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Peace Process

Negev Jews are latest sacrificial lambs

Did Mofaz delay defenses to maintain support for disengagement?


By Ryan Jones
January 24, 2006

Israel's left-wing establishment, of which Ariel Sharon's disengagement-minded Kadima Party is the newest star, has for more than a decade insisted Israelis must offer themselves as sacrifices on the alter of peace.

A new State Comptroller's report released Sunday indicates the Jewish residents of towns and cities bordering the Gaza Strip are the latest victims of this logic.

The contents of the report seem to suggest the Sharon government, and in particular Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz, purposefully delayed the installation of promised defenses in the threatened communities so as to not damage public support for the Gaza withdrawal.

The process of protecting towns such as Sderot from ongoing "Palestinian"? rocket and mortar attacks, wrote State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, has been "unreasonable and inefficient, taking a long time, with discussions that ended without applicable results on the ground."?

The IDF's Home Front Command decided on the need to fortify public buildings in Sderot and other towns in September 2004, just months after Sharon announced his new disengagement policy.

The decision was only approved in March 2005, just a few short months before the evacuation was to begin and the terrorists would be able to fire their rockets from much closer range.

The Sharon government failed to officially discuss the issue until June 2005, and even then "did not take a decision on the issue,"? the comptroller noted.

And so, 17 months after the decision to quit Gaza and put the towns of the western Negev in increased danger, and nearly four months after the withdrawal was completed, the residents of the area continue to live with inadequate defenses.

"That the price of these failures has not yet been paid in blood is mainly thanks to the inaccuracy of the Palestinians' rockets,"? commented Ha'aretz's Amos Harel.

Lindenstrauss' report went on to provide a possible explanation for the "ongoing failure"? to protect human life.

In a June 2004 meeting with senior IDF officials, the comptroller revealed that Mofaz warned against any "actions or words that might create the feeling that the security situation will worsen following the disengagement."?

In the months leading up to the forced removal of Jewish life from Gaza, Sharon pushed forward with his controversial plan on the strength of what he insisted was overwhelming public support for the move.

Harel noted that "when the defense minister tells his generals that working too vigorously to fortify Negev communities will weaken public support for disengagement, one can confidently predict that the officers will not hasten to send in the bulldozers."?

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