Political meddling is the key problem in Israel, say analysts

"You don't have a situation of checks and balance...You have one dominating figure, one weak figure and the Israel Defence Force is caught in the middle."Zeev Maoz,Professor, Tel Aviv University.

JERUSALEM - Israel's army has been plagued by a string of embarrassing foul-ups, culminating in the killing of seven soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint by a lone Palestinian sniper.

But military analysts said on Monday the army's most pressing problem was not the increasingly successful guerrilla tactics employed by Palestinians, such as in Sunday's attack.

Instead, they pointed to what they said was a lack of direction from Israel's leaders and an overabundance of meddling in army affairs during 17 months of fighting with the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a former army general with a hands-on reputation, has indulged in a penchant for plotting military strategy, said Professor Zeev Maoz of Tel Aviv University.

He said Sharon's "micro management" of the conflict, coupled with an ineffective defence minister and a pending appointment of the army's top brass, had hobbled the military's abilities as it tries to deal with an escalating guerrilla war.

"You don't have a situation of checks and balance...You have one dominating figure, one weak figure and the Israel Defence Force is caught in the middle," Maoz said.

He said the army might be told by the political echelon to cease fire only to be ordered the next day to raid a Palestinian refugee camp, and then withdraw under international pressure.

"It's not clear what (the army) is supposed to do and in a grey, vague situation such as this. It's very difficult to form a coherent operational strategy and it's very difficult to succeed," Maoz said.

"If they know the objective they can transform it into an operational plan," said Maoz. "But they don't know the objective."

Retired Major-General Danny Rothschild said the strategy chosen by the government was often politically driven rather than in line with the army's preference for commando missions that had little public relations value but were more effective.

Television footage of Israeli armour entering Palestinian-ruled territories played well domestically for Sharon who promised Israelis he would restore security when he was elected in February 2001.

"The government wants to respond to the public opinion needs and not necessarily to security needs," Rothschild said.

Jewish settlements

The army had also been hurt by Sharon's determination to defend all Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza at all costs, a move that may be politically expedient for the prime minister but is not militarily sound, Rothschild said.

"The army should decide what is the best line to defend from the military...point of view and deploy its forces there," said Rothschild, who belongs to a group of retired generals that advocates a limited withdrawal in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israelis are increasingly supporting the idea of separating from the Palestinians or at least abandoning isolated Jewish settlements in occupied areas which are difficult to defend, eat up the army's resources and have no strategic importance.

The seven Israeli soldiers and three civilians killed in Sunday's sniper attack were in a virtually indefensible checkpoint in a ravine leading to one of dozens of isolated Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The ambush by a gunman on a hilltop was the third attack at an Israeli checkpoint in two weeks after Palestinians vowed to strike against army posts in their uprising.

The checkpoints foment tension with Palestinians who often complain of humiliation and expose soldiers to constant danger, leading to a backlash by some army reservists who have increasingly refused to be deployed at the barriers.

"You don't have checkpoints in the middle of a war area," said Shlomo Gazit, a former head of Israeli military intelligence.

Gazit said the Israeli government has three overall strategic options: engaging in all-out war, separation from the Palestinians including a territorial withdrawal, or a return to peace negotiations.

"We keep on muddling through between all three of them and doing nothing...(Meanwhile) the Palestinians are getting effective with weapons."

"It's political impotence," he said. (Agencies via Xinhua)