The lessons Israel should learn
by Meir Pa'il
The first conclusion that the Israeli political
and security establishment should learn and
internalize after 18 months of Palestinian
Intifada, concerns the intensity of Palestinian
blind terrorism and guerilla warfare against the
State of Israel and the entire Israeli presence
between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. These
have reached dimensions that are both painful and
impressive from the standpoint of the use of
force. This is relevant not only for the Jewish
public in Eretz-Israel and the world, but for most
international actors, large and small, whatever
their direct stake in the outcome.
Thus the upgrading of Palestinian warfare over the
past year and a half arouses concern. It obliged
the Israeli government in April 2002 to initiate a
large-scale military offensive against Palestinian
terrorist concentrations in all the Arab cities of
the West Bank (except Jericho, Hebron and East
Jerusalem) and surrounding Arab villages. This
counterattack clearly reflected the Israel Defense
Forces' force superiority in direct encounters
with Palestinian terrorist bases. On the other
hand, international pressures exercised by the
United States, Europe and the United Nations
forced Israel to withdraw the better part of its
forces from most of the territories they occupied-
-a withdrawal that revealed, and apparently will
continue to reveal, unnecessary acts of Israeli
cruelty.
In the absence of a fair political solution for
the realization of the Palestinian people's
legitimate right to self determination--
independence alongside Israel, not instead of
Israel--brutal Palestinian terrorism will
continue. In the not too distant future it will
provoke new temporary IDF conquests, which in turn
will generate intensified international pressures
on Israel, followed by a renewed and temporary IDF
withdrawal, and so on and on in a routine of
bloodshed, until the only possible and fair
political solution is realized: the establishment
of an independent Palestinian state alongside
Israel, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, whose
government operates in East Jerusalem. Such a
solution will inevitably require the removal of a
number of Israeli settlements from the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. It is apparent that without
energetic pressure and intervention by the world's
powers, led by the US, Israelis and Palestinians
will not succeed on their own in compromising on a
permanent peace agreement.
Meanwhile it behooves us to focus on two negative
phenomena that are increasingly taking root in the
Israeli reality. First, Israeli security circles
are becoming captivated by the ritual of fences.
This approach is based on a vain trust that failed
as far back as 1938, when the British built the
"northern fence" along the border with Lebanon. It
makes sense to put up political fences to separate
nations and states, but only after they have
reached clear political understandings, and if
possible peace agreements. A strategic fence
without a political agreement is a pointless
waste. Unfortunately, for some people in Israel
the notion of a fence is replacing political peace
arrangements.
Secondly, there is slowly developing a dangerous
dynamic among Israel's Arab citizens. The more
extreme the Palestinian struggle against Israel in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the stronger the
negative suffusion of Palestinian hatred for
Israel into the hearts of Israeli Arabs. This is
an unnecessary additional injection of venom into
Israel's future. It must not be ignored, lest this
important Arab public, which has been slowly
coming to terms with its fate of living together
with us in a modern democratic country, now ally
itself with our enemies.
In conclusion, note the interesting statement by
General Peterson, from a visiting delegation of
pro-Israel retired American generals (Yediot
Aharonot, April 26, 2002, Saturday Supplement, p.
11): "Al Qaida exists and will continue to exist
as long as there is a situation where people live
without hope. This is the infrastructure where al-
Qaida soldiers will be found." In my assessment,
this perceptive analysis by an American general is
doubly applicable to the Palestinian people.
Colonel (res.) Dr. Meir Pa'il is a military
historian. He was a member of the 8th and 9th
Knessets (1974-1981) on behalf of the Moked and
Shelli peace parties.
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