General Who Condemned Settlers’ Attack Now Object of New Barrage

The arraignment of 13 Kiryat Arba residents for alleged participation in an armed raid by Jewish settlers on the Daheisha refugee camp near Bethlehem Saturday night has been overshadowed for now by another attack.

Settlers and rightwing elements are condemning Lt. Gen. Amram Mitzna, commander of the central sector, for his public expression of outrage over the incident. He called it the most despicable act ever perpetrated by Jews in the administered territories.

Mitzna, whom right wingers accuse of political motivations, has the full backing of the Israel Defense Force and a large segment of public opinion. “All the IDF central command and General Staff officers back Mitzna’s choice of words about the settlers’ act in Daheisha,” the military correspondent of the Mapam daily Al Hamishmar reported Wednesday, quoting senior IDF sources.

“The time has come to speak out about the situation in the territories the way it really is, even if phrased in harsh terms,” the source said. “Mitzna favors neither the left nor the right, only the IDF.”

Correspondent Yosef Walter, writing in Maariv Wednesday, said, “Mitzna’s uncompromising stand and his cutting words aimed at the settlers who ran amok at Daheisha doubtlessly constitutes a sharp and clear change of the IDF’s policy in the West Bank.”

According to the writer, “The restrained and hesitant statements made by senior officers, the tradition of making anonymous statements to the media under the guise of ‘military sources’ in order not to become enmeshed with the settlers and the political establishment are not part of Mitzna’s rules of the game.”

Mitzna has risen to high rank despite incurring the wrath of Ariel Sharon for his outspoken opposition to the Lebanon war in 1982. Sharon, who was Defense Minister at the time, has not forgotten that Mitzna, then head of the IDF Staff and Command College, told a meeting of top military leaders that if Sharon did not resign, he would leave the army.

He submitted his resignation to then Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan, but withdrew it at the urging of fellow officers. Eitan, though closely associated with Sharon, allowed Mitzna to advance in the military hierarchy.

According to his colleagues, Mitzna is not sensitive to “what people will say.” He views his mission as preserving the IDF’s image in the eyes of both Arabs and Jews as the sole factor responsible for order and security in the administered territories, they said.