Four ex-intelligence chiefs criticize Sharon & Israeli tactics.

Members of their equivalent of Delta Force starts rebelling.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20118-2003Dec21.html


Elite Israeli Troops Refuse To Serve in the Territories

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 22, 2003; Page A19


JERUSALEM, Dec. 21 -- Thirteen reservists from Israel's elite military commando unit stated Sunday in a letter to the prime minister that they would no longer serve in the occupied territories, joining other influential security officials who have recently criticized Israeli military tactics and treatment of the Palestinians.


"We have long ago crossed the line between fighters fighting a just cause and oppressing another people," three officers and 10 soldiers of the army's most secretive unit, the Sayeret Matkal, said in the letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The letter was made public by the soldiers, who signed with their ranks, first names and the first letter of their last names.

The reservists said they were taking the dramatic step of publicly criticizing their government's policies "out of deep fear for the future of the state of Israel as a democratic, Zionist and Jewish country and out of concern for its moral and ethical image."

"It is very grave and unfortunate that reservists use the unit in which they served as a platform for publicizing their political views," said an Israeli military spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The condemnation of government policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the commandos echoes similar recent remarks by a group of 27 reserve pilots, four former chiefs of Israel's powerful domestic security service, the military's current chief of staff, and a separate list of 574 army reservists. The statements by reservists are being organized by a group calling itself Courage to Refuse.

The criticism from within the Israeli military and security forces has unsettled the Sharon administration and has contributed to discontent expressed in the last few months by many segments of Israeli society over the government's handling of the Palestinian uprising, now in its fourth year.

Political analysts said the comments from soldiers and military officers on operations in the occupied territories was one of the reasons Sharon announced last week that his government would unilaterally establish what he called a security line between the West Bank and Israel if the Palestinian Authority did not act quickly to stem terrorism.

An open protest letter from members of a military unit that has been involved in dozens of the Israeli military's most sensitive operations is highly unusual, analysts said.

"This is the number-one military unit in Israel," said Yagil Levy, author of a recent book on the Israeli military. "Until 10 years ago nobody could even mention its name publicly because it was covered by censorship regulations. It is a very mysterious unit responsible for the most heroic missions the Israeli Defense Forces have ever made."

Members of the commando unit specialize in counterterrorism, assassinations and rescue missions. One of their most famous operations was the 1976 rescue of hostages from a hijacked French airplane in Entebbe, Uganda. Israeli documents declassified after last week's capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein confirmed accounts that the unit planned an assassination attempt against Hussein in 1992, but it was aborted when five commandos were killed during a rehearsal for the mission.

Some of Israel's most prominent current and former leaders have been members of the commando unit, including former prime minister Ehud Barak; Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu; Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, chief of staff of the armed forces; and the director of the Shin Bet security agency, Avi Dichter.

Although the unit does not participate in routine activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it has reportedly been involved in some of the most critical missions, involving intelligence gathering and assassinations of Palestinians.

The 13 reserve officers and soldiers accused the Israeli government of "depriving the rights of millions of Palestinians" and using soldiers as "human shields for the settlements."

The letter said, "We will no longer butcher our humanity by taking part in an occupying army's missions."

At least two reservists from the unit were jailed last year by the military for refusing to serve in the Palestinian territories. It was unclear whether those two were among the signatories of the letter because the names of the jailed men has not been divulged publicly.

Effi Eitam, a reserve general and the head of the National Religious Party, which strongly supports Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, said, "Those who signed are not worthy of being called soldiers," the Associated Press reported.

Separately on Sunday, Israeli military activities continued in the West Bank, where a six-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammad Naim Isryda, was shot in the chest and killed while playing near his house in the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus, Palestinian medical officials reported. Israeli military officials said soldiers opened fire on the area after a homemade explosive was thrown at them. Another youngster from the camp, Nur Emran, 13, died from injuries he suffered on Tuesday, when an Israeli soldier shot him in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The soldiers opened fire on youths who were throwing stones, bricks and bottles, a military spokesman said. The spokesman said the military had not received any formal complaint that a youth had been hit.

 

This is good news. I also just heard on NPR that Egypt will be putting pressure on Palestinian militant groups that engage in terror, and possibly helping to work towards a peace with the Israelis and Palestinians. Egypt had withdrawn their abassador to Israel three years ago, but now Egyptian officials will be traveling to Israel. They are also going to start opening up business connectoins with Israel.

Hopefully things will progress on all fronts. These courageous Israeli officials and soldiers can keep up the good work.

 

Bush is right. Arafat is one of the biggest supporters of terrorism, which is hardly surprising considering he was a terrorist himself. I guess you didn't notice, but all of the suicide bombers, in fact pretty much anyone associated with terrorism is a hero to the Palestinians. That is why the have posters and trading cards of the "martyrs". The terrorist and their leader, Arafat, are not only the largest obstacle to peace, they are the ONLY obstacle. If Arafat and the terror organizations disappeared tomarrow, there would be peace between Israel and Palestine.

 

I see, but the first govt. and members of the Israeli govt. were terrorists too. What do we do about that? Shall we just condemn one side?

Or is intentionally bombing civilian hotels with civilians in it, ok for one side to do when fighting for statehood?

 

my dad who is a hard core republican has also criticized sharon's tactics if it matters to anyone. maybe i can get him to write an article on it so we can post it on clutchcity and debate it.

 

How about the Israeli settlement folk?

 

Speaking of treating both sides equally, what about the call for getting WMD out of Israel?

 

Has any other country on the planet had it's very existence threatened? If any country needs nukes, it's Israel.

Also, Israel:
1) has not threatened to push any of it's neighbors into the sea;
2) has shown that it can 'handle' the nukes (not use them or threaten neighbors with them);
3) can keep them from falling into terrorist hands, instead of maybe desiring them to;
4) Israel's possession of nukes has been a stabilizing factor in the M.E., whereas most other nations acquiring them there would be de-stabilizing.

Apples and oranges. Your logic is analogous to saying that since survivalists cannot acquire automatic weapons, neither should the military.

 

It has used millitary force against its neighbours, most recently against syria I beilieve, and that too assuming that they were targeting a terrorist camp, but there was no such proof.

Since when is Israel considered the military. They should not have WMD's. If you think of it as being totally fair, then Israels WMD should be stripped and a international police should be put up to run both the countries. While this may not seem too realistic or may even seem just plain idiotic, if USA wants to show the world that it is the police and can decide what countries have and cant have weapons it should step up and lay down the smackdown on all countries that are producing or have produced WMD, not just Middle Eastern countries, this just makes it look like the USA is agains the palestinians and all arabs in general. And then they ask why are the people burning American flags in that country.

 

You didn't respond to any of the points.

What kind of governments do these Arab/Muslim nations have? Do you believe that Israel's nukes are as much a threat to world stablility as nukes (if they had them) controlled by the governments of Syria? Libya? Iran? Lebanon? Yemen? the old Iraq? the old Afghanistan? ... or... Pakistan?

It doesn't take a lot of brain power to see the difference.

 

America once prosecuted a war of genocide against the Native Americans. Does that mean we cannot say genocide is wrong and put a stop to it in the present and future. Just because Israel has done wrong in the past is no excuse for Palestine to do wrong in the present, or did you never learn that two wrongs don't make a right.

 

Actually Israel continues to do wrong in the present with apartheid based on religion and race. On the other hand Israel will cease to be a Jewish state based on population percentage in a couple of generations based on the birth rates of the Arab and Israelis so they are screwed no matter what.