Briefing by Major General Giora Eiland, IDF Chief of Planning
and Colonel Miri Eisin, IDF Intelligence Corps
National Media Center, Jerusalem, April 5, 2002
Major General Giora Eiland: Good afternoon. When we discussed the
current operation we have to recall the goals of this operation. From
the military point of view, there were two goals for this operation.
The first and most immediate one was to reduce significantly the
number of terrorist attacks that have been launched from
Palestinian-controlled areas in Israeli cities. During all the period
of March, more than 124 Israeli civilians have been killed and many
other wounded.
The second goal of this operation is to try to destroy the terrorist
capabilities, or at least to reduce significantly, their operational
capabilities. Therefore, these kinds of terrorist operations that we
experienced until one week ago, will not be able to be deployed in
such an effective way.
So far, after less than a week, we feel quite comfortable with what
we have already achieved. As far as the first goal is concerned, we
have managed to reduce the number of these terrorist attacks. I know
that we cannot give 100% guarantee that such events will not occur
again, but we do know that the probability that such events will
occur with the frequency that we experienced in the past, is
relatively low.
As far as the second goal, so far we have managed to arrest more than
1200 people. Many dozens of them are very dangerous terrorists.
People who we have been looking for, for a long time. Unfortunately,
until a week ago, we didn't have access or capabilities to reach
them. Now we can. We did find a lot of weapons and ammunition. We are
talking about more than two thousand weapons of various kinds
including types of weapons that are not permitted according to the
agreement that we have with the Palestinians. We did find a lot of
explosive devices, laboratories, where these kinds of ammunitions and
explosives are stored and if the operation continues more or less in
the same manner, we hope to be as successful in the future.
There is one sensitive place and this is the city of Bethlehem where
in a the Church of the Nativity there is a very delicate situation. A
few days ago dozens of Palestinian terrorists, with some Palestinian
officials, including the Palestinian Governor of the city of
Bethlehem, occupied this Church. First, all the people who were
there, priests and civilians, stayed in this specific place. They did
not enable them to leave, and in a way they are kept as hostages.
A few hours ago four priests managed to escape with our assistance.
They did it of course, without getting permission from the
Palestinians. We do hope that we will find a way to assist some
others to escape in this way or in a similar way.
The situation in this Church is very similar to many incidents in the
past where terrorists, many of them Palestinians, took hostages,
whether on a plane or in buildings or in offices, and kept them just
to protect themselves or to gain some other goals.
Of course, we will let anyone leave this place, and arrest only those
who are wanted terrorists. Anyone that wants to leave this place and
if he is not involved in any terrorist activities, of course we will
release him.
We have been asked, due to the speech of President Bush yesterday,
about the duration of the operation. When exactly we are going to
begin our withdrawal. I read very carefully this speech and the main
thing that is emphasized is the failure of the Palestinians and their
President, Yasser Arafat, not only to fight terrorism but to
understand the consequences of such an approach.
The explanation of the rules of the situation is given by the
President himself in a very clear way. So, I can imagine, that the
President's intent is not that we will leave the Palestinian areas so
that terrorism that we have been experiencing until six days ago will
become the norm again. We do believe, that his intent is that
something dramatic will be done against this terrorism. and if and
when this kind of something dramatic is done, then the conditions and
the circumstances will change in a way that we will be able to leave
these areas. And as far as I understand, all the recent talks between
the US administration and the Palestinians, including the visit of
General Zinni today, are aimed to see whether such circumstances can
occur and can facilitate a new situation, which is of course our
desire.
Whenever we speak about terrorism, we have been accused of the reason
for this terrorism, and we have been told, it is only because of one
phenomenon - the occupation. So, let's stop the occupation and there
will be no terrorism. 22 months ago we tried this notion in a
different area. 22 months ago Israel withdrew its forces out of
Lebanon, unilaterally. We brought our forces to a line that was
formally confirmed by Secretary General Kofi Annan in full compliance
with UN Resolution 425, and he said that Israel completely
accomplished its withdrawal. Three months later, terrorist activities
began along this border and three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped in
Israeli territory. And as we can see from the past few days, repeated
attacks from Lebanon on Israel with no excuse. Of course, the term
"disputed area" is irrelevant because the line was marked on the
ground and on the maps by a special UN envoy and there is no room for
misunderstanding whatsoever.
So, probably leaving specific areas does not necessarily guarantee
that the other side will not understand it as a sign of weakness or
further attacks should take place.
When we tried to evaluate again how long is needed in order to
accomplish our mission in the West Bank and Gaza, we said that the
longer these operations continue, the better the chances that we will
be able to accomplish all or most of our missions. We do understand
that under certain circumstances, it might be shorter, but we have to
understand that every day we manage to seize some explosive belts,
and if we leave them and other terrorist devices, they will
eventually explode in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or any other place.
In the past few days, we have tried to prove the connection between
terrorism and the PA and we did say that it is not a situation where
we have terrorism as a separate entity and the PA as another and that
apparently the only complaint against the PA is that they don't do
enough to prevent and stop this terrorism.
Unfortunately, this is not the situation. If you want the best
example of this situation, all the Palestinian attempts to carry out
suicide attacks during the presence of General Zinni in Israel, most
of them were conducted directly by the PA. For example, someone who
was in a Palestinian jail in Ramallah, they knew very will of his
intent to carry out a suicide attack and just a few days after the
arrival of General Zinni, he was released from jail and sent by a
Palestinian official to carry out a suicide attack in the Moment
Coffee Shop in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, he was successful.
We do have many more examples like this - if you like, in general we
can say that we can compare Yasser Arafat to a manager of a zoo who
decided to open all the cages and to let all the lions, tigers and
snakes, go free. So no one should be surprised that these specific
animals do what they are told to do.
Colonel Miri Eisin: I've stood here a few times over the last few
days, and today I would like to add some more information which I
hope will tie in some of the documents that we have been finding from
the compound in Ramallah. I've mentioned before, we entered in
Ramallah into Fouad Shoubaki, the chief financial advisor's office,
and today I am going to talk about a document which we found in
General Tirawi's office - he is the head of general intelligence and
he, as Fouad Shoubaki, is together with Arafat now within the
compound, in Arafat's office.
The document itself which I hold here, and you may see the English
translation, I say as an Intelligence Officer, is the sort of thing I
always like to find. It's an intelligence report of the the Head of
General Intelligence in the city of Tulkarm, one of the cities that
we are controlling right now. He writes to Tirawi about what goes on
within his city. And it is this description which you will be able to
read in depth. The entire document has been translated and as I said
is on the IDF site, I would just like to point out several things,
which are within a long intelligence document.
The document explains what the Fatah-Tanzim are doing within the city
of Tulkarm. Without any way of explaining it better, you read the
document, and you see Fatah -- I'm talking about Arafat's party,
about Marwan Bargouti, the head of the Fatah -- that the Fatah-Tanzim
within Tulkarm is funded by Arafat personally who, as it says within
their own intelligence report gave money for guns for the
Fatah-Tanzim. These aren't the Palestinian police, these aren't for
security apparatus, these are the Fatah-Tanzim that have been doing
attacks against Israelis. Arafat himself is mentioned in their own
report as having paid for it.
In addition, the policy of the terrorism in this document is approved
by the General Intelligence of the PA. Such as, 'you are going to do
an attack in Hadera', where there were six killed at a Bat Mitzva, by
a suicide bomber. It was approved by the General Intelligence within
Tulkarm.
The only reason that they wrote this report, as you will read it, was
that some of the Fatah-Tanzim people within Tulkarm weren't doing
exactly what they wanted and they found this problematic and they
wanted to make sure that they were brought into hand. They were
firing from within Tulkarm at local Palestinian people and parades
and that's not okay, because that's bothering the own Palestinian
civilians.
The connection to the documents of yesterday, is that within it are
mentioned all of the names that were within the document that Arafat
personally signed, which we showed you yesterday, which was from the
Fatah-Tanzim in Tulkarm, to Marwan Bargouti, the Head of the
Fatah-Tanzim in all of the West Bank, and from there to Yasser Arafat
himself where they paid twelve separate people. They are all
mentioned within the General Intelligence Report themselves, and they
describe exactly what they are doing.
The last thing I would like to say is, within this is a direct
reference about the suicide bombing, as was explained, in Hadera on
the 17 January, as something they both knew about. They know about
the people who were in it, and they continue to fund them and to
supply them with the guns.
As I said before, the entire document you will be able to read in our
website and I only have it in Hebrew and in Arabic.
Thank you.
Questions & Answers:
Q: Do you think it was appropriate that you interpreted President
Bush's speech as a military person?
General Giora Eiland: I didn't say anything about the political
consequences of his speech. I simply said that the word terrorism
appears in this text more than other word, and as far as I
understand, his intent was that our withdrawal will not be conducted
unilaterally unless something is achieved in the area of fighting
terrorism. It is said in the text in the most accurate and clear way
so it is not an interpretation.
Q: What would be for you something dramatic in fighting terrorism
that could cause the IDF leaving the Palestinian territories? There
was also a decision by the UN yesterday and they say that the IDF
should withdraw immediately from the West Bank cities?
General Giora Eiland: Unfortunately, there is nothing dramatic in a
war against terrorism. There is no one decisive victory. It is a long
campaign that requires a lot of patience and a lot of efforts that
should last not only days or weeks but sometimes months and years.
So, I cannot say that one specific event will change the situation
dramatically. But we do believe that by doing what we are doing we
can create an incremental impact that might be significant enough if
we continue this for enough time, so that the threat of terrorism
will be reduced.
Q: The military leaders of Israel are reported in the Israeli press
to have wanted a month to two months to carry out this operation - is
that timetable possible at all now, given President Bush's speech and
the fact that that will be followed by Secretary of State Powell's
visit?
General Giora Eiland: The timetable of four weeks and another four
weeks is for a military point of view, the most desirable period of
time that we need and this is only our assessment. Maybe we need more
maybe we need less. We do understand that there are some other
restrictions and circumstances that will lead us to shorten our
operation and whenever a decision is taken to stop it or to begin any
withdrawal of course we will do so.
Q: Where do you put twenty thousand prisoners? I wonder how do you
manage with this logistically? How do you manage the selection of the
people you then keep in prison? Secondly, would you enter the Church
of the Nativity if it is the case, are you decided to capture the
terrorist that are inside or you would avoid it for political
reasons?
General Giora Eiland: We do understand the sensitivity of this place.
We don't have any intention to penetrate and of course not to
demolish this holy place, but we are determined to stay there and to
surround the building until those who captured those hostages give
them up and leave this place. And we hope to achieve it if we are
patient enough.
I mentioned the number, 1200 people who have been arrested so far.
This is not twenty thousand. I said twelve hundred. If I made a
mistake I apologize. Many of these detainees will be released shortly
or it might take a few days while we make investigations. The final
number will be significantly less.
Q: Could you elaborate on the parallel you were drawing with Lebanon
where Israelis withdrew and then the three soldiers were kidnapped?
Does this mean that you think that Israel should not have left
Lebanon, that it was a mistake after 18 years to go out.
General Giora Eiland: I don't want to discuss something that took
place close to two years ago, whether it was a mistake or not, it has
already been done. But, I do want to emphasize that the fact that we
completely withdrew from Lebanon. There is no reason whatsoever for
anyone that lives in Lebanon to continue attacking us, yet some
people have different ideas. Some people have different visions and
if we mention the Hizbullah the vision of Hizbullah is to see the
complete destruction of the State of Israel. They are pushed by
Iranian ideology that doesn't recognize that Israel has the right to
exist. So they continue more or less in their activities, just as
they did before, or as they say formally, the battle on Lebanon was
only the first phase because the final campaign will be on Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, this specific approach is typical not only of the
Hizbullah. In the Palestinian areas, there are huge organizations,
like the Hamas, Islamic Jihad, all of them are formally considered by
the US as terrorist organizations who share the same vision, who are
also inspired by the Iranians to take, not only military actions, but
to adopt the same policy. So, at least these kinds of groups don't
recognize and they say that they will never recognize, that Israel
should be a state. They even give some religious reasons why it is
against the Islamic belief.
But I can say even more than that, when President Bush mentions in
his speech, that Jews in Israel deserve to live peacefully in a
Jewish State. Maybe it sounds to you very obvious. It is not obvious.
The Palestinians expect that we will recognize that they should have
their Palestinian state. Almost everyone says that Israel knows that
the Palestinians should have their own state, but has anyone heard
from Yasser Arafat a statement saying that Israel has the right to
exist as a Jewish state? You have never heard such a thing and there
is no chance that it will be ever heard because this is against his
vision.
In a way, the only difference between Hizbullah and the PA is the
tactics, not necessarily the vision and the reason why they will
avoid saying that they are willing to recognize that Israel has the
right to exist as a Jewish State is because of a very simple reason.
Because if they say this statement it means that they have to give up
their idea of the right of return for millions of Palestinian
refugees who live in all the Arab countries around us. And they don't
want to give up this specific notion because in their mind the
implementation of this notion can bring to the elimination of the
State of Israel.
Q: [inaudible - re journalists' attempt to enter Arafat's Compound]
General Giora Eiland: A few days ago we considered this specific area
as a closed military zone. Despite this, some reporters and activists
tried to penetrate the building. At that time, the soldiers didn't
want to confront them aggressively, so they preferred to give up and
these people penetrated this building. When they left they left with
some other people. This is a closed area for anyone. Whether for
reporters or anyone else. These reporters tried to breech the fence
we put there, and the use of tear gas or other means is the only way
that you can prevent their access and at the same time not to cause
irreversible damage.
Q: [Inaudible, re was live fire used against the journalists]
General Giora Eiland: Let me tell you that the way that we shoot our
tear grenades is by rifles that look very similar to other weapons.
There was no kind of live fire that was used against these people.
Q: About the Church of the Nativity - Roman Catholic officials are
saying that Israeli forces did indeed destroy a door yesterday
leading into the church courtyard. Could you comment on that? In
Hebron - today there are witness reports of a helicopter missile
strike on a car there - can you explain?
General Giora Eiland: Regarding the church - we don't know of any
damage that has occurred to this place. We don't shoot at the
building and we avoid taking any actions that can lead to any damage
to the building but there are some people inside and we cannot give
guarantee as to what these terrorists do inside the building.
Regarding Hebron, we are looking for wanted terrorists in every
possible place. If we are already in a specific area then we might
have access to arrest these people. If we are not, like in Hebron,
then we have to use other tactics and I guess that this was the
intent of this specific operation.
Q: [inaudible - re the four priest who escaped the church]
General Giora Eiland: It took place a short time ago and I am not
sure that I have the reliable information.
Q: Could you talk a little more about what happened in Bethlehem
today. You said that four priests had managed to escape with your
help. Did they give you a further impression to one you may already
have, of the conditions inside, if they are being held against their
will and could you talk about the bell-ringer who had come out of the
compound and been shot?
General Giora Eiland: About the priest, it is an event that occurred
a short while ago so I am not sure that I have all the information.
They did say that they were forced to be in the building under quite
poor conditions, by those who forced them to be there. But I can't
tell you anything about the specific conditions.
About the shot man - what the Palestinians are trying to do - they
know they we avoid shooting at these buildings, so they tried to make
some provocation, to send someone outside and shoot at us at the same
time, hoping that we will shoot back, and then some civilian will be
hurt. Of course, we didn't shoot. And if someone has been shot in
this place, it is quite well understood that it happened because of
the Palestinian fire.
By the way, not far away from this place, we did find today, five
bodies of Palestinians that were treated in a very brutal way, bodies
of people suspected of being collaborators with us. Quite similar to
what has happened in other Palestinian cities. So far, besides these
five, we know about at least twelve Palestinians that were killed, in
cold blood, in Tulkarm, in Ramallah, and in some other places, just
because they thought they collaborated with us. Unfortunately, by the
way, I didn't hear anything from any objective observers about these
incidents.
Q: I am curious about a comment made yesterday by the World Bank and
UN special envoy, concerning Israel's targeting of generators and
water pumps, infrastructure, etc. How does that fit in with the fight
against terrorism?
General Giora Eiland: I guess that you will agree with me that we do
understand that any damage that is caused to civilian infrastructure,
and of course, any civilian victims that are part of this operation,
is something not desirable, even from the perspective of how we
appear. So we try to avoid it as much as we can. But we do have to
understand that there is fighting almost everywhere. Like what I just
told you about this church, it has attracted attention, so everybody
understands what is going on there. But it is not a unique place.
Similar events are happening many other places. Terrorists control
specific buildings, apartments and streets. They force the people to
stay there. Even when we tell the civilian that they should leave and
nothing will happen to them, they are forced to stay. And the
terrorists fight in a built-up area. Its extremely complicated, and
some damage to infrastructure cannot completely be avoided, although
we try to do whatever we can.
Q: When you say that Arafat is like a zookeeper, who has let the wild
animals roam, can I deduce that you are now saying that his
involvement in the terrorism can now be seen from a different light.
Because before, you were saying that he was not doing enough against
the bombers, but now you're actually accusing him of perpetrating
terrorism?
General Giora Eiland: We do say it, loud and clear, that these
terrorist activities are not only not prevented by Arafat and his
people, but actually directed by his people. Some of the papers
mentioned by Col. Miri today and in the past few days, were supposed
to give you hard evidence about their involvement, including his
personal involvement. So unfortunately, the answer is yes.
Q: Do you have any specific information about the people inside the
Nativity Church in Bethlehem? And do you have any contact with them?
General Giora Eiland: If you like, we can divide the people in the
Church into three groups. First, of course, are the civilian people
who live and work there, clergy. Second, are some heavyweight wanted
terrorists, who escaped and fled to this place, and three, some
Palestinian officials, including the Governor of Bethlehem, as I
indicated earlier. We are negotiating with them, it is not continuous
negotiation, but we do manage to speak with them directly. As I said,
we are patient enough to solve this problem without causing any
damage to the building or any harm to the civilians.
Q: (Inaudible, about conditions in Ramallah)
General Giora Eiland: We did lift the curfew inside Ramallah, as we've done in some other
places, in Tulkarm, Qalqilya, and others. Of course, we do understand
that people need to have a little air and space and time to move and
purchase products etc. and we believe that the longer that this
operation continues, the easier it will be for us to ease the
pressure on the civilians.
Q: You said that at the Nativity Church, you are following a policy
of not being provoked into returning fire, not to harm innocent
people, and not damage the building. Why don't you follow that policy
everywhere? Why is that only at the Nativity Church?
General Giora Eiland: This is our policy in every other place as well
- Don't try to penetrate a building and kill the people, no matter
who they are, before we let them leave peacefully, and of course to
surrender if they are our enemy. In some other places, there is no
reason to be that patient, because, if we waited in every place until
they make their decision to leave, then we would fail in our
operation. So whenever the building itself is not that sensitive,
like the Jibril Rajoub's compound in Ramallah, there was no reason
for us to wait, because if we had waited, then we would have been
waiting until now. So this is a policy that should be adopted in
different ways in different places.
Q: How much time did you give them to surrender at Jibril Rajoub's
headquarters?
General Giora Eiland: About 48 hours.
Q: The US, the EU, the UN, the Arab World, and probably Canada have
all asked that you immediately withdraw from the territories, what is
your response to them?
General Giora Eiland: We say that we will withdraw from these
territories, based on the understanding that we have with the
Americans, that something should be done, by the Palestinian side,
before such a withdrawal can be conducted in a unilateral way. It was
well understood in the meeting between Gen. Zinni and our Prime
Minister yesterday, and in his meeting with our Defense Minister, in
which I participated, that no one expects us - and in a way, I guess
it is immoral demand - to leave these places just in order to
encourage these terrorists to continue causing us the terrible damage
which they did in the previous months.
Q: (inaudible, about a ceasefire declaration)
General Giora Eiland: I don't want to go into details, because this
is something that is negotiated between the parties. And of course,
an announcement by itself, if a real intent is not going to be behind
it, is probably not going to be enough.
Q: (inaudible, about the military's policy on ambulances and delays)
General Giora Eiland: The policy is to try to facilitate the movement
of ambulances from one place to another. But everybody knows that
ambulances have become the main way in which the Palestinians try to
send their armed men and ammunition from one place to another. Just
two weeks ago, while Gen. Zinni was present in the region, an
ambulance was used to transfer an explosive belt and terrorists from
Nablus to Ramallah. Fortunately, in this case, we managed to stop
them. In this specific ambulance, we found enough explosives to kill
30-40 Israelis in a single explosion. So we have to be careful to
protect not only the lives and health of the Palestinians, but also
the lives of our own people. We try to minimize the restrictions, but
some might occur. Again, this is part of these kind of battles, there
is a lot of suffering. What are the choices?
Q: There is an attempt of the heads of Muslim countries to redefine
terrorism, alluding to Israeli steps against the Palestinians as an
act of terrorism itself. What is your reaction?
General Giora Eiland: Of course, we believe that our operation is
considered as self defense, of a country that has to defend its own
people against those who are sent deliberately to kill civilians in
populated areas. So how can you define those who fight against this
kind of terrorism as terrorists themselves. This sounds ridiculous to
me.