TEL AVIV, Oct 30: For the first time since the start of the intifada, an Israeli chief of staff is taking the softer line and openly criticizing the government’s uncompromising policies towards the Palestinians.

While the army has traditionally pushed for a tougher line, this time it was Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon who blamed the government for not seeking an arrangement with the Palestinians.

Gen Yaalon also accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government of not doing enough to consolidate the position of former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas by implementing goodwill measures before his resignation last month.

His comments, made in off-the-record briefings to the Israeli press, angered members of the right-wing cabinet, who charged he had overstepped his prerogatives and undermined Mr Sharon’s international standing.

The army chief was even summoned by Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, who scolded him over his subversive comments but obtained no apology or retraction.

Ironically, Mr Mofaz is Gen Yaalon’s predecessor and he had also displayed his opposition to some of the policies of Ariel Sharon’s government.

Former Labour defence minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer had severely reprimanded him for opposing the cabinet’s decision to withdraw from reoccupied areas of the southern West Bank city of Al Khalil.

“The Israeli army has never been renowned for its secrecy and a number of army chiefs have expressed very clear-cut political positions in the past,” said political analyst Yoram Peri, who described Israel as a “military democracy”.

He stressed that this case was only different because Yaalon, once a champion of the army’s tough line who had vowed to crush the Palestinian uprising, was now criticizing the government’s intransigence.

“This evolution reflects growing unease in an army which is slowly realizing that in spite of all its achievements in fighting terrorism, there is no military solution to the conflict and on the contrary continued pressure on the Palestinians risks causing an eruption,” said Peri, of the Hebrew University.

The Maariv daily went as far as placing the political row in the context of a petition signed by reserve air force pilots protesting the army’s policy of assassinations in the Palestinian territories and the continuation of the occupation.

Twenty-seven pilots and instructors from the air force — considered the military elite — signed a petition last month in which they said they no longer wanted “to obey illegal and immoral orders”.

They said they would refuse “to take part in aerial raids against populated civilian centres” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The petition, which came after another one signed by 500 members of the army who refused to serve in the occupied territories, had resulted in the pilots being sacked from the air force.

“Nevertheless, the pilots’ protest has obliged the air force to take greater precautions in order not to kill innocent civilians,” the newspaper said.

“In the same way, Yaalon’s remarks could prompt public opinion and politicians to raise questions over the risks inherent to the repression against the Palestinian population,” Maariv added. —AFP