Arab powers seen taking over P.A.

Egypt and Jordan eventually will be required to keep order in the Palestinian Authority, an Israeli official predicted. Cabinet Minister Rafi Eitan of the Pensioners Party said Monday that Israel’s current fight against Hamas will lead to foreign intervention in the Gaza Strip akin to the boosted deployment of peacekeepers in southern Lebanon after last year’s war with Hezbollah.”Today Hezbollah is no longer on our border,” Eitan told Israel Radio. “The same thing, sooner or later, will happen in the Gaza Strip, with the senior partner in such a force being Egypt, because it has no choice.”Eitan added, “We are getting there gradually; we are aiming toward that. And the same will happen in Judea and Samaria with Jordan.”Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled the West Bank before Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Six-Day War. Egypt has been active in trying to stabilize Gaza, while there have been reports in the Israeli media of a Jordan plan to re-establish administrative rule in the West Bank.