19.6.04
“Irreversible Mental Damage”
Two weeks ago, the international community made a shocking declaration.
Giving in to a demand by George Bush, the “Quartet” accepted the “Revised
Disengagement Plan” of Ariel
In
the first paragraph of the “plan”, the following words appear: “
That is to say, the international community has confirmed that the
Palestinian people have no right to take part in the determination of its own fate.
Everything will be decided by the Government of
The European Union with its 25 member-states, the government of the Russian
Federation and the organization that represents the entire world have humbly accepted
the edict of Bush, the dictator of the world, who is
himself a captive of
The Palestinian people have been eliminated
from the list of decision-makers, thereby also abolishing in practice all the
agreements signed with them, from
This is a scandalous step, unprecedented in its dimensions, and it
passed without comment. Apart from Sharon and his minions, nobody noticed the
implications. The big boot of the international community trod on the
Palestinian people without even noticing it, as if on an ant.
That is the culmination of a process that began with the return of the
then Prime minister, Ehud Barak,
from the 2000
This mantra is based on a series of lies that have been exploded long
ago. American eye-witnesses like Rober Malley, President Clinton’s advisor at Camp David, as well
as some of the Israeli participants and international researchers have
published detailed reports that prove that Barak
himself was responsible for the failure at least as much as Arafat – in fact, far
more.
And as if by coincidence, just when the international community absent-mindedly
accepted that the Palestinian people is not a partner for peace, in
The High Priest of the “We Have No Partner” creed is General (res.) Amos
Gilad, who at the crucial time was chief of the research
section (and as such the No. 2) of the Army Intelligence Department. Since army
intelligence is the department solely responsible for the “national security
assessment”, it has a decisive influence on the formation of national policy.
The army intelligence man reports directly to the Prime Minister and takes
part in cabinet meetings. No minister would dare to question his assessments,
which are the guiding star of the entire state. The research chief of the
intelligence department is supposed to submit a professional summary of the
huge amount of data amassed by the intelligence community. Most ministers are
forbidden to read the written report, and even the few others are allowed only
to glance at it. Therefore, the oral summary presented by the chief of research
to the Prime Minister and the cabinet is of paramount importance.
Amos Gilad went even further: he appeared
almost daily in the media, commenting on almost every political and security
event. He was not only the “national assessor”, but also the “national
explainer”, as he was commonly called in the media.
Who
is this man, who has had a greater influence than any other person on the
policies of
This claim involves a considerable amount of Chutzpah, if not worse. But
it also raises the question: This mental damage, when did it start? When were
the first symptoms observed? Was it when he started endlessly repeating that Arafat
wants to throw us into the sea? Or was this declaration, perhaps, itself a
symptom of his mental problem? And how can he continue to fulfil
his present duties?
The
last two weeks,
The
former chief of Army Intelligence, General (res.) Amos Malka,
who was the direct superior of Gilad, broke his silence
of many years and published a thunderous accusation: that Amos Gilad arrived at his kontseptsia
without any intelligence basis whatsoever. On the contrary, the huge amount of
information collected by the intelligence department indicated the very
opposite. That is to say, Gilad freely invented his
intelligence reports, based on his political views and/or on the desire to
please his political bosses, Barak and Sharon.
This
grave accusation raised a storm in professional circles. Intelligence
operatives of undoubted integrity emerged from their anonymity in order to support
Malka publicly. They were headed by the man who, at
the relevant time, was in charge of the Army Intelligence section for
Palestinian affairs, Colonel Ephraim Lavie, who was then
responsible for the collection of all intelligence material about the Palestinian
leadership. There is no doubt that in the professional confrontation between Amos
and Amos, Amos Malka emerged as the victor.
This means, in simple words: there was no intelligence material at all backing
the assertion that Arafat is working for the destruction of the State of
Israel, that Arafat had broken off the peace process in order to start a terror
campaign, that Arafat is not ready for a reasonable compromise. All these
assertions, uttered by diverse Israeli politicians and generals, were based on
the “assessment” of one man who, while appearing to represent the intelligence
department, was actually suppressing the considered professional reports of his
own department, as well as of the General Security Service (Shabak).
When the debate heated up, the orientalist Matti Steinberg, a former advisor on Palestinian affairs to
the chief of the Shabak, joined the fray. Steinberg
not only confirmed that Gilad’s kontseptsia
was completely false and contradicted the intelligence material assembled by
his own people, but he also asserted that Gilad’s kontseptsia “fulfilled its own prophecy”.
Since
(The 1973 intelligence kontseptsia was that
As
of now, Gilad’s immediate superior (Malka) and his immediate subordinate (Lavie)
both accuse him of presenting his personal opinions, which were unsupported by
any intelligence backing, as if they were the official assessment of the
intelligence services.
Gilad has caused irreversible damage. His mantra was
accepted by the vast majority of Israelis, as well as a large part of
international public opinion. Its exposure in professional circles will not
alter this fact. Indeed, the recent decision of the “Quartet” shows how deeply
entrenched this lie has become throughout the world.
By the way, these revelations show that the secret assessment of the
highest professional echelons of the Army Intelligence Department and Shabak were practically identical with the assessments
published at the time by Gush Shalom, which were met with total disbelief by
the media and the public, including a large part of the “peace camp”. To wit,
that the Palestinian leadership, headed by Arafat, has never wavered from its readiness
to make peace with Israel based on the creation of a Palestinian state on 97%
of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (which together make 22% of historic
Palestine), with territorial compensation for the remaining 3% and sovereignty
over East Jerusalem and the Haram-al-Sharif (“Temple
Mount”). The refugee problem would be solved by agreement with
The experts of army intelligence and the security service, too, agree
that Arafat has not wavered from this position. On this basis, peace can be
achieved even now, as Arafat himself confirmed this week in a fascinating interview
with the new editor of Haaretz, David Landau.
Ariel
For that,