The Situation

Text by Robert Rosenberg, images by Silvia Rosenberg (unless otherwise noted)

More refuseniks

Monday, December 22, 2003

gyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, in Israel for the first time since shortly after the outbreak of the intifada more than three years ago, was meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this morning. Maher wanted to discuss the Palestinian issue while Sharon wanted to discuss bilateral issues, at least judging from the leaks that came out of their offices before the meeting. During the meeting, said leaks to Israel Radio, Sharon said he would not formally sign a cease-fire agreement with armed Palestinian factions, a ceasefire Egypt has been trying to hammer out between Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei’ and all the armed Palestinian factions. But Sharon reportedly said he would abide by a Palestinian ceasefire if it is put into effect and told the press that he hoped the meeting today would help pave the way to a breakthrough on the Palestinian front. Sharon invited Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Israel and Maher said the meeting today was a preliminary session toward a meeting between Mubarak and Sharon – though it was unlikely that would take place in Jerusalem. When Sharon said he wanted improved relations with Egypt, Maher said Israel going ahead with the purchase of natural gas from Israel would be a good step in that direction.

While the Sharon-Maher meeting (and subsequent meetings between Maher and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom) signaled a slight thaw in the chilly relations between the two countries, another issue was the top item on the agenda today: a letter to the prime minister signed by 13 troopers, including three officers, from the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, saying they would refuse to serve in the territories. “We, citizens who serve in active reserve duty, fighters and officers, Sayeret Matkal veterans, have also chosen to join the front ranks, as we were trained. With grave concern for the future of Israel as a democratic Zionist and Jewish state, and with concern for her moral image, we can no longer stand on the sidelines. We tell you today: We shall no longer lend our hand to the subjugation taking place in the territories; We shall no longer lend our hand to the quelling of human rights of millions of Palestinians; We shall no longer serve as a defense shield for the settlements campaign; We shall no longer deface our human image as an army of occupation; We shall no longer deny our commitment as fighters in the Israel Defense Forces; We fear for the destiny of the children of this land, exposed to an evil that is unnecessary, and to which we have lent our hands. We have long transgressed the border of soldiers, just in their ways, and have become warriors suppressing another nation; We shall cross this border no more! We stress and state: We shall continue to protect the State of Israel and the security of its people from all enemies.” The letter ends with the unit’s slogan, borrowed from the British SAS -- ‘He who dares, wins.’”

The letter, announced last night during the TV news broadcasts, resulted in the predictable reactions: the army vowed to throw the soldiers out of their unit, famed for its successful Entebbe rescue raid and for many secret operations behind enemy lines. Right wing politicians called the refuseniks, ‘traitors,’ ‘lily-livered’ and worthy of prosecution in criminal court, while on the Left, political leaders expressed sympathy for the reasoning behind the refusal, but MKs such as Yossi Sarid nonetheless opposed the refusal, saying it would pave the way to Right wing refusals to obey orders to evacuate settlements.

he latest refusal by an elite unit came on the heels of a similar letter signed earlier this fall by pilots, and it coincided with a report issued today by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group that operates in the territories, saying that at least 38 Palestinians, including 14 minors and seven babies, died after being delayed or denied passage at IDF checkpoints. The army said ‘terror groups make cynical use of medical personnel and medical vehicles to camouflage terrorists and transport them.’ According to the B’Tselem report, before the intifada, 95 percent of Palestinian births were in hospitals but as of September 2002, fewer that 50 percent of births occurred were in hospitals, as it became more difficult for Palestinians to travel through the territories, because of checkpoints.

Haaretz meanwhile was reporting that Military Intelligence and the Shin Bet are at odds over the Hamas’ current policy concerning terrorist attacks on Israelis, with MI saying that for the last 100 days, the Hamas, as an organization, has not initiated attacks on Israeli civilians inside the Green Line, though it still targets both soldiers and settlers in the territories. The Shin Bet sees no such institutional policy by Hamas, saying Hamas activists were involved in many of the plots the Shin Bet foiled during the period. On another intelligence issue, Haaretz was also reporting this morning that the U.S. and Britain did not tip off Israel about the progress in talks with Libya over Benghazi’s policies concerning Weapons of Mass Destruction.

In Colombia, ELN rebels were expected to release four Israeli tourists, while in the Knesset, the House Committee refused to lift the parliamentary immunity of Yehiel Hazan, a Likud politician the attorney general wants to prosecute for voting twice during a vote on the budget. And Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was to meet with Histadrut Chairman Amir Peretz this afternoon in yet another attempt to resolve the nearly three-month old strike in the civil service. Netanyahu wants the issue solved before the budget goes to a vote in the Knesset before the end of the year.

Recommended articles:

The Barrier of Jerusalem – Political Not Security by Gershon Baskin, December 09, 2003

FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCYALYPSE On November 14, 2003, in a dramatic development, four former Shin Bet chiefs call on the political leadership to make peace with the Palestinians. Read the full interview.

Sharon’s policy is bringing us to the brink of existential abyss a speech by Victoria Buch to the Peace Coalition weekly vigil outside the Prime Minister's Residence, November 29, 2003

The Weathervanes Are Turning Uri Avnery analyzes the changes that led to Ehud Olmert saying Israel must quit the West Bank and Gaza.

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