'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Israel: Yaalon tells it like he sees it

The Israel Defense Forces' Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon was, according to the online edition of the NYT, the "senior military official" quoted in today's Israeli press as having said that Israel's current hard-line policies against the Palestinians were working against Israel's "strategic interest."

For example, in Wednesday's Yediot Aharonot, veteran columnist Nahum Barnea quoted the (still un-named) senior official having said that the Israeli-imposed,

comprehensive travel restrictions and curfews imposed on Palestinians were actually harming Israel's overall security.

"It increases hatred for Israel and strengthens the terror organizations," Mr. Barnea wrote, quoting the official.

General Yaalon [for it was, as we now know, he] also said that Israel should have eased punitive measures to bolster the fortunes of the former Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, who resigned on Sept. 6 after only four months on the job.

Mr. Abbas expressed frustration that Mr. Sharon never took concrete steps to convince Palestinians that the Middle East peace plan, initiated in June, would bring about any real improvements in their lives.

"There is no hope, no expectations for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, nor in Bethlehem and Jericho," Mr. Barnea quoted the "military official" as saying. "In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."

Indeed, when he first became IDF Chief of Staff back in July/August of 2002, Yaalon famously said that Palestinian militants were like a "cancer" that needed to be aggressively dealt with. He also expressed full support, at that time, for a policy of imposing tough collective punishments on palestinians that would serve to "burn [or brand] into their consciousness" the understanding that Israel was not about to back down under pressure.

Yaalon's emphasis on "not backing down under pressure" at all-- which of course always used to echo Sharon's long-held views on the matter-- merely buttressed Sharon in not even making tactical redeployments (in Gaza, for example) that could have strengthened the IDF's broader position.

Not to mention, they would have made life a whole lot better for Gaza's Palestinians!

So the big questions now are: (1) Will General Yaalon stick to his new, significantly more moderate line, and continue to espouse it openly? and (2) If he does, what will Sharon do about him?