The failure of the policy of force

[bemildred]

The settlers and their supporters have done
Ariel Sharon, and themselves as well, a favor
by tying the prime minister's disengagement
plan to his investigation by the police. The
claim that Sharon is trying to divert public
attention away from the suspicion that he
accepted a bribe actually diverts public
attention away from the suspicion of sins of
commission (and omission) that are far worse
than bribery. It is enough to ask how many of
the thousands of people killed over the last few
years would have been alive today if Sharon
had transferred Gaza to the Palestinian
Authority three years ago, as an advance
payment on a final-status agreement.

Has the hold of Hamas extremists on the
territories weakened during those years? Does
Israel, as it dismantles settlements "under fire,"
have greater deterrent power than it had when
it originally refused to conduct negotiations
under fire because this would weaken its
deterrent power? And what will the Arabs
learn from Israel's decision to give up Gaza
without obtaining anything from them in
exchange?

---

After all, Sharon, the defense minister, the
chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet security
service and the police commissioner have not
informed ministers and deputy ministers, and
certainly not Knesset members and the general
public, of the real reason for the unilateral
withdrawal plan. They have not let them in on
the big secret: that the concept that has guided
Sharon's government - as expressed in slogans
such as "let the Israel Defense Forces win,"
"liquidating terror" and "searing the
Palestinians' consciousness" - has gone
bankrupt.

Sharon's disengagement plan was not born of
the Greek island sin. The half-baked decision to
change his policy stems from the collapse of
the defense establishment. Over the last few
months, IDF, Shin Bet and Border Police field
commanders have been reporting that their
forces are stretched to the limit. They say that
officers and soldiers, policemen and Shin Bet
agents have all reached the point of exhaustion.
The high command is complaining that
training days have been reduced to a minimum,
and officers are warning that friction with
Palestinian civilians at roadblocks and
settlement outposts is eroding motivation and
destroying the soldiers' morale.

Haaretz