Officially, the main cause of concern the Egyptian revolution poses for Israel is that it might result in the end of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. A much larger concern however, is that the Arab democratic revolution sweeping the region might inspire Palestinians in larger numbers than ever, to demand their political rights.
Israel’s military forces have had decades of practice containing and crushing uprisings on a smaller scale, but numbers matter. The rising spirit of people power is contagious and as we have witnessed in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and now Libya, the brutality of an authoritarian state’s security apparatus is not enough to crush the desire for freedom in a population that has become fearless.
The Jerusalem Post reports:
Concerned by the prospect of the Palestinians replicating Egypt-style mass demonstrations with dozens of simultaneous marches and protests in the West Bank, the IDF is beginning to build rapid-response forces and to identify vantage points throughout the territories that could be used to contain such protests.
The IDF’s Central Command assesses that the Palestinians could resort to so-called nonviolent resistance, on a scale previously unknown to Israel, in the absence of peace negotiations.
While there is deemed to be some possibility that such demonstrations will take place in the near future in the spirit of Egypt, Tunisia and Iran, a senior officer said it was more likely that the Palestinian Authority would prevent this from happening until after elections in September.
One senior officer said commanders were discussing ways to counter and contain large demonstrations launched simultaneously in different parts of the West Bank.
“We are preparing different responses for different scenarios to think about what we will do if there are, for example, 30 marches of several thousand people each,” the officer said. “This is something we have yet to encounter.”
One step the IDF is taking is to set up rapid-response teams that can quickly maneuver throughout the West Bank and arrive at the scene of a demonstration in its early stages in an attempt to contain it. During the summer, the Border Police are expected to establish a new command in the West Bank after the Arava District is dismantled.
In addition, the IDF is locating strategic hilltops that can be used as vantage points from which the military could deploy reconnaissance and surveillance teams to track developments inside Palestinian towns and cities.
The concern is that in the event of multiple large-scale demonstrations, the IDF will not know how to effectively respond and contain the protests, which could lead to a high number of casualties. As a result, commanders have been instructed to prepare their soldiers mentally for how to respond in such scenarios.
Israel has been keeping a close eye on Palestinian cities in recent weeks since the revolution in Egypt, to ensure that the violence does not spread to the West Bank.
According to intelligence assessments, the Palestinians are currently interested in continuing with their plans to build up and reform the institutions they would require for statehood if they decided to make a unilateral declaration following elections in September.
Even after September, the IDF believes the PA will maintain its high-level and almost daily security coordination with the IDF. But, it is thought, the PA could, at the same time, allow and even possibly encourage civilians to launch so-called nonviolent resistance to delegitimize Israel.
Yes it would be important for Palestinians to plan such action after elections in September that way they could get rid of the collaborationist Palestinian Authority beforehand. I fear any large scale protests in the West Bank now would cause the Israelis to use the PA to crush the protests while they can convey to the media that they are not getting involved.
First get rid of the collaborators, then move onto the long promised “third intifada”. The timing is perfect with Israel isolated, the peace process dead, and new regimes in Egypt (where elections will also be held in September) and Lebanon.
Colm O’ Toole , I second that!
Watch out now. The IDF does not know how to react to “socalled nonviolent protests” because they have never thought of such behaviour, but expect lots of casualties (we know who they will be.)
What we learn about the general arab uprising, Israel is the most repressive regime in the arab world. As Ben Ali and Mubarak resigned, after the massive demonstrations of the people, can you imagine, that the israeli government resign???? The Palestinians uprised since 100 years and since the Naqbah, Israel adopted high criminal policies to shut down each revolt, with the help of the western powers. Israel has become an expert of shutting down uprising for the rights of the people in Palestine (which the jewish colonialized). Well, this is a major inhuman story and a major criminal tale in modern history. Israel does not care about murdering on a large scale people in that confiscated land. The French have left Algeria since 1963, but the jews are murdering every day in order to confiscate all of the Palestinian land and still today, the Naqbah is ongoing since 1948. For that reason the uprising in the arab countries will hopefully make an end of that institutionalized israeli murdering.
Up to Libya, the revolutions have been relatively without violence. Not to say there wasn’t any, because there was. But, not to the degree that is happening in Libya at the moment. We have already seen the reactions of the IDF, regardless of whether it’s from individuals or their commanders, the peace marches have been met with incidents of killings. There is no reason to believe that this won’t happen on a massive scale if the Palestinians take to the streets also. To preempt such from taking place, it’s necessary for the U.S. to tell Israel if they engage in violent behavior such as in Libya, then they are on their own, that the U.S. cannot be party to Genocide. Of course, I wouldn’t hold my breath on the U.S. doing so.
I second that, Norman!