August 27th, 2006
General Lapidot: The Occupation is Draining Israel’s Resources
Retired General Amos Lapidot, former commander of Israel’s Air Force, asked on Ynet (Hebrew, no translation yet) what the root is of Israel’s current trouble.
“My answer,” he wrote, “is that the heart of the problem is the occupation and the settlement in the territories. The problem of the territories has been draining Israel’s energy for the last forty years: the billions spent there; the [internal] political tensions; the twisting of national priorities; the deterioration of administration and law enforcement; […] The occupation and the reality in the territories cause international hostility towards us, inflame hatred in Arab countries and the Muslim world at large, and increase the number of countries which become our potential enemies. […] This necessitates preparation for war on all fronts, and answers to all possible scenarios. The problem is we don’t have enough resources, because we’re wasting them on the territories…”
All the more depressing since Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu is now leading in the polls. Remember Netanyahu? He’s the former Treasury Minister who privatized everything, and the former Prime Minister who did his best to stop the Oslo Process and perpetuate Israel’s hold on the territories. This should be enough to explain why so many of the protesters calling Olmert to resign are settlers. Elections, anyone?
August 29th, 2006 at 11:10 am
General Lapidot’s arguments appear sound, but he does not articulate the costs of the alternative. While it undoubtedly is costly and damaging to Israel to maintain the occupation, a negotiated peace settlement with the Palestinians may not be achievable.
In the event that Israel unilaterally withdraws from the West Bank (and the Golan Heights?) Israel will need to maintain a highly developed and responsive defence system to protect it from the type of attacks that emanate from Gaza currently. There must be a cost to this, and there will be significant costs if due to the threat of attack from the West Bank businesses begin to move away from Tel Aviv etc.
Ideally there should be a negotiated peace and withdrawal, following which there would probably be a significant peace bonus for Israel (& Palestine).
But if the Palestinian government cannot progress to being a national government capable of managing a stable civil society and attract massive inward investment. Then it is highly likely that they will continue to allow the armed forces to prosecute a low level war against Israel to ensure societal cohesion.