Retired colonel: Israel's greed to blame for attacks
Retired IDF colonel says government insistence on grabbing more Palestinian land is delaying fence construction, which in turn allows terrorists easy access to Israel
Just days before the government holds discussions on fastening construction work on a planned fence around the capital, Colonel (ret.) Shaul Arieli, said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's policy will hinder the construction of the security fence around Jerusalem.
As a member in the management of the Council for Peace and Security, for years Arieli has campaigned for the construction of a security fence in a way that will minimize harm to the Palestinians.
Arieli, the commander of northern Gaza under Ehud Barak, said Olmert continues to follow a poor policy which is has been causing delays in erecting the fence meant to prevent terrorists from reaching populated centers.
"I am angry when I hear government ministers saying that the High Court of Justice is hindering fence construction – in fact it is their greed which is causing this and they should be complaining to no one," he said.
Next Wednesday Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is summoning officials responsible for the project to discuss the planned fence around Jerusalem.
On Monday a suicide bomber infiltrated Israel through a gap in the fence and made his way to Tel Aviv where he nblew himself up outside a sandwich stand killing himself and 9 Israelis.
Gaps in fence are dangerous
In July 2005 the government decided to allow 55,000 Palestinians living near Jerusalem and left outside the city by the fence to cross into east Jerusalem.
The government decided to leave a gap in the fence to allow temporary movement for Palestinians, until the completion of the Kalandia crossing and the construction of roads for the Palestinians.
The government took the measure for fear that a failure to do so will prompt the High Court to order construction be stopped.
The overture in the fence was supposed to be sealed last September but only now has it been completed.
With the completion of construction 8 month later than scheduled, the High Court will rule whether the fence doesn't hinder the daily lives of the Palestinians.
If it rules that the fence is infringing on the basic human rights of the Palestinians, the gap could well be ordered open to all movement between east Jerusalem and neighboring areas left outside the fence.
One way or another, it seems that the Israeli plan to annex the Maale Adumim area will leave a wide gap in the fence that surrounds Jerusalem. In other words, even if the rest of the fence is completed, this wide gap will allow suicide terrorists to make way into the heart of Israeli populace. Moreover, the whole southern part of the fence, from Jerusalem south, is not erected yet and used as an opening for a terrorist on his way to the Hebron mountain, and from there to Beer Sheva valley.
'Learn from Sharon's mistakes'
"Israel insistence on keeping the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem is damaging: first, by incompletion of the fence because of continued petitions to the High Court by the Palestinians who seek to protect their land and work places. Second, by migration of tens of thousands of Palestinians who were left outside the fence, into Jerusalem. One way or another, Olmert, by his own decisions, acts against the clear Israeli interest – completion of the security fence in Jerusalem so life can be saved", blames retired colonel Shaul Arieli.
"It behooves the Israeli government and its new prime minister to learn from the grave mistakes of Ariel Sharon. It's hard for me to talk about him because of his illness and I wish him a speedy and complete recovery, but still, if it were not for his stubbornness and greed for the Palestinian land east of the green line – that fence would have been completed long ago, as promised by defense minister Shaul Mofaz. I feel uncomfortable to remind that today the High Court forces the government to build the fence along the rout that I have been talking about for three years. It was possible to do it and save hundreds of millions, and in a way that would have prevented at least some of terror attacks that took place", Arieli told Ynet.
Olmert's associates said in response that claims of Colonel Arieli and the Council for Peace and Security are baseless: "Because of people like him and the Council for Peace and Security the fence is not built yet, especially the section where the terrorists who carried out the attack in the old central bus station have infiltrated. There are people that even if Israel will stabilize itself on the 67 green line, won't be satisfied", they said.
