Cracks in support for Sharon

Ordinary Israelis, media commentators, and military officers unleashed unusually strident criticism Sunday of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategy in the Palestinian territories, a wave of anger that some analysts say may signal the first cracks in previously broad public support for his policies.

The condemnation followed a Palestinian attack on a remote Gaza Strip settlement that killed three soldiers on Friday, including two 19-year-old female soldiers shot while sleeping.

Their deaths, in a week that began with the death of three other troops in an ambush, triggered questions about Israel's presence in Gaza, the lack of a political process with the Palestinians, and Mr.

Sharon's failure to deliver on election promises of greater security. The criticism, along with stirrings on the long dormant political left, suggest a shift in Israeli opinion may be afoot.

The week "ended with mounting questions about the nature of the [Israeli army's] presence in the territories [and] the character of its activity," wrote analyst Yael Gwurtz in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper. "All of the above have helped define a new crossroads in public opinion ... the convergence of the argument about the cost of the war on terror and the argument about the cost of the occupation."

"This is unprecedented, such broad, direct criticism of this government and the army," says Yaron Ezrahi, a political scientist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. He sees it as an expression of public frustration with the government "for following only the strategy of force and more force, while immobilizing the diplomatic arm of Israel."

Israeli soldiers demolished three empty apartment buildings in the northern Gaza Strip early Sunday to retaliate for Friday's attack, evacuating Palestinians within a 400-yard radius beforehand.

An army spokeswoman, Maj. Sharon Fiengold, said militants used the buildings to monitor activity in the settlement, called Netzarim, and plan Friday's attack.

Described by one Israeli commentator as "a bone in Gaza's throat," Netzarim is a small, acorn-shaped area in the center of Gaza that abuts the sea. Home to 65 families, it is isolated from other settlement blocs, so much so that an entire army battalion and a tank company are stationed there for the settlers' defense.

Supporters say Netzarim is strategically important, allowing troops to monitor Gaza City, but its isolation makes it extremely controversial. In 37 months of conflict, nine soldiers have died defending Netzarim. Friday's attacker cut through the settlement's fence and infiltrated the barracks. The fact that two of his victims were young women in bed asleep seems to have stoked Israeli public fury.

The centrist Yediot Ahronot fulminated in an editorial, "Justice for their blood needs to be sought not only with those who committed this heinous crime [but] also with the government, the army."

Page: 1 | 2