IDF general: PA more interested in economy than violence

After 4 years, head of Army's civil administration hands over command; warns against radical settler elements.

By YAAKOV KATZ
PA Security Forces 311 (photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
PA Security Forces 311
(photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The Palestinian Authority has reached its highest level of governance since its establishment in 1994, Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the outgoing head of the IDF’s civil administration, said on Thursday.
Israel currently faces a PA that was “more committed to economic gain than to incitement and violence,” he said “We can say that the PA is at its peak,” Mordechai said during a ceremony in Beit El during which he handed over command, after four years, of the Civil Administration for Judea and Samaria to Brig.-Gen. Moti Elmoz, formerly deputy head of the Central Command.
Mordechai was instrumental in creating the coordination and cooperation that Israel currently enjoys with the PA, which has led the IDF to scale back operations over the past two years inside Palestinian cities.
During the ceremony, Mordechai warned of the growing threat radical settler elements – sometimes referred to as the “hilltop youth” – posed to the rule of law. The IDF has noticed an increase lately, particularly surrounding the olive harvest, in attacks by settlers against Palestinians.
“This is extremely dangerous when people take the law into their hands,” he said. “They cause damage to the majority of the people who live in Judea and Samaria, who are not like them.”