4 Shin-Bet chiefs' prophesies denounced as political

Jerusalem Post ^ | Nov. 15, 2003 | GIL HOFFMAN

[yonif]

The prophesies of four former heads of the Shin-Bet that Israel is headed toward a catastrophe that headlined Friday's Yediot Aharonot were political, two high-ranking former Shin-Bet agents, Minister-without-Portfolio Gideon Ezra and MK Ehud Yatom said on Saturday night.

The State Department was reluctant to comment on the criticism aired by the four former Shin Bet chiefs. "There's always controversy, and I don't want to add to it... both sides need to stick to their commitments to the road map," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Friday.

Former Shin-Bet chiefs Ami Ayalon, Yaacov Perry, Carmi Gilon, and Avraham Shalom in a joint interview called upon the government to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and evacuate settlements in Judea and Samaria. They accused Israel of not taking into account the troubles of the Palestinians said the lack of an operative peace deal with the Palestinians puts the Jewish state in jeopardy.

Ezra, who served as deputy Shin-Bet chief but was not promoted for political reasons, criticized the four for using their former positions to promote their political positions.

"Their willingness to surrender to terror is unacceptable, and it is inappropriate for men of their stature to express their views in this manner," Ezra said. "All of them fought terror in some way, some better than others, but none of them foresaw the Palestinian reactions to the Oslo process, the first Intifada, or the second."

Yatom said the interview was a publicity stunt for Ayalon's Peoples Voice peace plan, intended to give his proposal traction before the Geneva Initiative is delivered to homes on Sunday.

"If the four of them want to have impact, they should visit the Prime Ministers office, the cabinet, or the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee," Yatom said. "There are ways of expressing their opinion in legitimate forums instead of by making extreme statements in the press."

Yatom said that ex-security officials often begin to think differently when they are no longer in decision-making positions. He said that when they were in the Shin-Bet, they thought much the same as the current Shin-Bet chief Avi Dichter.

"They believed then as Dichter believes now that terror must be targeted until it collapses," Yatom said. "We need to dismantle terror groups, not settlements. Without fighting terror, any solution of separation or withdrawing to pre-1967 lines will be ineffective."

[yonif]

Ping.

[Alouette]

If the Leftists cn't control the country and set all the policies, then they are going to destroy the country.

[jonatron]

You just can't give into terror, it only feeds the fire.

In Israel's case, it's be even worse to give away God's own country, considering the terrorists already use everything they have to fight Israel with the goal of total anhihilation of the Jewish state.

[GladesGuru]

It would appear that the French aren't the only ones to have surender monkey types walking their streets and fouling their airways.