ERUSALEM, Nov. 14 — In a joint interview published
Friday, four former heads of the Shin Bet security service delivered a
blistering collective criticism of Israel's tough military policies toward
the Palestinians, saying Israel urgently needed a political solution to
the Middle East conflict.
"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," said Ami
Ayalon, the Shin Bet chief from 1996 to 2000.
Israel's largest circulation daily, Yediot Ahronot, splashed a huge
front-page headline over the interview with the ex-chiefs of Shin Bet, or
the General Security Service. "Four directors of G.S.S. warn: Israel in
grave danger," read the headline above photos of the four, who ran the
agency for nearly two decades. Interviewed, besides Mr. Ayalon, were Carmi
Gilon, Yaakov Perry and Avraham Shalom.
The blunt critique of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies was the
latest in a series by security officials and soldiers, current and former,
questioning Israel's strategy in its battle against the three-year-old
Palestinian uprising. Last month, the army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe
Yaalon, said the network of restrictions placed on the Palestinian
population had proved counterproductive, breeding greater militancy.
Mr. Sharon, a former general, has relied heavily on the military, and
has insisted that Palestinian violence cease before the two sides can
restart negotiations toward a settlement. Granting concessions during the
fighting would be "rewarding terrorism," he has often said.
A solid majority of Israelis has backed his aggressive military
approach, according to polls. Mr. Sharon, Israel's most prominent hawk,
has won two landslide elections, in March 2001 and in January of this
year. But the army has not been able to halt attacks, prompting some calls
for a greater emphasis on diplomacy. Mr. Sharon is currently considering
whether to hold talks with the recently installed Palestinian prime
minister, Ahmed Qurei.
The former security chiefs said the government was focused almost
entirely on military solutions, at the expense of finding ways to reach a
permanent peace deal.
"It is dealing solely with the question of how to prevent the next
terrorist attack," said Mr. Gilon, the Shin Bet chief during the
mid-1990's, in the interview. Israeli leaders are not addressing "the
question of how we get out of the mess we find ourselves in today."
The former security chiefs hold no important posts at present. But
their views are generally respected, based on their years of firsthand
experience in dealing with Palestinians, in particular the militant
groups.
Mr. Sharon's government did not respond to the criticism. But a former
Israeli president, Ezer Weizman, told Israeli television: "This really
makes me furious. We have a country that is in a very delicate
situation."
Mr. Ayalon is the only one of the four men who has sought to maintain a
high public profile recently. He joined forces with a leading Palestinian
moderate, Sari Nusseibeh, to campaign for a swift resumption of
negotiations with the aim of reaching a permanent peace deal and creating
a Palestinian state.
"Many Israelis thought we could defeat the Palestinians by military
means, and this would solve our problems," Mr. Ayalon said Friday in a
separate interview. "But this hasn't worked. Our economy is deteriorating
and we have to change directions."
The former security chiefs also said that peace plans calling for
gradual steps were likely to fail. Neither the Israelis nor the
Palestinians are prepared to take a major risk that could break the
current stalemate unless they can expect a major reward, they said.
The Palestinian leadership is unlikely to crack down on violent
factions, risking a civil war, without a guarantee that a viable
Palestinian state will emerge, Mr. Ayalon said. In turn, he said, Israel
was unlikely to uproot settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
unless it believed that the Palestinians were sincere about ending the
conflict.
The former Shin Bet chiefs also said that any peace deal would require
Israel to abandon most of its nearly 150 settlements, where about 230,000
Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and Gaza.
Mr. Sharon "has spoken often about the need for painful compromises,
and there are no painful compromises except the evacuation of
settlements," said Mr. Perry, the Shin Bet chief from 1988 to 1995.
On the Palestinian side, many acknowledge that the uprising has brought
mostly misery. But public criticism is rarely directed at the Palestinian
leader, Yasir Arafat, who has jailed his more vocal critics in the
past.
Among Israelis, criticism of government policies has arisen in some
surprising quarters recently.
In addition to the critique offered by General Yaalon, 27 reserve
pilots in the Israeli Air Force earlier signed a letter saying they
opposed airstrikes that targeted militants in heavily populated civilian
areas, and that often caused civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, several hundred Israeli reserve soldiers have signed a
petition saying they will refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza, with
some going to jail.
Israeli and Palestinian politicians announced last month that they had
worked out an unofficial peace deal, known as the Geneva Accord, which
they offered as a blueprint for formal negotiations. The Israeli
delegation was made up of liberals very much at odds with Mr. Sharon,
while the Palestinian side included a number of negotiators who had worked
closely with Mr. Arafat.
