British Troops To Be Sent To Gaza?

I found this story on yahoo news from a USA Today story and am posting it here because it seems to have been bypassed by mainstream UK media so far .Possibly a little sensitive perhaps? The most important sentence in this report is: 'So far, Palestinians have not been directly consulted.' which says everything in my view.





++++++++++

Britain has offered to send military advisers to Gaza to help Palestinians police the territory if Israel goes through with a proposed withdrawal, diplomats in Washington say.


Israel's initial reaction has been cool. But Israeli officials acknowledge a need to shore up security in Gaza.


The proposal was described by three diplomats who asked not to be named but who have direct knowledge of it.


A British presence in Gaza would be new, but not unprecedented in territories occupied by Israel since 1967. Several British police wardens are part of a U.S.-British team that since 2002 has monitored six Palestinian prisoners in the West Bank town of Jericho. Britain was Palestine's colonial ruler before Israel's independence in 1948, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair has made Arab-Israeli peace a priority.


In the past, Israel has resisted European or multinational forces in the territories out of concern that they would constrain its attacks on terrorist suspects. But that could change as Israel wrestles with implementing a plan announced last month by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to remove Israeli forces and 7,500 Jewish settlers from Gaza. Having failed to get Palestinians to work out a peace deal, Sharon says he'll unilaterally redraw Israel's borders.


A weakened Palestinian Authority might be unable to control the enclave of more than 1 million Palestinians if Israel pulls out. Recent killings in Gaza, including Tuesday's slaying of a prominent supporter of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat , underline the security nightmare that could unfold. Israelis are especially worried about arms smuggling from Egypt and rocket attacks on Israel from inside Gaza.


"The last thing we want to do is get out of Gaza and face Katyusha rockets on our southern towns," says Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States.


Although President Bush says he still supports the "road map" for peace he launched last year, his administration appears to have accepted Sharon's plan. Top officials have been shuttling between Washington and Jerusalem trying to finalize details before Sharon visits Washington soon. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites), whose forces could have a role in a new security plan for Gaza, is to visit Bush in April.


"The Israelis will need help, and they'll want help," says Dennis Ross, a former U.S. envoy to the Middle East.


Egypt's ambassador to the United States, Nabil Fahmy, says the Israelis have not put forward a formal proposal for enhanced security along the Gaza border. Fahmy says increased Egyptian help "has to be part of a comprehensive approach and should be done in consultation with the Palestinians."


So far, Palestinians have not been directly consulted about the withdrawal.


One possibility is to use the Multinational Force and Observers, a U.S.-led, 11-nation force of more than 1,600 peacekeepers that has monitored Israel's peace treaty with Egypt since 1982.