Israel Matzav

IDF warned of rockets on Ashkelon in 1993

To anyone who lived in Israel in the mid-90's and understood the extent to which the Rabin- Peres government repressed the opponents of the so-called 'Oslo accords,' this will not be surprising. Some of Oslo's proponents may try to dismiss the import of this post because Yaakov Amidror - the source - is a known critic of Oslo who was forced out by the Left. Still, it bears posting. It's the smoking gun that shows that the Rabin - Peres government was warned. It's the best proof for the idea that there ought to be an investigation into how and why this country resurrected a dying PLO in the first place.

A secret Military Intelligence Directorate report dating back to 1993 warned of the dangers of rockets raining down on Ashkelon in the event that the Palestinians fail to uphold their end of the Oslo Peace Treaty, a former army intelligence chief revealed on Monday.

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, who once headed the IDF's Research and Assessment Division, said during a lecture at the Netanya Academic College that the government had completely ignored the military's warning on the security pitfalls of the peace deal with the PLO.

"There were clauses which clearly could not be upheld from a military perspective, like pursuing terrorists in Palestinian Authority territories," Amidror said.

He added that Shimon Peres, who was then foreign minister, called for military officers to leave a meeting room when a vote was taken on the peace agreement.

...

Noting that Israel left Gaza "twice, once in 1994 and again in 2005 during the disengagement," Amidror said, "We have learned that the loss of control of territory and the creation of a border between the PA and an Arab state meant that there will be Katyusha rockets. Today, this is 100 times more true in regards to leaving Judea and Samaria than it was in 1993."

Amidror said Israel must maintain control of the Jordan Valley to prevent arms smuggling and terrorist infiltration into the West Bank and warned, "If we leave Judea and Samaria, Hamas will overthrow Fatah again. Fatah is so rotten that no amount of US training of its security personnel will help. The threat will arrive at Tel Aviv's gate."

Amidror expressed regret over what he said were "insufficient efforts by the intelligence community to point out how the Palestinians were cheating us and how we turned a blind eye to this.

"We didn't ignore the violations as much as the politicians did, but I regret that our efforts to expose the transgressions were not determined enough," he said.

I was in New York City on the day of the infamous handshake on the White House lawn. I was representing a client who was a key functionary in the Labor party (Rabin and Peres' party) at the time. He was jumping for joy over what was going on a couple of hundred miles south of us. I was sick.

As fate would have it, I was in this creep's office the day that the Oslo Declaration of Principles was adopted by the Knesset. He was thrilled and kept telling me that life was going to be different now. I told him let's wait and see.

By the way, the client's entire business turned out to be a fraud. Just like Oslo.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:57 AM