Can the IDF withstand political pressure?
The Israel Defense Forces believe hope and economic opportunity are the keys to calming the current wave of Palestinian attacks, but political leaders are pressing for a military response.
The closure imposed on Ramallah on Feb. 1 and its partial lifting a day later are telling in terms of disagreement between Israel’s top military brass and the political echelon on how to deal with the lone attacker intifada that broke out in October. Since that time, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been pressed to restrict the movement of residents in Palestinian towns in the West Bank in a bid to prevent them from getting into Israel and carrying out terror attacks. In the aftermath of the Jan. 31 shooting at a roadblock near Bet El by Amjad a-Sukari, a Palestinian police officer, the IDF has been forced, for the first time during this intifada, to impose a closure on Ramallah.
For months, the IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, has staved off demands from the political echelon to impose a closure on the territories, arguing that the damage would far exceed any benefits. “It would be a bitter mistake to impose closures and blockades on the territories. This would be counterproductive for Israel,” Eizenkot said Jan. 18 at a conference held by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), adding that the Palestinian population should be given hope and the possibility to make economic ends meet.
