WORLD : General Rebuffs Likud on Uprising
Israel’s chief of staff, in his strongest rebuff to right-wing politicians demanding a military solution to the Palestinian uprising, has said that only mass deportation, starvation or genocide can stop the revolt.
Lt. Gen. Dan Shomron’s remarks, broadcast today, followed growing calls from Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s Likud Party for the army to crush the 18-month-old uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“People ask why we don’t end the intifada (uprising),” Shomron told businessmen in a speech in Ashkelon on Thursday night. “Anyone who wants to end the intifada must remember that there are only three ways to achieve this--transfer, starvation or physical elimination--that is, genocide.”
Likud strongman Ariel Sharon, who masterminded Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, is demanding that the uprising be crushed before Israel allows Palestinians to hold elections to choose peace negotiators.
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