- Four former directors of Israel's Shin Bet security service
have given unprecedented warnings that the prime minister, Ariel Sharon,
is leading the country to catastrophe by failing to pursue peace with the
Palestinians.
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- The criticisms, which follow a warning by the army chief
of staff, Lieutenant General Moshe Ya'alon, a fortnight ago that the government's
harsh treatment of Palestinian civilians was "strengthening terrorist
organisations", provide further evidence that confidence in Mr Sharon
is crumbling in the security establishment.
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- The former Shin Bet chiefs - Yaakov Perry, Ami Ayalon,
Avraham Shalom and Carmi Gilon - made their criticisms in an interview
with the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.
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- "We are heading downhill towards near-catastrophe,"
Mr Perry said. "If we go on living by the sword, we will continue
to wallow in the mud and destroy ourselves."
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- Mr Shalom called the government's policies "contrary
to the desire for peace".
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- The former intelligence chiefs said Mr Sharon's insistence
on a complete halt to "terrorist attacks" before peace talks
could begin in earnest was either misguided or a ploy to avoid negotiations
and continue the policies of Israeli expansionism.
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- "[The government] is dealing solely with the question
of how to prevent the next terrorist attack," Mr Gilon said. "It
[ignores] the question of how we get out of the mess we find ourselves
in today ... It is clear to me that we are heading toward a crash."
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- The former intelligence chiefs agreed on a need to take
swift steps towards ending the occupation by dismantling some Jewish settlements
in the West Bank and Gaza.
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- "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 Mr Perry. "There will always be some
[settler] groups ... for whom the land of Israel nestles in the hills of
Nablus and inside Hebron and we will have to clash with them."
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- Mr Shalom backed Gen Ya'alon's earlier view that Israel's
treatment of ordin ary Palestinians was wrong.
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- "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 behaviour is the result of the occupation,"
he said.
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- So far, the government shows little sign of changing
tack. Mr Sharon has accused his critics of playing into the hands of terrorists.
The present director of the Shin Bet, Avi Dichter, continues to argue for
maintaining stringent restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians.
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- The defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, said in a recent interview
that the army could defeat the armed Palestinian groups, although he warned
it could take generations.
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- But Mr Perry said Israelis should listen to those with
more experience.
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- "Why is it that that every one, Shin Bet directors,
chiefs of staff, former security personnel, after a long service in the
security organisations, become the advocates of reconciliation with the
Palestinians?" he asked.
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- "Why? Because we know the material, the people in
the field and, surprisingly enough, both sides."
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- · Palestinians are becoming less interested in
trying to reach a two-state solution, preferring instead to wait until
they outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and then agitating
for the vote, Israel's deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was quoted as
saying in a newspaper report published yesterday.
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- In response, Israel should quickly impose a unilateral
settlement on the Palestinians, he said. The settlement should "maximise
the number of Jews [and] minimise the number of Palestinians" in Israeli's
territory, he said. Israel should not withdraw to the 1967 borders and
not divide Jerusalem.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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