The Jerusalem Post’s correspondent with excellent military contacts has written today that, with the imminent inauguration of Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s next Prime Minikster, a “Sayeret Matkal trio” will be taking the reins of power.
Katz wrote that “[Ehud] Barak, Israel’s most decorated soldier, was the commander of the IDF’s most elite unit, known by its Hebrew name, Sayeret Matkal. Netanyahu, whose brother Yoni later became commander of the unit and was killed during the 1976 raid on Entebbe, was a junior team leader under Barak’s command in the early 1970s. With the swearing-in of the new government on Tuesday, the relationship between Barak and Netanyahu has changed – Netanyahu, the new prime minister, is the commander in chief. Barak … as the defense minister, he will have to carry out missions assigned by Netanyahu. Netanyahu and Barak are not the only members of the new government with origins in the army’s most elite unit. Moshe ‘Bogie’ Ya’alon, the former chief of staff slated to become the minister of strategic affairs, served as commander of the unit between 1987 and 1989. This Sayeret Matkal trio will now be leading the country’s defense and security apparatuses at a time when some of the most critical decisions in the country’s history will have to be made – from whether to use military force to stop Iran’s race toward nuclear power, to the Hizbullah threat in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip … As former members of Sayeret Matkal, the Netanyahu-Barak-Ya’alon trio carried out some of Israel’s most covert and complicated operations – some of which are still classified”. This article can be read in full here.
Meanwhile, another article in the JPost today reported that “The incoming government must immediately begin planning for a separation from Palestinians, veteran negotiator and security figure Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gilad Sher said during a lecture in Ramat Gan on Monday evening.
Sher, who managed several previous negotiation rounds with the Palestinians and who served as bureau chief for Ehud Barak when he was prime minister, described Israel’s continued presence in the Palestinian territories as an ‘existential threat’. ‘We need to separate from the Palestinians, either with negotiations or without’, Sher said at an event organized by the Council for Peace and Security. ‘I have no illusions over the unpopularity of this stance after the Gaza disengagement’.
He added, ‘We are calling on the government to begin to piece together a national plan for separation from the first day of its term. If the negotiations don’t succeed, the government can say, we tried, now we will leave on our own’. Describing himself as a ‘big believer in dialogue with the Arabs’, Sher said it was nevertheless important to recognize that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority ‘may not end in agreement’, and to plan for that eventuality. Sher said the creation of permanent borders was vital for Israel’s future, adding that ‘IDF activity in the Palestinian Authority harms our readiness for conventional war’ … A unilateral pullout could use ‘the route of the security fence as a temporary border’, Sher said. Referring to a map, he added that ‘Gush Etzion and parts of western Samaria can be annexed to Israel. A multinational force should take command in the West Bank until the Palestinians can fulfill their security responsibilities’. Under a permanent agreement, Israel could annex 7.3 percent of the West Bank, while the PA could annex 5% of land back from Israel, Sher proposed. Dozens of settlements and tens of thousands of settlers would need to be evacuated, Sher said, a process that would be hastened by the passing of a compensation law to financially reward those who voluntarily relocated back across the Green Line”. This report can be read in the JPost in full here.