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.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
RSS