Why Palestinians Are Rounding Up 'Collaborators'

Matt Rees: This has been part of the Palestinian Authority's reaction to Tuesday's strike on Hamas leaders in Nablus. Four alleged collaborators were sentenced to death for cases that reach back as far as last December. Four more Palestinians accused of collaborating with the Israelis have also simply been killed in the past three days, one of them just this past lunchtime. And we're likely to see a lot more of these, because a major focus of Palestinian rage following the latest Israeli attacks has been the ideas that without the support of Palestinian collaborators, the Israelis would not be able to carry out these pinpoint strikes on Palestinian leaders.

The Israelis say they use a combination of high-tech surveillance instruments and information provided by collaborators in order to identify their targets. For example, they sometimes rely on a collaborator to point out a particular Palestinian individual as he gets into a car or whatever.

But the death sentences handed down Thursday still have to be approved by Arafat. And he'll probably decide on the basis of measuring Palestinian rage against the negative impact such executions might have on European public opinion. It's a tough call, because Palestinians are not only angry at Israel, but also at the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its security forces for failing to protect those waging the intifada against the Israelis. The PA was the big loser on the streets this week. It makes them look bad when Israel can simply swoop in and do something like this. That's why the trial and sentencing of these accused collaborators was moved forward and hurried through, because there had been mobs gathered outside the jail trying to get in and lynch them.

The cease-fire is in tatters right now, although it appears to have been something of a tactical game all along. Does it appear that the game is about to change?

The European Union and various European governments have been putting putting pressure on the Israelis to give some diplomatic concession to Arafat in order to get the ball rolling towards restarting talks. Because, they say, until that happens, there's a bit of a stalemate. So they're suggesting something like the release of prisoners. Sharon has said in public not going to do anything until there have been seven days of peace, and that he won't reward violence. And he's staying consistent with that message behind closed door, too. But there have been hints that it may not have to be a full seven days, that it could be three or four days without violence.

For now, however, Israel is on the highest alert for more terror attacks. There are plain-clothes police crawling all over Jerusalem. One of the reasons that they carried out this attack, they say, was that Israeli intelligence had learned that this particular network was preparing seven suicide attacks, at least. So they decided to strike first and also in retaliation for several attempted car bombs.

Is there not a danger of provoking an intensification of terror? In 1996, when Israel assassinated Hamas's top bomb-maker, known as "The Engineer," Hamas retaliated with was a furious spate of bombings that killed scores of Israelis

Of course Hamas will feel pressure to react. At the same time, the Israelis have certainly caused problems for Hamas over the past couple of years by killing a number of their top bomb makers. Now they're forced to rely on more inexperienced bomb makers. Also, the Israelis say, their action can't be criticized on the grounds that it would increase the motivation for terrorist attacks, because that motivation is already at 100 percent. It couldn't be higher. So they believe that by bombing these guys, they've stopped seven major terror attacks. Whether that proves true remains to be seen.

Now that the momentum of violence appears to be picking up once again, what are the options facing Arafat?

Domestically, his position is very tricky. I attended the funeral in Nablus earlier this week, and the images I saw — large numbers of gunmen, militiamen riding around in trucks and so on had more than a whiff of Lebanon in the 1970s. And that's a serious problem for Arafat. When you take that rising militancy together with the anger expressed at Arafat's own administration for not protecting Palestinians fighting intifiada, it appears that his control has been severely weakened. Early on in the intifada, I believe he could have stopped it immediately if he really wanted to. But that wasn't going to be true forever, and things may now have passed the point where he can simply end it immediately. If he's able to end it at all, it would take him some time. One of the effects of the intifada has been to erode his control over Palestinian society.