An Israeli columnist has said that that there is a new consensus in Israel, that military attacks against the Palestinians to stop the five-week-old Intifada are futile, because they will fuel the Palestinian anger.
“This consensus is already having an impact on the dynamics of both the government and the public…Apparently, both Barak and the top brass of the Israel Defense Forces have internalized the realization that any intensification in Israeli firepower will only further feed the enthusiasm of Palestinian youths,” said Danny Rabinowitz, a Haaretz columnist on Tuesday.
The columnist believes that the Aqsa Intifada which is a more determined, more violent and more grasssroots-oriented campaign than the first one that continued between 1987-1993.
“No Israelis are deluding themselves into thinking that this problem can be brought to an end with some magic, instant formula. From every corner of the political arena comes the same mantra-like evaluation: ‘This situation is going to be around for some time, and it will be painful and damaging to both sides.’"
Rabinowitz believes that the first Intifada and Hizbollah’s resistance of the Israeli occupation in Lebanon are two lessons that Israel has apparently learned and still bears in mind in its efforts to suppress the angry defiant Palestinians.
He added that “Barak also understands that Israel is only weakened by any direct physical control of Palestinians; thus, he finds the lunatic option that Likud chief Ariel Sharon is proposing – the renewed capture of ‘Jericho first,’ followed by the renewed capture of other Palestinian cities - totally unacceptable. With the absence of any clearly defined military objectives and with the role of soldiers boiling down, as was the case in Lebanon, to ‘finishing your shift without getting hurt,’ the policy of restraint is becoming the sole rational option available in the face of all the chaos.”
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
