Four former Israeli security chiefs sharply criticized Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies toward the Palestinians on Friday, warning that Israel is headed for catastrophe if it does not reach a peace deal soon.
The quartet, respected for their combined 18 years experience as leaders of the Shin Bet security agency, called on the Israeli government to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The joint criticism from a group of men with deep knowledge of the conflict with the Palestinians takes the increasingly unpopular Sharon to task not from the perspective of morality, but from that of security, where he has long appeared invulnerable.
"It is clear to me that we are heading toward a crash," said Carmi Gilon, one of the group.
The four -- Yaakov Perry, Ami Ayalon, Avraham Shalom and Gilon -- spoke in an interview with the Yediot Ahronot daily published on Friday.
"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.
Their comments came two weeks after Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon said the government needed to ease restrictions -- despite the threat of militant attacks -- that have increasingly angered ordinary Palestinians.
Perry said it was no coincidence that those closest to the conflict came to the same conclusion.
"Why is it that that every one, Shin Bet directors, chiefs of staff, former security personnel -- after a long service in the security organizations -- become the advocates of reconciliation with the Palestinians?" Perry said. "We know the material, the people in the field and surprisingly enough both sides."
The Shin Bet is intimately familiar with the conflict. It is in charge of preventing attacks on Israelis, runs a network of Palestinian informers throughout the West Bank and Gaza and interrogates Palestinian security detainees.
The group of former Shin Bet leaders said that for its own survival Israel needs to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip even if leads to a clash with some of the 220,000 Jewish settlers who live there.
Meanwhile, amid efforts to revive peace talks, Islamic militant groups have shown a willingness to respect a Palestinian ceasefire with Israel, a Palestinian official said yesterday.
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said militant factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, were open to the idea of a ceasefire as long as it came with Israeli assurances that it would halt military operations in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, have been trying to get back to peace talks, preparing for a possible summit in the coming days aimed at renewing stalled progress on an American-sponsored peace plan. And an Egyptian mediator was to arrive in the region tomorrow to try to persuade Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis.
The new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia is trying to encourage violent factions to sign on to a ceasefire, to replace a truce that collapsed over the summer.
Under the previous truce, militants agreed to a unilateral, temporary halt to suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis.
Shaath, the foreign minister, said yesterday that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were now looking for assurances that a truce would also be observed by Israel, but were supportive of the idea of an open-ended ceasefire.
"There will be an effort in our meetings with the Israelis to obtain the commitments for reciprocity," Shaath said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS