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News :: Israel / Palestine |
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Four Former Heads Of Shin-Bet Criticize Sharon's Policies |
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by haaretz via gehrig
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14 Nov 2003
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Only a few weeks after the Chief of Staff of the IDF criticized Sharon's policies as counterproductive, _four_ former heads of the Shin Bet -- sorta analogous to the FBI -- called for Israel to take unilateral actions to prevent "catastrophe." |
Last update - 22:38 14/11/2003
Ex-Shin Bet heads warn of 'catastrophe' without peace deal
By Haaretz Service and Agencies
In unusually brazen criticism of the government's handling of the conflict with the Palestinians, four former heads of the Shin Bet security service warned Friday of a "catastrophe" if a peace deal is not reached with the Palestinians.
"We are heading downhill towards near-catastrophe. If nothing happens and we go on living by the sword, we will continue to wallow in the mud and destroy ourselves," ex-security chief Yaakov Perry told the mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth, reflecting a consensus among his three colleagues - Ami Ayalon, Avraham Shalom and Carmi Gillon.
Asked to comment on the interview, a senior government source described the former security chiefs' approach as naive.
"The situation is not as weak as they describe," he said. "We have made major achievements in our fight against terrorism... [but must try] every place where it is possible... to relieve pressure on the Palestinians, we will do it."
But Perry told Israel Radio on Friday that the only way forward was for Israel to take unilateral steps, such as withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. Doing so, he said, could help draw the Palestinians to peace talks, minimize terror and help Israel improve economically. It would also raise Israel's status in the eyes of the world, he said.
"We need to take the situation into our own hands and leave Gaza with all the difficulty that that entails, and to dismantle illegal settlements," said Perry, who headed the agency for seven years, including during the 1987-1993 intifada. If Israel fails to take such steps, he said, it will remain under a constant threat of terror.
Ayalon, a left-leaning former general who directed the Shin Bet from 1996 to 2000, urged the government to act unilaterally and pull troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip, a position which Peri told the newspaper he also supported.
"We are taking sure, steady steps to a place where the state of Israel will no longer be a democracy and a home for the Jewish people," Ayalon told the newspaper.
Ayalon is the author of the "People's Voice" unofficial peace plan together with Sari Nusseibeh, a leading Palestinian intellectual and president of Al-Quds University.
Shalom, who served as Shin Bet head from 1980 to 1986 and is the veteran of the group, called the government's policies "contrary to the desire for peace."
"We must once and for all admit there is another side, that it has feelings, that it is suffering and that we are behaving disgracefully... this entire behavior is the result of the occupation," Shalom told the newspaper.
The four said that Israel needs to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip even if it entails an inevitable clash with the settlers.
"There will always be some groups... for whom the Land of Israel nestles in the hills of Nablus and inside Hebron and we will have to clash with them," Perry said.
However, Ayalon said he expects that only 10 percent of the more than 220,000 settlers would resist an evacuation of settlements. "We have to be capable of facing such a number," he said.
Carmi Gillon, whose term as Shin Bet chief was cut short in 1996 when he resigned after agency bodyguards failed to prevent the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist, described the government as short-sighted. Gillon was recently elected head of the Mevaseret Zion council.
"It is dealing solely with the question of how to prevent the next terrorist attack," Gillon said, referring to Palestinian suicide bombings. "It [ignores] the question of how we get out of the mess we find ourselves in today."
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat praised the former Shin Bet leaders on Friday. "It reflects the realistic policy required from the Israeli side," he said.
Former President Ezer Weizman called the ex-security service chiefs the "four musketeers" and accused them of bringing a catastrophe of their own upon Israel.
"This really makes me furious," Weizman told Channel One. "We have a country that is in a very delicate situation."
Two weeks ago, the Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon also criticized government policy, saying the roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were fuelling Palestinian resentment and leading to an increase in support for Hamas and other militant groups.
Ya'alon also accused the government of contributing to the failure of the Abbas government, claiming that Israel did not take enough steps to bolster Abbas, who ultimately resigned after a failed power struggle with Yasser Arafat.
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Follow-up: It Hits The New York Times |
by nytimes via gehrig
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Current rating: 0
14 Nov 2003
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November 14, 2003
4 Israeli Intelligence Experts Call for Political Solution
By GREG MYRE
JERUSALEM, Nov. 14 — Four former heads of the Israeli security service Shin Bet have delivered a blunt collective criticism of their nation's tough military policies toward the Palestinians, saying Israel urgently needs a political solution to the Mideast conflict.
"We are taking sure, steady steps to a place where the State of Israel will no longer be a democracy and a home for the Jewish people," said Ami Ayalon, who stepped down as head of Shin Bet three years ago.
At their own initiative, the ex-security chiefs gave a group interview that was published today in Israel's largest circulation daily, Yediot Ahronot. It was the latest in a series of public statements by security officials and soldiers, current and former, questioning Israel's strategy in dealing with the three-year-old Palestinian uprising.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a former general, has relied heavily on the military and insists that Palestinian violence cease before the two sides can restart full-fledged negotiations on a political settlement. Granting concessions amid the fighting would be "rewarding terrorism," Mr. Sharon has often said.
But the former security chiefs say the government is focused almost entirely on military solutions and is not exploring possibilities for a permanent solution to the decades-old conflict with the Palestinians.
"It is dealing solely with the question of how to prevent the next terrorist attack," said Carmi Gilon, a Shin Bet chief during the mid-1990's. Israeli leaders are not addressing "the question of how we get out of the mess we find ourselves in today."
The former security chiefs hold no important posts at present. But their views are generally respected based on their years of first-hand experience in dealing with Palestinian society in general, and militant groups in particular.
Mr. Ayalon is the only one of the four who has sought to maintain a high public profile recently. He has launched an initiative with a leading Palestinian moderate, Sari Nusseibeh, which calls for a swift resumption of negotiations with the aim of reaching a permanent peace deal and creating a Palestinian state.
"Many Israelis thought we could defeat the Palestinians by military means, and this would solve our problems," Mr. Ayalon told The New York Times in a separate interview. "But this hasn't worked. Our economy is deteriorating and we have to change directions."
The ex-security chiefs also said that peace plans calling for gradual steps were likely to fail. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are prepared to take a major risk that could break the current stalemate unless they can expect a major reward, they said.
The Palestinian leadership is unlikely to crack down on violent Palestinian factions and risk a Palestinian civil war, without a guarantee that a Palestinian state will emerge, Mr. Ayalon said.
In turn, Israel is unlikely to uproot settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip unless it believes the Palestinians are sincere about ending the conflict, he added.
The former Shin Bet men also said that any peace deal would require Israel to abandon most of its nearly 150 settlements, where about 230,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and Gaza.
Mr. Sharon "has spoken often about the need for painful compromises, and there are no painful compromises except the evacuation of settlements," said Yaakov Perry, the Shin Bet chief from 1988 to 1995.
Throughout the three years of fighting, a solid majority of Israelis have backed an aggressive military approach to the Palestinian violence. Mr. Sharon, Israel's most prominent hawk, has won two landslide elections, in March 2001 and last January.
With Israeli troops in or near Palestinian cities and towns for the past 18 months, the number of attacks against Israeli has declined. But the military has been unable to halt the violence, and intermittent Israeli-Palestinian political contacts have broken down.
On the Palestinian side, many acknowledge that the uprising has brought mostly misery. But public criticism is rarely directed at the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, who has jailed his more vocal critics in the past.
Among Israelis, criticism of government policies has recently arisen in some surprising quarters.
Last month, the chief of staff of Israel's Army, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, said the network of restrictions placed on the entire Palestinian population had proved counterproductive, breeding greater militancy.
In September, 27 reserve pilots in the Israeli Air Force signed a letter saying they opposed air strikes on militants in heavily populated civilian areas, often causing civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, several hundred Israeli reserve soldiers have refused to serve in the West Bank and Gaza, with some going to jail.
In another development, Israeli and Palestinian politicians announced last month that they had worked out an unofficial peace deal, known as the Geneva Accord, which they offered as a blueprint for formal negotiations.
The Israeli delegation was made up of liberals very much at odds with Mr. Sharon, while the Palestinian side included a number of negotiators who have worked closely with Mr. Arafat.
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Pope John Paul II Criticizes Israel's West Bank BarrierPolicies |
by AFP
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17 Nov 2003
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Pope John Paul II criticized Israel for building a barrier in the West Bank, saying the Middle East "does not need walls but bridges."
It was the first time that the pontiff had criticized Israel's construction of the 430-kilometer (270-mile) barrier and the comments made during Sunday prayers came on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's arrival for a visit to Italy.
"The construction of the wall between the Israeli people and the Palestinian people is seen by many as a new obstacle on the road leading to peaceful cohabitation," the pope said.
"In fact, the Holy Land does not need walls but bridges," he said.
Branded by the Palestinians as the "Apartheid Wall", the barrier effectively cuts off large swathes of fertile land and scores of villages from the rest of the Palestinian territory.
The Palestinians see the barrier as an attempt to draw the boundaries of their future state by seizing some of their most fertile land but Israel insists it is merely designed to prevent infiltrations by would-be attackers.
Israel is moving ahead on construction of a new section of the barrier after the latest project was approved by the cabinet last month.
Leading prayers from the balcony of his residence, the pope also lamented the loss of momentum in the Middle East peace process and called for reconciliation.
"Unfortunately, the momentum for peace seems to have stopped," he said.
"Without reconciliation, there cannot be peace."
Copyright 2003 AFP |
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