Posted on 09/10/2001 12:27:44 PM PDT by RCW2001
With nothing visible down the road but a tunnel at the end of the tunnel, Israel's security brass has balked at ordering fresh measures to combat unending Palestinian attacks. This has spurred despairing Israelis to propose an array of bizarre alternatives to nearly a year of inconsequential military gambits.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon summoned Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, IDF Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz and other senior commanders to a dead-of-night discussion at the army's Central Command headquarters to discuss responses to a brace of terrorist attacks Sunday. The attacks left five Israelis dead and nearly 100 injured in the space of five hours.
While the army might order retaliations in addition to Israel Defense Forces' ground and helicopter attacks that killed one Palestinian policeman on Sunday, no "new types of military operations" were approved, security sources said.
The apparent decision to stay the course militarily followed the cabinet's decision earlier on Sunday to gut an army plan to line the West Bank-Israel border with buffer zones, in which movement of Palestinians would be choked off to an absolute minimum.
The proposal - which sparked an angry, high-profile veto by Sharon when the military prepared to publicize it last week - also included establishment of detention camps and increased freedom for security forces to shoot at Palestinians found within the zones, according to security sources.
According to Ha'aretz military editor Ze'ev Schiff, Sharon's apparent motivation in torpedoing the IDF plan to strengthen the Green Line was political: Hawks fear that fortifying or otherwise marking the West Bank's pre-1967 war border could be construed as de facto recognition of the old border lines.
"Under the plan, the 1967 line defining Israel west of the Green Line and the settlements in the territories would, in effect, be redrawn," Schiff wrote in Monday's paper.
"A casual argument, involving issues of prestige, between Sharon's people and the personnel of the chief of staff, thus turned into a political debate that, in all likelihood, will have operational implications."
Israeli politicians were meanwhile lavish with suggestions Monday for changing the country's defense policies. Likud MK Yisrael Katz argued for a measure to outlaw the Israeli-Arab Islamic Movement, to which one of the suicide bombers belonged.
Ultra-rightist legislator and Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze'evi suggested that the military take a lesson from National Geographic documentaries showing how gun-fired tranquilizer darts are used to anesthetize the likes of lions and panthers.
Ze'evi said the prime minister had approved in principle his proposal to limit movement of Palestinians on the Jordan Rift highway, scene of a deadly Sunday ambush shooting that targeted a van carrying Israeli teachers. But he said another of his proposals - allowing police to fire at the legs of Arabs who appeared to be potential suicide bombers - would be approved only after "we have another 50, 60, 100 victims, God forbid, so let's begin by anesthetizing them."
Army Radio was swamped with faxes Monday after asking its listeners to submit suggestions for new forms of Israeli action. The suggestions included such proposals as having Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat "awaken each morning, wherever he is in the territories, to find that buildings within a 100 meter radius of his have been destroyed, in order to bring him to a state of fear and paranoia." Another listened said that all settlers should be paid double the value of their homes and "transferred" back to Israel proper, while Israeli Arabs would be sent to territory ruled by Arafat.
Ha'aretz military commentator Amir Oren said the government's limitations in stepping up military retaliations were dictated by political constraints - including the hope of renewed talks with the Palestinians -
and by the prospective reaction of the world community to large-scale escalation.
"If what Israel is seeking is containment, not total 'victory,' then they have really very little in the way of new military options to explore," Oren said.
He said that both sides were exhibiting signs of flagging and fatigue, with even Palestinian officials voicing doubts about continuing a conflict that has shown negligible gains for either side. "But [the Palestinian] officials' reservations haven't swayed the picture, because Arafat is the one that counts, and he doesn't share their views."
As for Israel's lack of options, Oren said, in a reference to the Nahariya suicide bomber's hometown, an Israeli-Arab village near the northern city: "What can the government really do at this point? Bomb Abu Snan?"
US: No Plans For Bush-Arafat Meeting in NY
How many times have you retracted a story, in essense, by posting a subsequent, contradicting article as I did with this subject???
With yesterday's Arab-Israeli bomber I guess its time to start the practice with Israel's own "citizens'.
That 'work for you' Roni??
Did not stop the US govt. from executing him when he killed his fellow citizens in a terrorist attack. Should the Israeli govt. not have that same right, or obligation? After all, the PA was asked to arrest that nutcase, but did not. If we were to discover that an unknown accomplice of McVeigh's was planning another attack....what would the American public want the US govt. to do?
If suicide bombers kill Israelis, Palestinian hostages are sent to paradise.
[sarcasm]
What a stupid analogy...McVeigh had years of trials (such as they were) before being put to death.
Further, his being put to death by the US gov't did not involve civilian casualties as a result of carrying out his 'execution'.
Do I take it that you disapprove of McVeigh's trials and believe he was not fairly treated?
The analogy fits...and I assure you if McVeigh had resisted arrest he would have been shot by authorites...if it came to that. I remember reading about how the US went after SLA...and took them out when they resisted. NO COUNTRY will abide homegrown terrorism and Israel is no different.
Click on ‘Send’
Michael Freund 10 September 2001
Sporting a new determination to impose some order on my life, I finally began cleaning out my computer, erasing the hundreds of messages, unsolicited advertisements and other assorted clutter that fills up my e-mail system. So if you are still waiting for me to reply to a message you sent last February, don’t give up hope - it should be coming any day now.
Cleaning out my word processor files has proven to be even more eventful, as I have found a couple of recent letters I wrote that I never got around to sending. But rather than going to the trouble of folding the paper and licking the envelope, I thought it would be easier to just click on the ‘send’ button, and let the media do the rest of the work. So, here is a sampling of two letters from my “outbox”:
Letter #1
To Yasser Arafat:
It has been a while since I wrote a letter to an aging dictator, so I hope you won’t mind if I am a little rusty.
I feel compelled to write because in the past year you have waged an unrelenting campaign of violence and terror, targeting innocent human beings in the streets, the malls and even in pizza parlors throughout Israel. You have killed a lot of people and destroyed many lives.
But I want you to know one very simple thing: You will never break the Jewish people or its spirit.
We did not survive two thousand years of exile, persecution, pogroms, Crusades, expulsions, forced conversions, martyrdom and Cossacks only to be defeated in our own homeland by a rag-tag band of cowardly terrorists. The Jewish people have come together like never before, united in fear but allied in fate, our determination to persevere fusing us all into a single entity whose will to live can never be crushed.
We are confident in the justness of our cause, unshaken in our belief that this land belongs to us, regardless of what your friends in Durban may think. The people of Israel offered you more than any other nation would possibly have been willing to give. Foolishly, you turned it down.
Yasser, you have no one to blame but yourself for the consequences.
Your reign of terror will never be forgiven. You have earned yourself a place among history’s most reviled figures. Many Israelis once sought to give you a state all your own. Now, most would prefer to see you put on trial for war crimes.
You can travel the world as much as you like, bemoaning your fate and that of your people, but it won’t make one bit of difference. For deep down, you know it as well as the rest of us: your time is up. History gave you an unprecedented chance, but you let it slip away.
Israel does not want war, nor did we ask for it. But make no mistake, dear Yasser, if given no alternative, the Jewish people will know how to fight it. And win.
And don't forget...the USA supports Israel.
Finally, someone is starting to make sense.
As for Israel's lack of options, Oren said, in a reference to the Nahariya suicide bomber's hometown, an Israeli-Arab village near the northern city: "What can the government really do at this point? Bomb Abu Snan?"
There are other possibilities.
I'll bet that you're a fake by the name of Astonished.
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