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Lt. Gen. Yaalon during his active service. (AP)
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| By Morton A. Klein May 15, 2006 |
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Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Moshe Ya'alon, in an address to the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), warned of the perils of a Palestinian state, further concessions to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and stressed the need for Israel to achieve a decisive victory against Palestinian terrorism.
Speaking to an overflow crowd of over 500 people at Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan, Ya'alon explained from his 37 years' military experience, especially his term as Chief of Staff (2002-2005) in which the IDF greatly reduced Palestinian terrorism, why he, a former kibbutznik from the Labor movement who had initially supported the Oslo process, completely changed his mind.
As a senior military figure during the Oslo process, Ya'alon said that it became obvious to him by 1995 that Yasser Arafat and the PA, instead of preparing Palestinian society for peace and reconciliation, were indoctrinating it with murderous hatred and glorifying jihad and suicide terrorism. As he puts it, "I needed no sophisticated intelligence to reach this conclusion -- I only had to look at their textbooks, posters and so on. We should not be surprised, but we ignored it. In 1999, I was commander of Central Command and I said then that we would face a war with Arafat in 2000. I knew it when Barak said that he would have a settlement with Arafat within 15 months, which meant by September 2000. Israel and the West were surprised."
Ya'alon believes that Israel started to win the war on the PA by methodically cutting down the terrorists and taking the war to them but then lost many of the gains it had made. He speaks of Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and especially the clearing out of Jenin as "a very necessary operation." The result was that the terrorist organizations, including Hamas, were on the run.
But the announcement in December 2003 that Israel would unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and northern Samaria changed all that. Hamas and others concluded that their terrorist campaign was working, that no concessions had to be made and that more terrorism would bring about more unilateral withdrawals from Israel.
Ya'alon stressed that the Israelis withdrawal from Gaza was a major factor in the Hamas election victory because it was perceived as surrender to Islamic terrorism. "What we are doing is leaving a legacy for the next generation who will deal with Palestinians who believe that terrorism pays, that Israel cuts and runs under pressure," Ya'alon explained. He added that Israel is in a "war" not merely dealing with an uprising.
Worse, Israel left Gaza saying it would fiercely retaliate against continued terrorism launched from there, but did not. Ya'alon said that "After the Gaza withdrawal, I would have recommended after the first Qassam rocket fired into Israel that there should have been a strong and immediate retaliation." But Israel did not follow this path. Instead, Israel is following the path of facilitating the creation of a Palestinian state.
"The establishment of a Palestinian state," says Ya'alon, "will lead, at some stage, to war. Such a war can be dangerous to the State of Israel. The idea that a Palestinian state will achieve stability is disconnected from reality and dangerous." He said that the Israelis must maintain a military presence in Judea and Samaria as long as the Palestinians refuse to make a serious peace deal, and that "Israel must brand into the Palestinians' consciousness" that terror will bring them no benefits.
In line with that, Ya'alon calls for a proactive anti-terrorist campaign. "The best defense is a good offense, not a fence. The best way to deal with terrorists is to arrest them or kill them in their beds. Without dealing with the roots, we can cut down the weeds -- to deal with the roots would be to force them to reform their education and culture. I am not sure we will succeed but we should be under no pressure to make any concessions until these changes."
Ya'alon therefore emphasizes that, "The two-state solution has failed and to my mind is now irrelevant. In Israel we must consolidate our Jewish Zionist narrative. Without believing in our case, there is no way to convince someone else. Even before the Hamas victory, a two-state solution was a mistaken fantasy -- now it's even more irrelevant. The Palestinians knew exactly who Hamas was when they voted for them." Ya'alon also pointedly states, "If we couldn't tame and change Arafat, we can't tame and change Hamas. [But] if we're in Judea and Samaria we can thwart the terrorism from there." It is for this reason that Ya'alon calls Israeli leaders who call for more unilateral concessions as "confused" and offering the Israeli public "illusions."
Ya'alon concluded by saying that "we don't need Chamberlains, we need Churchills" who offer realism and optimism, warning of "blood, toil, tears and sweat" but also the prospect of ultimate victory. "We are flooded with lies, manipulated by Al Qaeda, but most prominently by the Palestinians"?says Ya'alon who urges Israel and the West to cease preferring "to be confused, to ignore reality" by adopting the "moral clarity" to see that the "from the dawn of Zionism until this day, the source of all terrorist attacks has been the refusal of the Arab world to recognize Israel's existence. Until these changes we will remain the target of violent terrorist activity. The '67 borders are neither a solution to rocket attacks, suicide bombs nor to more conventional forms of warfare. Iran sees us withdrawing from Gaza, Hamas is elected, they see US trouble in Iraq and because they do not pay price for financing, supporting and encouraging terrorism, they continue. As long as they see our appeasement policy, they will continue."
Israel is proposing to give away 95% of Judea and Samaria and declare borders. The US has already said it will not accept these borders unless the PA does, and the PA says it won't. Therefore, if Israel goes through with this huge withdrawal, it would face the horrifying dilemma of having given away all the leverage it must maintain to resolve issues such as Jerusalem, refugees, demilitarization, etc. and finding itself in the predicament of having nothing left to offer.
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