September 11, Crisis Resolution

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"Soul Searching In Israel"

Dennis Sandole
Prof. of Conflict Resolution and International Relations

Something unusual is happening in Israel: more and more people in significant security positions are calling into question Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hard-line policy of "fighting fire with fire" during the three years of the second Palestinian Intifada.

Among others, air force pilots, Israel's top soldier, and now four former members of Shin Bet, Israel's General Security Service, are questioning the practical effect as well as morality of responding to suicide bombings by launching military attacks against targets in Palestinian residential areas, with F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopter gunships, and tanks as well as the ubiquitous bulldozer.

As former Shin Bet head, Carmi Gilon, put it: The Israeli Government "is dealing solely with the question of how to prevent the next terrorist attack [instead] of how we get out of the mess we find ourselves in today" (Greg Myre, NYT, Nov 15, 2003).

It is one thing for the Israeli Left to make such a critique of official policy, but when current and former members of the Israeli military and security services do so, then perhaps Mr. Sharon should listen.

Their message is clear: to deal effectively with complex problems such as terrorism in Israel (or anywhere else), we have to go beyond their symptoms and also deal with their underlying causes and conditions. Otherwise, by responding to "fire [only] with fire," we make it worse.

Will Prime Minister Sharon, not to mention President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, "get it"?