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Politics

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Prophets of Doom
The latest polls show that Israeli public support for the Gaza pullout has plunged to a low of 48 percent, down from a high of 68 percent in February. Pollsters say many Israelis are fed up with the turmoil over the plan, which is dividing the nation.

People are also concerned about warnings from senior defense officials, who have gone public with doomsday scenarios. First, the outgoing Israeli army chief Moshe Ya’alon warned that the Gaza pullout will be followed by a new wave of Palestinian terror. “There will be an eruption...terrorist attacks of all types: shootings, bombs, suicide bombers, mortars, Qassam rockets,” Ya’alon told the Hebrew daily Ha’aretz.

Ya’alon also said the creation of a Palestinian state would lead to war “at some stage” because it “will be a state that tries to undermine Israel.” He described the Palestinian Authority as a group of “armed gangs pretending to be a democracy.”

The outgoing head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service (the Israeli equivalent of the FBI) also left his post on a pessimistic note. Avi Dichter said Jewish militants might open fire on Israeli troops during the Gaza evacuation, or worse, they could try a suicide attack to kill Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. “Suicide attacks are not limited to the Palestinians,” Dichter told Israel’s biggest newspaper Yediot Ahronot. “There can be Jewish suicide attackers. Their first target is the Prime Minister.”

Dichter urged the government to demolish Jewish settlements in Gaza to avoid what he called a “festival of looting” by Palestinians. But the government plans to leave the communities intact, saying it would take too much time and money to raze them.

Dichter also warned against Sharon’s plan to pull out of the volatile Philadelphia Corridor, a haven for weapons smuggling from Egypt to Palestinian terror groups in Gaza. He said that would enable the Palestinians to smuggle in sophisticated weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles and turn Gaza into an armed camp.

With these dire warnings it’s no wonder that public support for the withdrawal has declined. It’s becoming obvious to the public that the pullout, which is costing more than $2 billion and tearing the nation apart, will not accomplish anything.

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