So say four of Israel’s former security chiefs. This confirms what many have said for a long time i.e. that Israel will be doomed if the likes of Sharon are not stopped in their war crimes against the Palestinian people.
Israel cannot live by the sword, Sharon warned
IN A damning critique of Ariel Sharon’s Government, four of Israel’s former security chiefs gave warning yesterday that the Jewish state would face “catastrophe” unless it changed direction. The unprecedented broadside at Mr Sharon’s hardline “security-first” policies included a warning by one former head of the Shin Bet security service that the country could no longer “live by the sword”. Others accused Mr Sharon’s right-wing coalition of acting “contrary to the desire for peace” and using demands for an end to “terror” attacks as “an excuse for doing nothing”. Speaking to Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s largest-circulation newspaper, the four retired Shin Bet directors, Avraham Shalom, Yaakov Peri, Carmi Gillon and Ami Ayalon, voiced particular concern about the humanitarian effects of imposing curfews and roadblocks in Palestinian towns. “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,” said Yaakov Peri, echoing the leaked concerns of Israel’s Chief of Staff, Moshe Yaalon, that such measures fuelled Palestinian hatred.
The criticisms range from individual policies — building a barbed wire fence around the West Bank, threatening to expel Yassir Arafat and failing to support Mahmoud Abbas, the reformist Palestinian Prime Minister — to wider ethical issues. Mr Shalom, Shin Bet director from 1980 to 1986, said that if Israel insisted on holding on to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, in the process “debasing” Palestinians held behind roadblocks and checkpoints, there could be no political progress. ***“We must, once and for all, admit that there is another side, that it has feelings and that it is suffering, and that we are behaving disgracefully,” he said. “Nobody can take this. We, too, would not take it if it were done to us.” *** Mr Ayalon, a former general who has co-authored an unofficial peace plan with Sari Nusseibeh, a Palestinian intellectual, said that the administration was “taking very sure and measured steps to a point where the state of Israel will not be a democracy or a home for the Jewish people”. He called for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, home to 1.1 million Palestinians and a few thousand Jewish settlers, saying that dismantling illegal settlements would encourage the Palestinian leadership to “come to the negotiating table”.
IMO, the least the Isrealis can do is listen to their own people…
Four former Israeli security service chiefs have launched a scathing attack on the government’s handling of the peace process with the Palestinians. The men called for Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and dismantle Jewish settlements, or face “disaster”. Their comments follow remarks last month by Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, who said Israeli measures have generated anger among Palestinians.
Israeli government officials called the men’s criticisms naive.
In my opinion, the Isrealis are going through the same dilemma as we the inhabiatnts of the Land of Pure are going through. In Isreal as well, they have moderate Jewish, who also happens to be in majority, and the minority extremists have hijacked the whole policy making stage. I can further prove my point by stating, that not too long ago there were some pilots from Isreali airforce who refused to attack the Palestianians, I also read a story not too long ago, where a father of a suicide bombing victim, blamed the Isreali government. And these are just couple of examples, I'm sure there are many more examples of Jewish-Muslim living/or atleast trying to live in a civilised manner, if we just look a little harder.
I agree Zulfi, and just as in our country the extremists drown out the moderates with hateful rhetoric and sloganeering, the Israelis are also facing the same dilemma.
Interesting. Though I wouldn't hold my breath for all jews to run away from Israel so that Palestinians can move back in to their homeland.
Although its obvious that constant civil-war like situation is taking a huge toll on Israeli economy. They were receiving immense investments from high-tech companies (Intel's Centrino is developed almost entirely in Israel, for example), but now all the economic indicators seems to be going South in the holy land.
The Israelis are building a state that just is'nt sustainable. Can you imagine a nation that is soley based on military superiority to it's neighbors lasting? Impossible, you just can't sustain that forever. They should work to ingratiate themselves to their neighbors while they still can.
They should move out and stay out. Israel is a reality. But that doesnt mean it has to stay within its present borders or at the location it exists at now. Israel is shooting itself in the foot with all these incursions. You can oppress peopel for only so long before they completely eliminate the oppressors. France and its revolutions, Russia etc. Israel should learn from history.
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*Originally posted by elahi: *
The Israelis are building a state that just is'nt sustainable. Can you imagine a nation that is soley based on military superiority to it's neighbors lasting? Impossible, you just can't sustain that forever.
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Apartheid South Africa was like that, and look what happened to it.
^ Exactly, every state has a beginning and every state has an end. This is an indisputable fact of history. The difference between Israel and other states in this respect is that when the end comes in Israel it will be a very ugly spectacle to behold. I think it will take a long, long time before the people that Israel have wronged wil forget what has happened to them. I can't imagine the kind of revenge they will extract when they get a chance.