The strategic suicide bomber

[Gimel]

On March 3, a policeman from the Shimshon subdistrict appeared at the offices of the Katif religious council and asked for the keys to the local cemetery. The Gaza evacuation plan includes a section that requires the number of deceased residents of the settlements to be counted. Attorney Malkiel Blass of the Ministry of Justice issued the request to the police's Southern District, which passed it on to the subdistrict, which dispatched a cop to the cemetery, in order to conduct an exact accounting of the graves - of which there are approximately 30 - in order to make plans for their transferal.




"The dead die and the living live," as Ariel Sharon likes to say, quoting the chief of staff at the time of the reprisal raids, Moshe Dayan, upon hearing Sharon's report on the number of fallen IDF troops when he left Gaza after the big raid there (known as "Black Arrow") on February 28, 1955. Sharon interprets the line to mean that the dead are not a reason to stay in Gaza, and that the living should be protected. The same insight lies at the heart of his decision half a century later to pursue civil disengagement from Gaza. Too many people were killed, mainly outside Gaza, not inside, before Sharon shook off the illusion that Gaza Strip settlements offer any added value to the security of Israel's citizenry.

The terrorist bombing at Ashdod's port is only representative; one could draw up hundreds of similar scenarios of attacks, whether using disguises or disguised vehicles, whether using weapons or explosives (or chemical, biological or radiological materials), against government, defense or infrastructure targets across Israel. Anyone who can reach Ashdod is also capable - providing that he listens to the radio traffic reports and can avoid the traffic jam by the Sayarim gas station - of stealing an official car and blowing himself up in it at the crowded entrance to a guarded government compound. There is no need to be Alex Averbuch to pole vault over the fences of central headquarters; all it takes is a short leap off the roof of an adjacent hitchhiking post. Less determination was needed to infiltrate Red Square with a light aircraft, or to reach assassination range of the White House with a rifle.

<snip>

In unveiling the Gaza evacuation plan, Sharon tripped himself up, because the failure to implement it will make him look too weak to hold onto his administration, and he will no doubt fail to implement it, if he has the chance, because he seems too weak to hold onto his administration. There is no majority for his plan within his party or in his coalition in its current makeup, and he lacks the support of the IDF General Staff and the White House. The army's opposition to the plan, even if it is stifled, is already providing ammunition for the opposition effort, and President Bush is not about to squander precious political capital on a politically bankrupt prime minister, especially one faced by the growing threat of two indictments (substantial breakthroughs have recently been made in one of the cases, which involves the donor Cyril Kern). Sharon is prepared to risk the possibility of Hamas gaining control over Gaza for compensation in the form of greater Israeli entrenchment in the West Bank. The Americans - and the Republicans - hold a different view. Bush, who is both fighting terror and dissociating himself from occupation, will brook neither entrenchment nor risk.

<snip>

continue at Haaretz online

[Jim Sagle]

1. The key is to get the Peace Fence finished. Once that is done, the thugs

will have only each other to kill. Ya gotta love it.

[Gimel]

2. Stay tuned...

The next installment of Sharon's administration...taking on the votes for the Withdrawal Plan.