By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Mar 14, 2005
Israel is making far-reaching security sacrifices and risking Jewish lives in the hope Mahmoud Abbas will one day fulfill the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to disarm and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure operating under its auspices.
So said IDF Military Intelligence chief Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash in a unique online interview with readers of ArabYnet from throughout the Middle East.
Farkash said Hamas and other terror groups Abbas refuses to put out of business are stronger than ever and planning a deadly serious of attacks for the day after the current calm collapses.
Despite being fully capable of containing “Palestinian” terror, however, Farkash said Israel was doing nothing to thwart the imminent attacks as it bends over backwards to accommodate Abbas and the Western-imposed Road Map.
Military solution to terror
Asked by a Palestinian Arab if Israel had failed to militarily defeat the current “intifada,” Farkash responded that actions such as 2002’s Operation Defensive Shield proved the IDF could contain “Palestinian” terror.
“It can’t be stopped by 100 percent. However, we can say for sure we have the military capability to contain terror,” the general said.
Farkash noted that over the past several years pinpoint strikes and a campaign of assassination against terror bosses had severely crippled the Palestinian Arabs’ ability to mass murder Jews.
“There was immense motivation [to kill Jews], but we saw [the terrorists’] abilities had dropped,” Farkash said.
Accommodating Abbas
But those defensive measures that have worked so well have all been halted in order to give Abbas an opportunity to finally implement the PLO’s decade-old obligation to eliminate the scourge of anti-Jewish “Palestinian” terror.
“Israel is restraining itself because we want to give the other side a chance,” explained Farkash.
And that restraint is a serious sacrifice by Israel, said Farkash, noting a worrying degree of information indicating the terror groups are preparing for the next wave of violence.
“We have intelligence, but we are not acting on it to give them [the PA] a chance.”
Calm before the storm
“The Palestinian factions are taking advantage of the [current relative] calm” to rearm, rebuild and plan future attacks, Farkash warned.
“Their capability now is stronger than in the past,” virtually eliminating the physical achievements of the war on terror up until this point.
“If, God forbid, [the terror groups] receive an order or command to [attack] they would abandon the calm within 24-48 hours. They have the capability, which didn’t exist [last year], to carry out attacks in Israel,” said Farkash.
“If the calm is shattered there are likely to be large-scale terror attacks here.”
Several such attacks are already “in the barrel,” the intelligence chief said.