Israel Matzav

Hezbullah rocket attack has Ami Ayalon confused

Ami Ayalon was appointed the head of the General Security Service in the aftermath of the disaster of the Rabin assasination. He served as head of the GSS from 1995-2000, where he was responsible for some of the most egregious instances of 'administrative detention' - indefinite confinement without trial - of Jewish activists, during the country's parnoia over the Rabin assasination.

Ayalon retired in 2000. Like all high-ranking Israeli civil servants, he ran for the Knesset, and was elected on the Labor party ticket earlier this year. But Ayalon has a bit of an unusual - one might even call it confused - background. In the interim between his retirement from the GSS and his election to the Knesset, Ayalon became a 'peace activist.' The following is Wikipedia's attempt at describing his positions:

On June 25, 2003, Ayalon launched, together with Palestinian professor Sari Nusseibeh, a peace initiative called "The National Census". The goal of the initiative is to collect as many signatures of Israelis and Palestinians as possible for the peace plan guidelines supporting a two state solution without the right of return for Palestinian refugees. See main article: The People's Voice.

Though Ayalon promotes traditional left wing ideas, he insists he is not a part of the Israeli left and spurns the Israeli peace camp for its hostility toward the Israeli public and especially toward the settlers. Ayalon managed to outrage many left-wing activists when he said that only Ariel Sharon and the Likud could bring peace.

The Jerusalem Post has apparently decided that Ami Ayalon is a security expert, and it carries two interviews with him on its web page at the moment (one of them was not in the print edition today for reasons that will soon be obvious).

Late last night, Ayalon told the JPost that "at least 80 percent of the Palestinian public supported the "prisoners' compromise" drafted by jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghoutti, which calls for a recognition of the state of Israel in return for a full Israeli withdrawal to the Green Line." Ayalon claimed that if Hamas accepted the 'prisoners' compromise,' then Israel would not be able to convince the world that there is no Palestinian partner. In that case, the 'international community' would not accept Olmert's surrender and expulsion plan. From the tone of the Post's article, it appears that Ayalon (or at least the Post) is in favor of the surrender and expulsion plan.

Before dawn this morning, Hezbullah fired three Katyusha rockets into northern Israel, hitting an IDF base in the Mount Meron area and injuring one soldier. Ayalon's reaction to this is that Israel will "continue to face 'trouble' from Lebanon. According to the Jerusalem Post, in an interview with Army Radio, Ayalon said that the controversy over the Shaba Farms area between Lebanon and Syria provided "legitimacy in the eyes of many Lebanese" for continued attacks on Israel. "There is no strategic significance to Shaba," Ayalon said. "Until that problem is solved, we won' t know to what extent it has been merely an excuse for targeting Israel."

Of course, the UN has said that Shaba Farms is between Israel and Syria and that Israel withdrew across the Lebanese border six years ago, leaving no territorial disputes between Israel and Lebanon. So what does Ayalon suggest that Israel do about it?

And while we're at it, even if Ayalon is correct that 80% of the 'Palestinians' endorse the 'prisoners' compromise,' what makes him think that if the 'Palestinians' do adopt the 'compromise', we will not continue to face rocket fire from 'Palestinian' groups with changing names based in the Gaza Strip? And what makes him think that we won't face similar rocket fire from Judea and Samaria if Olmert's surrender and expulsion plan is implemented?

Perhaps, Ayalon should resolve some of his confusion before taking public positions.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:29 AM