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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (25500)	4/16/2002 2:14:35 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Humiliation sows hatred Tuesday, April 16, 2002 Iyyar 4, 5762 Israel Time: 09:02 (GMT+3) HA'ARETZ Editorial Just before the arrival of American envoy Anthony Zinni, and in the wake of severe terrorist attacks that took many lives, the IDF is completing wide-scale operations in the refugee camps and cities of the West Bank and Gaza. On Monday, forces raided Ramallah and the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza. A day earlier, they took over Qalqiliyah and the Deheisheh refugee camp, as well as conducting operations in Tul Karm, Nablus and Jenin. Some 160 Palestinians have been killed, many under disputed circumstances. During the course of the raids, the men of the camps were gathered, blindfolded, and their hands tied, and they were identified and interrogated before being released. Some 2,000 men were questioned, and only a few remained under arrest as suspects as belonging to terrorist groups. This was the largest Israeli military operation since the start of the hostilities in September 2000. It produced some results at the tactical level - exposing arms caches and workshops where rockets and mortars were produced, as well as enriching the intelligence in the hands of the IDF and Shin Bet - but apparently, its main purpose was to make clear to the Palestinians that the refugee amps won't be off limits in the effort to strike at the terrorist infrastructure. It is impossible to ignore the nature of the operation, which was a significant departure from the declared policy until now, in which a distinction was made between those who deal in terror, who must be vanquished, and the wider population, whom Israel did not want to engage in conflict. This time, the IDF caused deliberate suffering and humiliation to the broader Palestinian population. This cannot be interpreted any other way: The government of Israel, through the IDF, sought to use humiliation as a means of pressure or punishment. There is no other way to understand those photographed scenes of hundreds of people, bound and blindfolded, on their way to interrogations. Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz was very tardy with his reservations about marking the prisoners with writing on their arms. Brig. Gen. Gershon Yitzhak, commander of IDF forces in the West Bank, said yesterday that the blindfolds and cuffing of the prisoners, was insensitive. The belated reservations from the high command about the operation raise questions. Didn't the commanders instruct the soldiers in advance how to deal with the civilians? It is worrisome to discover that the chief of staff and the commander of the forces were unaware from the start of the profound significance of wide-scale friction with the population. The idea of humiliation has apparently seeped down to the soldiers from the government. Ariel Sharon wanted to humiliate the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, by jailing him in Ramallah. His aide, Uri Shani, said as much on Monday when he said of Arafat, "he can only go from one cage to another." No wonder, then, that officers and soldiers act in the spirit of the supreme commander and his aides. Actions that harm the population and involve humiliation of civilians sabotage the chances - in any case, minimal - of reaching a cease-fire, and eventually an agreement and reconciliation. With the arrival of the American envoy, the government must behave with restraint and balanced judgment. Instead of fanning the flames and sowing hatred, it must increase its efforts to achieve calm and a return to the political track. haaretzdaily.com