TEL AVIV — The Israeli military has urged the government to assign police the operation to expel an estimated 70,000 Jews from the West
Bank.
Military sources said said senior officers relayed their objection to Defense
Minister Amir Peretz last week. The officers were said to have cited a sharp drop in the motivation of
religious Jews to serve in the army since the withdrawal.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been scheduled to meet President George Bush on May 23 in a
session expected to focus on Israel's plan for a unilateral withdrawal from
90 percent of the West Bank by 2008, Middle East Newsline reported. The prime minister was also planning to
discuss Iran and the Palestinian missile threat to Israel.
The sources said senior commanders have warned that the use of army
troops to evict Jews from scores of communities from the West Bank would
harm the military. They said the army should not be used for such missions.
"We prefer that police carry out this mission," a source said.
So far, the military has not announced such a position. But Israel's
media highlighted the military's objection to participating in the eviction
of Jews from the West Bank as Olmert prepared to leave
for the United States next week.
They said the officers were responding to
what they termed lessons drawn from the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip and northern West Bank and the expulsion of an estimated 16,000 Jews
in September 2005.
In mid-May, an
Israeli soldier cited for distinguished service refused to shake the hand of
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz during an official ceremony. The family
of the soldier had been one of those evicted from their homes in the Gaza
Strip.
The military has formal responsibility for the West Bank. But over the
last few months, the military has ceded responsibility to the police over
major checkpoints along roads that lead to Israel.
At the same time, the military has sought to focus on counter-insurgency
operations. On Sunday, at least six suspected Palestinian insurgents were
killed in a clash near the northern West Bank town of Jenin.
One of them included a senior Islamic Jihad operative, identified as
Elias Al Ashkar. Al Ashkar was said to have been involved in several suicide
attacks in Israel.
