The Bush Administration - Loving Israel to Death
U.S. officials demand IAF cease overflights in Lebanese airspace - Haaretz
Two Bush administration officials, David Welch and Elliott Abrams, demanded that Israel Air Force overflights of Lebanon be halted, saying that such flights undermine the standing of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
The talks with Welch and Abrams focused on the standing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The U.S. diplomats said that Abbas is "exhibiting weakness," and the main question is whether it is possible to strengthen him - and if so, how.
The American security coordinator in the territories, General Keith Dayton, put forward a plan to bolster Palestinian security forces loyal to Abbas in the Gaza Strip including the delivery of additional arms to Abbas or the entry into Gaza of the Badr Brigade, a Palestine Liberation Organization force currently stationed in Jordan."
What is the Badr Brigade?
"Israel has objected in the past to letting members of the Jordan-based Badr Brigade enter Palestinian areas. Currently, there are several large concentrations of trained fighting forces aligned with the PLO, in various places outside of the Palestinian Authority zones. These men are "in reserve" and are not counted as part of the numbers of "Palestinian Police" that are allowed under the various signed Agreements which Israel has undertaken with the PA since OSLO 1.
One fully-equipped and highly-trained force was in Egyptian Sinai, and it is entirely possible that a great portion of them have now made it across the pourous Gaza border since the IDF withdrew from the Philiadelphi Corridor. These men carry with them a vast array of heavy machine guns, anti-tank weapons, and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles (SA-7 STRELA).
To the other side of Israel, across the Jordan River, the PLO assembled a substantial armed force which is now under the command of the Jordanian Army.
The battle of Badr was a famous event in Islamic history whereupon Mohammed and his followers defeated a numerically superior force of non-Muslims near Medina. Although Badr is often referenced by many Islamic militant groups, the name Quwat Badr is generally associated with one of three outfits:
At present, the "Badr Forces" in Jordan are essentially a Palestinian brigade in the regular Jordanian Army. They are a core group of Palestinian refugees who served in the Palestinian Liberation Army, the former armed wing of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)."
In other words thousands of notorious terrorists, now soldiers of the Jordanian Army will now be entering Israel heavily armed and under the control of Fatah.