Prime Minister Sharon is not happy with the criticism of his unilateral withdrawal plan expressed by army officers and Shabak personnel - and last night he "leaked" it to the press. A Channel Two commentator announced that Sharon said that IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon "is causing tremendous damage, is intervening blatantly, and is attempting to influence ministers."
Yaalon is known to have expressed his strong opposition to a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in closed meetings with top military officers, and on occasion has done so in public in a more guarded fashion. "Retreat under fire is no solution," he said on Sunday night, after making similar remarks the night before at the Erez Crossing. Yaalon also said this week that a connection between the current increase in terrorism and Sharon's disengagement plan "cannot be ruled out."
Another comment by Yaalon - put to good use by the anti-withdrawal camp - was, "Evacuating the settlements will give a tail-wind to terrorism... Everything that the Palestinians see as a crack in our ability to stand strong, distances the end of terrorism."
After Sharon's anger at Yaalon was publicized last night, staffers in the Prime Minister's Bureau tried to minimize the rift, saying that Sharon had not called Yaalon on the carpet. Yaalon himself said that he is very careful to express his opinions only in professional forums.
A "senior security figure" was quoted on Army Radio this morning as saying, "It is brazenness to stab the Chief of Staff in the back via the media while he is busy commanding an army at war... Sharon and his aides realized that they don't have a broad political base for the disengagement idea, so they decided to come down on the Chief of Staff."
An editorial in Yediot Acharonot today stated that though normally, the Prime Minister is within his rights by reprimanding a Chief of Staff who oversteps his bounds from the military into the diplomatic spheres, but in this case it's different: "These rules apply only when the political echelon fulfills its function: sets policy, gives clear instructions and places itself in the front line of responsibility. None of this can be said about the Prime Minister, and therefore the Chief of Staff is not overstepping his bounds, because these bounds have never been set... As of now, [two] months after Sharon first declared his unilateral retreat plan, the army is still not sure what the plan is: there is no timetable, no final forces-deployment map, no discussion on what conditions are necessary for it to be implemented..."
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister faces opposition also from another front: The General Security Service (Shabak). Avi Dichter, head of the Shabak, has been quoted in the past as saying that the evacuation from Gaza is "dangerous" and would provide the PA Arabs with "a sense of victory and encouragement for terrorism" - and now he has said similar things in Washington as well. In private conversations with Israeli officials in the American capital, Dichter said that the disengagement would not lead to a drop in the motivation of Palestinian terror elements to perpetrate attacks against Israel. He met with U.S. Intelligence and National Security Council figures on the topic as well.
Yaalon is known to have expressed his strong opposition to a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in closed meetings with top military officers, and on occasion has done so in public in a more guarded fashion. "Retreat under fire is no solution," he said on Sunday night, after making similar remarks the night before at the Erez Crossing. Yaalon also said this week that a connection between the current increase in terrorism and Sharon's disengagement plan "cannot be ruled out."
Another comment by Yaalon - put to good use by the anti-withdrawal camp - was, "Evacuating the settlements will give a tail-wind to terrorism... Everything that the Palestinians see as a crack in our ability to stand strong, distances the end of terrorism."
After Sharon's anger at Yaalon was publicized last night, staffers in the Prime Minister's Bureau tried to minimize the rift, saying that Sharon had not called Yaalon on the carpet. Yaalon himself said that he is very careful to express his opinions only in professional forums.
A "senior security figure" was quoted on Army Radio this morning as saying, "It is brazenness to stab the Chief of Staff in the back via the media while he is busy commanding an army at war... Sharon and his aides realized that they don't have a broad political base for the disengagement idea, so they decided to come down on the Chief of Staff."
An editorial in Yediot Acharonot today stated that though normally, the Prime Minister is within his rights by reprimanding a Chief of Staff who oversteps his bounds from the military into the diplomatic spheres, but in this case it's different: "These rules apply only when the political echelon fulfills its function: sets policy, gives clear instructions and places itself in the front line of responsibility. None of this can be said about the Prime Minister, and therefore the Chief of Staff is not overstepping his bounds, because these bounds have never been set... As of now, [two] months after Sharon first declared his unilateral retreat plan, the army is still not sure what the plan is: there is no timetable, no final forces-deployment map, no discussion on what conditions are necessary for it to be implemented..."
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister faces opposition also from another front: The General Security Service (Shabak). Avi Dichter, head of the Shabak, has been quoted in the past as saying that the evacuation from Gaza is "dangerous" and would provide the PA Arabs with "a sense of victory and encouragement for terrorism" - and now he has said similar things in Washington as well. In private conversations with Israeli officials in the American capital, Dichter said that the disengagement would not lead to a drop in the motivation of Palestinian terror elements to perpetrate attacks against Israel. He met with U.S. Intelligence and National Security Council figures on the topic as well.