The Israeli Cabinet appears to have balanced security concerns with political considerations in deciding Sunday to tighten restrictions on Palestinians in the administered territories.
Apparently concerned about Israel’s image abroad, the Cabinet flatly rejected demands by its most militant right-wing members for total war against Palestinian activists.
It decided instead to enforce existing policies and tighten security restrictions, including limits on Palestinian access to Israel proper from the administered territories and deportation for alleged troublemakers.
That course, strongly backed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, was adopted by a majority of ministers in face of mounting public rage and fear over the spate of seemingly random attacks by Arabs on Jews, mainly inside Israel.
Six Israelis were murdered during March, five in stabbing attacks in Israel proper and one by gunfire in the West Bank. There were at least nine non-fatal stabbings in Israel last month.
The latest occurred last Thursday, when a 74-year-old Jewish man was knifed in the Moslem Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.
While a considerable segment of the public might favor harsher measures to curb the immediate menace of Palestinian violence, most of the senior ministers, convening as a ministerial security committee, took a broader view.
Foreign Minister David Levy charged that the proposals by Cabinet hawks amounted to collective punishment of the Arab population, which “would besmear Israel’s reputation and is politically impractical.”
Defense Minister Moshe Arens cautioned that Israel must carefully weigh its response to the attacks to prevent “heavy political damage.”
Shamir, clearly in control, managed to isolate the three ministers who demanded radical solutions. He prevented discussion of their proposal to deport the entire local Palestinian leadership.
IDEA TO BAR UNMARRIED MALES SCRAPPED
He also refused to discuss an idea originally floated by Police Minister Ronni Milo, a relative moderate among Likud politicians. Milo wanted to bar entry into Israel of single Palestinian males under age 30, because they fit the profile of the typical assailant.
The Cabinet instead upheld the policy of deporting Palestinian “instigators,” whether or not they personally commit violent acts.
Not only terrorists but their families will be severely punished. The homes of known assailants will be demolished.
The ministers also decided to limit the entry of Palestinian vehicles from the territories into Israel proper.
Ha’aretz reported Monday that the ministers were considering a complete ban, which would force Palestinians with jobs in Israel to use public transportation. Presumably, that would make it easier to screen them and detect suspect moves.
Palestinians with criminal records or records of security offenses will be barred from Israel unconditionally. Palestinians found in Israel without official authorization will also be permanently barred.
These policies have been in effect for some time.
One problem is that they reduce the Arab work force on which much of Israel’s construction and service industries depend, though with the influx of Soviet Jewish immigrants, the labor shortage could be easily remedied.
But there is also an ideological problem affecting a strong segment of the Likud constituency. The restrictions on movement reinforce the de facto separation of Israel from the administered territories, much to the chagrin of Greater Israel advocates, who consider the territories as much part of “Eretz Yisrael” as Tel Aviv.
Deportation too has its drawbacks. Long an active policy, it has invariably drawn irate protests — though never economic or political sanctions — from the United States.
As it is, the United States was not too thrilled with the relatively moderate measures the Israeli Cabinet adopted.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday that Israel “ought to be looking for ways to develop dialogue and trust with Palestinians, not imposing new restrictions.”
Boucher said the U.S. Embassy in Israel would be discussing with the Israeli government the new restrictions as well as a recent order to shoot to kill Palestinians who attack Israelis.
MASS DEPORTATIONS REJECTED
But right-wing ministers in Israel maintain the existing security measures have not worked and the ones adopted Sunday do not go far enough. They urged the government not to settle for ad-hoc measures against terrorists but to launch an all-out campaign to end the intifada once and for all.
Proponents of this view included Housing Minister Ariel Sharon of Likud, Agriculture Minister Rafael Eitan of Tsomet and Rehavam Ze’evi of the Moledet party, who holds no portfolio.
Among other things, they urged the deportation of hundreds of Palestinian activists, including the entire leadership in East Jerusalem, which is part of Israel under Israeli law.
The three ministers would ban all political gatherings of Palestinians, close down Palestinian newspapers in East Jerusalem and deport the relatives of terrorists.
At one point Sunday, Foreign Minister Levy accused them angrily of “performing a security striptease for the media.”
Opposition to the new measures also came from the other side of the political spectrum. Shevah Weiss, acting chairman of the Labor Party’s Knesset faction, said the political damage caused by the toughened measures outweighed their security benefits.
According to the Laborite, the only answer is to revive the political process.
(JTA correspondent David Friedman in Washington contributed to this report.)
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