lennart
23-10-03, 15:19
Senior officer - IDF is ready to remove Arafat
The IDF is ready to carryout the Cabinet's decision to remove Yasser Arafat the moment the orders are given, a senior military source told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.
"We have presented plans showing the risks and the chances of the operation itself, including the chances to remove him alive or not," the senior officer said.
"The government has to make a decision to allow the army to act. The army is ready. The army always plans for all possibilities."
Speaking on condition that they not be identified, the senior military officer said that the near constant deployment of forces in the territories since the violence erupted three years ago was not fatiguing the troops.
"I'm not worried. The battalions are strong and have high standards and are working well. Every four months new soldiers are added to the fighting and commanders are rotated. The standing army can keep this up for years," he said.
He added that the current conflict with the Palestinians would not end with a major military measure.
"We can stage a major operation again like Defensive Shield. We can do one in the Gaza Strip," the senior officer said. "But this conflict is one of stamina between the Palestinian and Israeli societies. What concerns me is the resilience and stamina of the Israeli society.
The top officer presented a pessimistic view of reaching any agreement with the present Palestinian leadership, which, he said was continuing to reject a two-state solution. He said Arafat chose terror to avoid making an agreement.
"Arafat thinks that by demographics and terrorism there will be one state and it won't be Jewish," the senior officer said. "Arafat doesn't care about what to do with the Palestinians. He cares about his place in history."
"Now as we mark the 30th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, I suggest we examine ourselves to make sure we are not prisoner to the conception that we have a formula for solution," he said. "It could be we have it but the Palestinians are not cooperating."
The senior military officer said that the Jewish state was capable of violent rage against an enemy and warned that there could be a point where the Palestinians could certainly spark it.
"(Dresden) or Nagisaki or Hiroshima?" he sighed, referring to allied bombing of German civilians and two US atomic bombings during the Second World War. "I don't think we are at that point but it could be that the Palestinians will bring us to this at some point," the senior military officer.
"If it becomes clear to us that even after Arafat the leadership that will take over is not a partner for any kind of solution or arrangement I presume Israeli society will start to discuss other options. It wouldn't go without the legitimacy of society," he said.
Regarding Syria, the senior military officer said President Bashar Assad was currently "embarrassed" by the IAF raid against an alleged terrorist training camp two weeks ago.
"You have an army with 450,000 men in Syria, but we have been able to open a gap in relative advantage which has been translated to a deterrence," he said.
"We can deal with the Syrian threat. It is not existential."
"Israel has significant deterrence over Syria today. We see it. We struck at a terrorist target in Syria and there is embarrassment there. If we had not been deterring the Syrians and Hizbullah, then I think that the northern front would have been a lot hotter," the senior officer told The Jerusalem Post.
"The Syrians have this deterrence out of fear that escalation in the north would put the Syrian army to the test," he said. "If they felt the Syrian army was strong to stand up to the IDF it would have let the Hizbullah to be more daring. They prefer the Palestinian front and are responsible for a lot of what is happening here. They prefer this because they thought we would not link the two fronts."
"Our last strike put the responsibility on them for what is happening here."
According to the senior source, $40,000 was transferred from Syria to a terrorist cell in Nablus which attempted to carryout four attacks which Israeli security forces foiled. The fifth succeeded in Rosh Ha'ayin.
"Syria understands that a Western army like the IDF, with the capabilities shown by the Americans in Iraq, an army which is capable of locating a car of terrorists in the middle of a refugee camp and hit them with precision guided munitions (PGM), is an army that can also deliver PGMs to tanks, bunkers and headquarters and to palaces."
In a first acknowledgment by an IDF officer of the August report an IAF fighter buzzed Assad's palace, the senior officer described what transpired.
"Imagine this F-15 flying 50 meters above Assad's palace at 1 a.m. in the morning, with all of is thrusters directed exactly over the palace and no one even detected it until it was over the palace. This is embarrassing not to mention unpleasant," the senior officer said with a chuckle.
"Look we don't punish, we have cease talking and have started explaining. It is not enough to talk, in the Middle East you have to explain."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066799674506
The IDF is ready to carryout the Cabinet's decision to remove Yasser Arafat the moment the orders are given, a senior military source told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday.
"We have presented plans showing the risks and the chances of the operation itself, including the chances to remove him alive or not," the senior officer said.
"The government has to make a decision to allow the army to act. The army is ready. The army always plans for all possibilities."
Speaking on condition that they not be identified, the senior military officer said that the near constant deployment of forces in the territories since the violence erupted three years ago was not fatiguing the troops.
"I'm not worried. The battalions are strong and have high standards and are working well. Every four months new soldiers are added to the fighting and commanders are rotated. The standing army can keep this up for years," he said.
He added that the current conflict with the Palestinians would not end with a major military measure.
"We can stage a major operation again like Defensive Shield. We can do one in the Gaza Strip," the senior officer said. "But this conflict is one of stamina between the Palestinian and Israeli societies. What concerns me is the resilience and stamina of the Israeli society.
The top officer presented a pessimistic view of reaching any agreement with the present Palestinian leadership, which, he said was continuing to reject a two-state solution. He said Arafat chose terror to avoid making an agreement.
"Arafat thinks that by demographics and terrorism there will be one state and it won't be Jewish," the senior officer said. "Arafat doesn't care about what to do with the Palestinians. He cares about his place in history."
"Now as we mark the 30th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, I suggest we examine ourselves to make sure we are not prisoner to the conception that we have a formula for solution," he said. "It could be we have it but the Palestinians are not cooperating."
The senior military officer said that the Jewish state was capable of violent rage against an enemy and warned that there could be a point where the Palestinians could certainly spark it.
"(Dresden) or Nagisaki or Hiroshima?" he sighed, referring to allied bombing of German civilians and two US atomic bombings during the Second World War. "I don't think we are at that point but it could be that the Palestinians will bring us to this at some point," the senior military officer.
"If it becomes clear to us that even after Arafat the leadership that will take over is not a partner for any kind of solution or arrangement I presume Israeli society will start to discuss other options. It wouldn't go without the legitimacy of society," he said.
Regarding Syria, the senior military officer said President Bashar Assad was currently "embarrassed" by the IAF raid against an alleged terrorist training camp two weeks ago.
"You have an army with 450,000 men in Syria, but we have been able to open a gap in relative advantage which has been translated to a deterrence," he said.
"We can deal with the Syrian threat. It is not existential."
"Israel has significant deterrence over Syria today. We see it. We struck at a terrorist target in Syria and there is embarrassment there. If we had not been deterring the Syrians and Hizbullah, then I think that the northern front would have been a lot hotter," the senior officer told The Jerusalem Post.
"The Syrians have this deterrence out of fear that escalation in the north would put the Syrian army to the test," he said. "If they felt the Syrian army was strong to stand up to the IDF it would have let the Hizbullah to be more daring. They prefer the Palestinian front and are responsible for a lot of what is happening here. They prefer this because they thought we would not link the two fronts."
"Our last strike put the responsibility on them for what is happening here."
According to the senior source, $40,000 was transferred from Syria to a terrorist cell in Nablus which attempted to carryout four attacks which Israeli security forces foiled. The fifth succeeded in Rosh Ha'ayin.
"Syria understands that a Western army like the IDF, with the capabilities shown by the Americans in Iraq, an army which is capable of locating a car of terrorists in the middle of a refugee camp and hit them with precision guided munitions (PGM), is an army that can also deliver PGMs to tanks, bunkers and headquarters and to palaces."
In a first acknowledgment by an IDF officer of the August report an IAF fighter buzzed Assad's palace, the senior officer described what transpired.
"Imagine this F-15 flying 50 meters above Assad's palace at 1 a.m. in the morning, with all of is thrusters directed exactly over the palace and no one even detected it until it was over the palace. This is embarrassing not to mention unpleasant," the senior officer said with a chuckle.
"Look we don't punish, we have cease talking and have started explaining. It is not enough to talk, in the Middle East you have to explain."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1066799674506