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5/26/2002 (14:24) |
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Operations Order
Sunday, May 26 2002 @ 02:07 AM GMT
Uri Avnery for Palestine Chronicle
If Ariel Sharon were to formulate his intentions as an
military operations order, like he used to do in the army,
instead of hiding them behind a host of smoke screens,
it would look like this:
1. Aims:
To bring the Zionist Revolution to its conclusion, by
turning all of Eretz-Israel, from the sea to the Jordan
river, into a Jewish state, with a minimum of non-Jewish
inhabitants (if any at all).
2. Information:
The 1948 War of Independence was broken off before
achieving its aim. The State of Israel was established
only on 78% of the land, which brought about the
removal of only 64% of the Palestinians. In the 1967
Six-Day War we conquered the remaining 22% of the
territories, but successive Israeli governments lacked
the necessary willpower to conclude the Zionist
revolution by annexing the territories and removing the
remaining Arab population.
Now a window of opportunity has opened for concluding
the job. Only one super-power (the US) remains; all the
other powers (the UN, Europe, Russia and others) have
effectively been eliminated.
The US is now lending us unlimited and unqualified
support. It is to be hoped that it will continue to do so
even when we employ harsh methods in the pursuit of
our national aims. Experience shows that even when
somebody in the American administration resists the
implementation of our aims, this resistance collapses
when faced with our determined stand (Operation
'Defensive Shield'). Our control over both houses of the
Congress and our decisive influence on most of the
American media guarantee us freedom of action.
3. Methods:
Our task will be achieved by the following methods, to
be employed simultaneously:
a. Military operations, to break the armed Palestinian
resistance.
b. Economic pressure, to cause mass Arab emigration
from the country.
c. Settlement activity, to cut up the territories and
prepare them for annexation to Israel.
d. Political action, to break the Palestinian political and
social institutions.
4. Implementation:
(a) M i l i t a r y operations: These will be conducted
incessantly, without long pauses. The whole army,
including the reserves, will be employed for this task,
even if this necessitates a weakening of our
preparedness vis-a-vis the Arab states and limiting
training.
The IDF will occupy the Palestinian territories as needed,
for long and short periods, in order to catch, arrest or
execute all Palestinian militants who could organize
resistance to our policy. For this purpose there is no
difference between terrorists and political leaders,
between armed or civil resistance, between Hamas and
Fatah. Maximal destruction of property will cause
deterrence. This will be a repeated action, in order to
eliminate every new set of leaders as it emerges.
Our actions will necessarily increase the motivation for
terrorists to execute suicide-bombings in Israel. These
will provide us – both in the domestic and the
international arena – with reasons for our military action,
which will be seen as a response.
The IDF will also assume a central role in exercising
economic pressure (as follows).
It must be ensured that no officer who does not
wholeheartedly support this task attains a senior
position (Chief-of-Staff, officer in charge of regional
commands, chief of departments, commander of divisions
and brigades). For fulfilling a historic mission, hardness
and cruelty are needed; there can be no place for
bleeding hearts.
(b) E c o n o m i c pressure: Mass expulsion, like in 1948,
can be effected only in a special situation, such as a
fully-fledged war or during an exceptional international
event that draws away world attention.
Until this eventuality occurs, Palestinians must be
induced to leave the country by economic pressure that
makes their life intolerable. Such pressure will be
achieved through closures and blockades that will
prevent the movement of merchants and workers,
teachers and pupils, doctors and patients. The whole
economic life in the territories must be gradually brought
to a standstill, so that the ability of the heads of families
to feed their children is effectively destroyed.
IDF actions will enclose the Palestinians in small
enclaves, where they will receive some kind of limited
local autonomy, so as to relieve us of any formal
responsibility for their situation.
In the prosecution of this policy, international public
opinion and international aid agencies must be taken
into account. From time to time, exceptions must be
made to prevent extreme situations from arising.
(c) S e t t l e m e n t activity: This is a central tool for
fulfilling the historic task. In spite of the fact that all
Israeli governments since 1967 have understood this
and acted accordingly, the tempo was slow. While more
than 30% of Judea and Samaria are part of the town
planning areas of the settlements, hardly more than 1%
is actually settled. This is an intolerable scandal which
must be speedily rectified. All ministries must take part in
this urgent effort, devoting a considerable part of their
resources to it.
Existing settlements must be enlarged and new ones
set up by all possible means (takeovers after terrorist
attacks, new neighborhoods far from the existing
settlements, etc.) The network of bypass roads must be
expanded rapidly in order to cut off Palestinians towns
and villages, to annex more land to the settlements and
strengthen our control on the ground. All this must be
done according to the existing strategic plan, which
prevents Palestinian territorial continuity and tightens
the economic blockade.
For the settlement effort, the economic resources of all
ministries must be centralized and all other tasks must
take second place. More people, including new
immigrants, must be encouraged to join the settlements.
If necessary, young couples should be offered villas at
zero cost. The flight of the factories from the settlement
industrial parks, following threats by the European
Community, must be stopped.
The IDF will devote the necessary resources to the
protection of the settlements and the roads leading to
them, even if this means calling up the reserves and
ordering a whole battalion to protect one single isolated
settlement.
(d) P o l i t i c a l pressure: Breaking the Palestinian
leadership is a central component of the whole
campaign. In order to destroy the ability of the
Palestinians to resist, the central leadership, and
especially Yasser Arafat, who is a unifying symbol and a
strong leader, must be eliminated. Therefore, the whole
propaganda effort must be concentrated on Arafat
personally. Every Palestinian factor that is ready to fight
against Arafat (including Hamas) must be exploited, as
well as anti-Arafat utterances by Israeli left-wing
extremists. Arafat will be physically eliminated once the
international situation permits.
At the same time, in-fighting between second-row
Palestinian leaders must be encouraged, in order to
create a leadership vacuum, such as existed in 1948.
All these pressures – military, economic, settlement and
political – must be increased, until the situation of the
Palestinians becomes so intolerable that they prefer to
move to Jordan. If a historical opportunity for mass
expulsion should present itself, we shall exploit it
rapidly. The apparatus for this must already be prepared
now.
The Israeli Arabs are a special problem, as they have
been given (by mistake) Israeli citizenship. The problem
demands a creative solution, in accordance with our
main aims.
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