted on this meeting before the [Aqaba] Summit so we can finalize all security matter and put the final touches so as not to encounter any confusion or discrepancies in the future.
Dahlan: If you didn’t ask for this meeting, I would have.
Sharon: To begin with, work must begin on killing all the military and political leaders of Hamas, the [Islamic] Jihad, the Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine – PFLP] so as to bring about chaos in their ranks, and to allow you to pounce on them easily.
Abu Mazen: In this way, we will inevitably fail. We won’t be able to get rid of them or confront them.
Sharon: So then, what’s your plan?
Dahlan: We told you our plan and informed you of it. And to the Americans [the plans were sent] in writing. We need firstly to have a period of quiet so we can wrest control over all the [Palestinian] security services and all the institutions [of the Palestinian Authority].
Sharon: As long as Arafat is around in the Moqata’ [the Palestinian Authority headquarters] in Ramallah, you will certainly fail. This fox [Arafat] will surprise you as he did in the past. Because he knows what you intend to do. And he will work towards your failure and put inevitable obstacles. He’ll proclaim, as the [Palestinian] street does, that you are being used to do the dirty work of the era.
Dahlan: We’ll see who uses the other.
Sharon: The first step needs to be to kill Arafat by poisoning. I don’t want him exiled, except if there are guarantees from the concerned states that he will be under house arrest. Otherwise Arafat will return to living on a plane [a reference to Arafat’s frequent travels before his return to the OPT to drum up support for the Palestinian position internationally.]
Abu Mazen: If Arafat dies before we are able to have control on the ground and all the institutions, and over Fateh, and [Fateh’s armed wing] the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades, then we will face great complications.
Sharon: On the contrary, you won’t control anything as long as Arafat is alive.
Abu Mazen: The plan needs to be where we pass everything through Arafat. This will be more successful for us and for you. During the period of clashing with Palestinian organizations and the assassination of its leadership and its member – these matters will bring with them consequences for Arafat himself. And he can’t say to the people that this is the work of Abu Mazen. But it is the work of the head of the PA. For I know Arafat well. He doesn’t accept to be on the margins. He needs to be the leader, even if he has lost all his options, and when he has no option but civil war. He prefers to be the leader.
Sharon: You used to say before Camp David that Arafat is the last to know and [then] Barak, Clinton and Tenet were surprised that he is the decider [i.e that Arafat feigned ignorance, but knew what was going on all along, engineering it as such.] Perhaps you do not learn from the past.
Dahlan: We have now gone about creating a [security] apparatus composed of the police and the Preventative Security [force (PS)- a wing of the PA security agencies created to prevent Palestinian attacks against Israel], numbering 1800 persons. This combination [is done] so that we are able to integrate those you nominated [to be included in the apparatus] on the basis that each party of the police and the PS, will believe that the members are from the other [security] apparatus. We can increase [personnel] where we want. We are now putting all the officers from all the agencies before difficult choices. We’ll squeeze them by all means so they follow us. And we will work to isolate all the officers who will be an obstacle for us. And we will not wait. We have started to work intensely. And we put the most dangerous figures from Hamas and the Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades beneath surveillance. So that if you were to now ask me the most dangerous five [of them], I would be able to tell you their location with precision. This facilitates your quick response for any activity that takes place against you. We are now working on penetrating the Palestinian organizations, forcefully, so in the coming period we will be able to dismember and liquidate them.
Sharon: You will find me supportive of you from the skies above for the targets that are difficult for you [a reference to Israel’s aerial-borne assassinations.] But I fear that Arafat has penetrated you, and has leaked your plans to Hamas, the [Islamic] Jihad [party] and others.
Dahlan: This apparatus has no relation to Arafat – not from near, nor from far. With the exception that the followers of each apparatus get their wages from the Ministry of Finance. We were able to deduct for the apparatus a specific budget to be able to cover all the expenses. And Arafat is loosing control. We won’t let him be in this period.
Sharon: We need to make it easier for you to liquidate the leaders of Hamas by way of creating a problem from the get go, so we can kill all the military and political leaders. In so doing we will open the way for you to take control on the ground.
Abu Mazen: In this way we will fail entirely, and we will not be able to accomplish anything from the plan. Rather the situation will explode without control over it.
The American Delegation: We see Dahlan’s plan is good. And we need to give them a period of quiet so as to achieve full control. And you need to withdraw for them from some of the areas to allow the Palestinian police to take over security. And if any [military] operation takes place, you return and you reoccupy the area harshly. So the people feel that those [who undertook the military operation] are a disaster upon them, and that they are the ones who force the Israeli army to return from the areas from which they have departed.
Sharon: Abu Mazen himself used to advise us that we shouldn’t withdraw before liquidating the infrastructure of terror. He needn’t be rewarded.
Abu Mazen: Yes I advised you of that but you did not succeed in that until now. I thought that you would succeed with this fast.
Dahlan: The levers of success are in our hands. Arafat has begun to loose control over matters bit by bit. And we have begun to take control over institutions more than in the past in addition to the joint security force from the PS and the police. It is under Colonel Hamdi Al Rifi. You know him well. And we sent you all the documents concerning these matters, in detail. What’s important here is that this force does not submit to Arafat, and takes no orders from him. And we will begin our work in the north of the Gaza strip as a beginning. As for the Al Aqsa Brigades, soon it will be like an open book before us. We have put in place a plan so that they will have a singular leader, and all those who impede us will be liquidated.
Sharon: I agree to this plan. And so that it quickly succeeds, and doesn’t take a long time, there is a need to kill the most important political leaders who are next to the military leaders. Like [Abdel Aziz al] Rantisi [Hamas political leader, assassinated in April 17, 2004], and Abdallah Shami [political leader of the Islamic Jihad, Gaza, still living], [Mahmoud] Zahhar [current top leader of Hamas in Gaza], and [Ismail] Abu Shanab [Hamas leader Gaza, assassinated August 21, 2003] and [Ismail] Haniyeh [current head of Hamas, elected Prime Minister in Jan. 2006, Gaza], Majdalawi [head of the PFLP, Gaza, still living] Mohammed Al Hindi [political leader of Islamic Jihad, Gaza – still living], Nafez Azzam [Islamic Jihad leader, Gaza, still living.]
Abu Mazen: This will detonate the situation, and will make us loose control over the whole situation. We need to start to work for a ceasefire, so we can control the situation on the ground. This will be more successful for you and for us.
Dahlan: Without a doubt, there is need for your support of us in the field. I support the killing of Rantisi and Abdalla al Shami because those, if killed, will create confusion and a large vacuum in the ranks of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. Because they are the operational leadership.
Sharon: Now you have begun to get it Dahlan.
Dahlan: But not now. It’s necessary for you to withdraw for us from large parts of Gaza so we can have the large excuse, before the people. And when Hamas and the Islamic Jihad violates the ceasefire, you can kill them.
Sharon: And if they don’t violate the ceasefire? Are you going to leave them to organize and prepare operations against us so that we will be surprised that this ceasefire worked against us…?
Dahlan: They can’t be patient during a ceasefire while their organizations are fragmenting. There upon, they will break the ceasefire. After that will be the chance to go after them. Then it’s your grace, Sharon.
The American Delegation: This is a reasonable and logical solution.
Sharon: I will not forget when you used to say to the [Israeli] Labor party and even to us that you are under control of everything, and the reality proved the opposite. Allow me to guide the way, my own special way.
Abu Mazen: The first condition in the Road Map stipulates that you undertake steps supportive of us in confronting terror. We see that the best support you can give us is to give us a part of the Gaza Strip so that we will be able exercise control over it. And we told you that we will not accept any authority other than the [Palestinian] Authority to be present on the land.
Sharon: We told you more than once that supportive steps means that we will support you in fighting terror…either by planes and tanks.
Abu Mazen: That will not be supportive of us.
Source
Kadumi will das Dokument damals von Arafat persönlich erhalten haben.
Hinweis: Zu diesem Zeitpunkt kann eine Authenzität nicht gewährleistet werden.
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Melvin A. Goodman – My 24 years as an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (1966-90) taught me that national security is only the ostensible reason for using the state secrets privilege in cases before the court. The real reason usually has more to do with national embarrassment and not national security.
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