Disengagement
The
Disengagement
Summer
As zero hour nears, Israeli forces fear violent
worst-case scenarios.
rEL AVIV
BARBARA OPALL-ROME
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tel Aviv
T
he column of armored sport-
utility vehicles waited, engirres
humming, as a phalanx of
bodyguards ushered Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon into the third truck from
the end.
As the convoy cleared the main gate
of the Israeli government head's resi-
dence, a set of decoy vehicles turned
north, toward Jerusalem, while the
remaining units proceeded south
toward the Negev, where Sharon
planned to tour absorption sites being
built for hundreds of Israeli families
soon to be evacuated from their Gaza
Strip homes.
For Sharon, the site inspections this
spring were a welcome excursion
beyond his Jerusalem office com-
pound or his Negev ranch. But for
officers charged with protective secu-
rity, the outing rivaled an elite combat
operation.
Hours earlier, crack teams descended
on each of the six kibbutzim and farm-
ing villages on the morning's itinerary,
creating "sterile" zones for Sharon to
meet with pre-screened residents and
local leaders. At each stop, a bridge-
head of agents cleared the way for the
advancing prime minister while,
15,000 feet overhead, an unmanned
reconnaissance drone scanned the
scene with high-powered optics.
"We don't spare any effort, money
and tools in order to protect the
prime minister from the growing
threat," Avi Dichter, the recently
retired director of Israel's Shin Bet
security service, told JTA.
Dichter was talking less about
Palestinian terrorists seeking to harm
Sharon than about "Jewish ultra-
extremists who are sure that one way
to block the disengagement is by
harming, if not killing, the prime min-
ister," he said, _referring to the contro-
versial plan to withdraw Israeli soldiers
and settlers from the Gaza Strip and
northern West Bank that Sharon
pushed through his government.
8/11
2005
54
As the planned mid-August pullout
approaches, many fear that protests
against the Sharon government could
give way to acts of violence. As ring-
leaders from the far right vow to
thwart the withdrawal, security offi-
cials are increasingly warning of the
prospect of Jewish terrorism.
Those warnings appeared prescient
Aug. 4, when an AWOL Israeli soldier
reportedly known for his extremist
ideology went on a shooting rampage
on a bus in the Israeli Arab town of
Shfaram, killing four people and
wounding 12. An enraged mob
lynched Cpl. Natan Eden Zada, 19,
when he stopped shooting. Israeli gov-
ernment officials and leaders of the
Yesha settlers council condemned the
attack as an act of terrorism.
According to Dichter, the Shin Bet
has assessed a number of scenarios,
including the prospect of a Jewish sui-
cide bomber. "We're not ruling out a
Jewish suicide bomber who might use
tamut nafihi pilishtim' as his ration-
ale," Dichter said, referring to Samson's
words in the Bible as he brought down
the Philistine temple around himself,
"Let me die with the Philistines."
The Knesset Finance Committee last
month authorized a budgetary increase
of nearly $90 million to cover extra
costs associated with Sharon's personal
protection, which a committee aide
estimated at some $230 million a year.
JORDAN
•
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•
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Rabin Influence
While many protective measures were
mandated by a commission of inquiry
following the 1995 assassination of then
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin — and
extended to a wider net of officials after
Palestinian terrorists murdered Tourism
Minister Rechavam Ze'evi in October
2001— one recently retired Shin Bet
official said the security around Sharon
was unprecedented and was directly
related to the Jewish terror threat.
Even as the atmosphere grew
increasingly menacing, with political
opponents and rabbinical authorities
demanding Rabin's removal for his
"traitorous" dealings with the then
Palestine Liberation Organization
leader Yasser Arafat, his 1995 slaying
by a religious university student
stunned Israel and the world.
In retrospect, said Hezi Kalo, a for-
mer Shin Bet official, the incitement
against Rabin pales in comparison
with the invective hurled at Sharon
and supporters of the withdrawal plan,
such as "Sharon: Lily is waiting for
you," a reference to the prime minis-
ter's recently deceased wife.
Since Sharon began talking of with-
drawal in December 2003, opponents
of the plan have blocked roadways,
planted dummy bombs in public places,
and blanketed the country with plac-
ards and banners pillorying the prime
minister as a "traitor" and a "fascist."
Rabbinic authorities — including
two former Israeli chief rabbis — have