Z. Schiff dubious of disengagement talk
My old friend Ze'ev Svhiff, the crusty doyen of the Israeli defense correspondents, has an interesting column in Ha'Aretz today in which he seems to be expressing considerable doubts about the effectiveness or perhaps the probability of any unilateral disengegament from parts of the occupied territories, such as has been talked about by Sharon and people close to him in recent week.
Schiff, who is extremely close to numerous current and former high-ups in the IDF General Staff, writes:
- Since Sharon delivered his speech in Herzliya two weeks ago, the IDF has not received even fragments of orders, and the prime minister's intention remains vague... . So the decision in the army is to wait and do nothing, not even preliminary staff work. Another internal decision is that in any event the IDF must not be involved in recommendations or decisions about which settlements to move or to evacuate.
This latter action certainly sounds like intervention by Israel's highest serving army officer in political discussions. But two months ago when Ya'alon made a quasi-public statement with political impact (see here), its effect was to urge greater leniency in the policy.
Now, by contrast, he seems to right back to the position he came in with, in summer 2002, when he said almost exactly the same thing about "not making unilateral concessions under pressure."
Anyway, Schiff in his latest piece gives a fairly gloomy survey (from everyone's point of view) of what a "unilateral withdrawal" might really involve.
His conclusion? "What could develop from this disengagement plan is the creation of a vast prison in the Palestinian territories, which will entangle Israel even more than today."
Which would be different how, dear Ze'ev, from the present situation in the occupied territories?
Far as I can see, not very much at all.