The Guardian, Four former directors of Israel's Shin Bet security service have given unprecedented warnings that the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is leading the country to catastrophe by failing to pursue peace with the Palestinians.
The criticisms, which follow a warning by the army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Moshe Ya'alon, a fortnight ago that the government's harsh treatment of Palestinian civilians was “strengthening terrorist organisations”, provide further evidence that confidence in Mr Sharon is crumbling in the security establishment.
The former Shin Bet chiefs – Yaakov Perry, Ami Ayalon, Avraham Shalom and Carmi Gilon – made their criticisms in an interview with the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.
“We are heading downhill towards near-catastrophe,” Mr Perry said. “If we go on living by the sword, we will continue to wallow in the mud and destroy ourselves.”
Mr Shalom called the government's policies “contrary to the desire for peace”.
The former intelligence chiefs said Mr Sharon's insistence on a complete halt to “terrorist attacks” before peace talks could begin in earnest was either misguided or a ploy to avoid negotiations and continue the policies of Israeli expansionism.
“[The government] is dealing solely with the question of how to prevent the next terrorist attack,” Mr Gilon said. “It [ignores] the question of how we get out of the mess we find ourselves in today … It is clear to me that we are heading toward a crash.”
The former intelligence chiefs agreed on a need to take swift steps towards ending the occupation by dismantling some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
“We need to take the situation into our own hands and leave Gaza with all the difficulty that that entails, and to dismantle illegal settlements,” said Mr Perry. “There will always be some [settler] groups … for whom the land of Israel nestles in the hills of Nablus and inside Hebron and we will have to clash with them.”
Mr Shalom backed Gen Ya'alon's earlier view that Israel's treatment of ordinary Palestinians was wrong.
“We must once and for all admit there is another side, that it has feelings, that it is suffering and that we are behaving disgracefully … this entire behaviour is the result of the occupation,” he said.
So far, the government shows little sign of changing tack. Mr Sharon has accused his critics of playing into the hands of terrorists. The present director of the Shin Bet, Avi Dichter, continues to argue for maintaining stringent restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians.
The defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, said in a recent interview that the army could defeat the armed Palestinian groups, although he warned it could take generations.
But Mr Perry said Israelis should listen to those with more experience.
“Why is it that that every one, Shin Bet directors, chiefs of staff, former security personnel, after a long service in the security organisations, become the advocates of reconciliation with the Palestinians?” he asked. “Why? Because we know the material, the people in the field and, surprisingly enough, both sides.”
