Key Palestinian Security Posts Becoming Harder to Fill
…Yasir Arafat is preparing to combine his multiple security forces, cutting the number of overlapping agencies and installing new leadership, diplomats here say.

But the pressure for Palestinian reform may be having unintended consequences. Some top officials whom Israelis regard as possible successors to Mr. Arafat are shying away from the security jobs, fearing that such posts could make them appear to be doing the Israelis' bidding.

Mr. Arafat and his top aides are scrambling to address, or at least to appear to address, rising Palestinian and international demands for reform. With the Bush administration emphasizing security changes over democratic ones, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, is expected to arrive here this weekend to oversee a shake-up of the dozen or so Palestinian security forces, from military intelligence in the West Bank to naval police in Gaza.

Palestinian reformers say that Israeli demands for change will only interfere with their efforts, making them look like servants of Israel's interests rather than the interests of Palestinians.

For the same reason, running an enhanced Palestinian security agency is not quite the political springboard it might seem to be. With no political progress on the horizon and Palestinians strongly favoring the conflict with Israel, "the job of cleaning up the security services and going after Hamas is not exactly a job with a great political future," said one Western diplomat, referring to an Islamic militant group.

Israel has all but erased negotiated boundaries between territory controlled by its forces and territory controlled by Palestinian security. It has stopped calling some of its raids into Palestinian-controlled territory "incursions" and begun referring to them as "patrols," a word suggesting not invasion but routine police work.

Early today, Israeli troops again raided the Dheisheh refugee camp inside Bethlehem, arresting one man before withdrawing, the army said. Israeli troops continued to operate in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, where they have detained more than 100 men for questioning and arrested about 30 since Friday, the army said.

Israel has taken other significant security measures, including tightening its blockades of Palestinian areas. This week, Israeli forces dug a trench more than 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide through the olive groves surrounding much of Bethlehem. Beside the trench, coils of shiny barbed wire are stacked another six feet high, and a dirt road has been bulldozed outside the new fence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/02/international/middleeast/02MIDE.html