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Middle East Analysis

Israel’s Tactics Thwart Attacks, With Trade-Off

By Isabel Kershner (The New York Times)

posted on 05/05/08

Suicide bombings in Israel have dropped off so significantly that the nation’s security officials now dare to speak openly of success. But the very steps they are taking to thwart bombers appear to collide head-on with the government’s agenda of achieving peace with the Palestinians.

It is a classic military-political dilemma. The progress in stopping suicide bombers, the vast majority of whom cross into Israel from the West Bank, has brought enough quiet for Israel to resume peace talks with the Palestinian leadership there. But the current calm is fragile, and to maintain it Israeli security officials say they must continue their nightly arrests and sometimes deadly raids in the heart of the West Bank—tactics at odds with a peace effort that envisions a separate Palestinian state, an eventual Israeli withdrawal from much of the West Bank and, in the meantime, a gradual transfer of authority to the Palestinian police. …

There appears to be little disagreement within the security establishment, and the government seems to be acting largely in line with its recommendations. Still… Some former officials advocate relying more on the pragmatic Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. “We have to take a risk,” said Ilan Paz, a retired brigadier general at the Economic Cooperation Foundation, a research institute in Tel Aviv that supports the peace effort. “Otherwise we will have Hamas later, and we will have an even bigger risk to take.” The alternative to controlling all the territory, he said, was to reach an agreement with a partner, namely President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who wants to keep the peace. …

Those wanting to advance the peace process, including the American backers, hope that Israel will gradually wind in its security net in the West Bank while the Palestinians spread theirs out. Nobody knows how long that will take. The battalion now training in Jordan is meant to be the first of five. But for now there are no more dollars allocated for the program, and the money has run out. Access the full article>>