Weapons of Mass Discussion

Isr. Gen.: Israeli Tactics Too Strong

Israel's senior military commander told columnists for three leading newspapers this week that Israel's military tactics against the Palestinian population were too repressive and were fomenting explosive levels of "hatred and terrorism" that might become impossible to control.

In remarks that suggest a dramatic split with the approach of the current government, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, chief of staff of the Israeli armed forces, said that crackdowns, curfews and roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were crippling the lives of innocent Palestinians and that the military's tactics were now threatening Israel's own interests.

The military chief directed most of his complaints at restrictions imposed on the West Bank four weeks ago, after a suicide bomber from the West Bank city of Jenin killed 21 people in a restaurant in the Israeli port of Haifa. Yaalon said the current curfews and travel restrictions, some of the tightest since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, were preventing Palestinians from carrying out critical olive and other agricultural harvests, hampering thousands of children from attending school, increasing hatred for Israel and strengthening terrorist organizations.

"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interests," Nahum Barnea, columnist for the Yedioth Aharonoth newspaper, quoted Yaalon as telling him.

Get the rest of the article from the Washington Post.

Matt's Chat

Far be it for me to disagree with an Israeli general, but I think his logic is faulty. The only way for Palestinian leadership to figure out that terrorism doesn't work is to make terrorism punishable. And you want it to be a lesson that they will remember. While I will admit that terrorism has a 100% failure rate, I will also point out that the terrorists appear to have infinite patience as well. In their minds, the strategy will eventually work. And depending on what the world leaders do, it just might. We must never allow our leaders to give in to terrorism; doing so will only bring about more terrorism. Give them an inch and they'll want a mile. Appeasement isn't the answer.

Mark's Remarks

Matt, I could not agree more....if we present weakness to terrorists, then we are giving them a window of opportunity and continuance for tomorrow...we have to take a hard line with these animals, because while they talk about their plight, they are sending women and children to kill and maime other women and children...appeasement only gives them to to become stronger and more deadly.