What They Are Saying
R. JAMES WOOLSEY – former CIA director and member of JINSA Board of Advisors:
(Excerpted from “Former CIA Director: Information About Giving Green Light to Arafat is Accurate” by Yossi Melman, Ha’aretz, 3/26/97)
“James Woosley, former head of the CIA, criticized the American administration for its unwillingness to accept the version of events put forward by Israeli intelligence, according to which PA Chairman Yasser Arafat gave the ‘green light’ to carry out the terror attack in Tel Aviv [on 21 March].
R. JAMES WOOLSEY – former CIA director and member of JINSA Board of Advisors:
(Excerpted from “Former CIA Director: Information About Giving Green Light to Arafat is Accurate” by Yossi Melman, Ha’aretz, 3/26/97)
“James Woosley, former head of the CIA, criticized the American administration for its unwillingness to accept the version of events put forward by Israeli intelligence, according to which PA Chairman Yasser Arafat gave the ‘green light’ to carry out the terror attack in Tel Aviv [on 21 March].
‘The [Clinton] Administration is ignoring the possibility that there is more than one way to encourage acts of terror. In the struggle against terror it is preferable not to get into a dispute over semantics.’
When asked if the American administration truly does not believe that Israel has compelling proof regarding Arafat’s responsibility for the attack, Woolsey replied, ‘it is important that the Administration understand that Israel is on the front line against terrorism and that it has a precise grasp of what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza. The United States has to understand that there are different ways to encourage terrorism.'”
(Excerpted from “Tackling Terror” by Steve Rodan, The Jerusalem Post, 3/29/97)
“Woolsey urges Israel and the US to cooperate to remove what he terms the ‘terrorist card’ from Arafat before final-status negotiations resume. ‘Israel has extraordinarily difficult negotiations coming up,’ he says. ‘There is no doubt that compromises have to be made. But I don’t see how you can deal with Arafat under the threat of terrorism.’
He also suggests that the White House tells Arafat that the Middle East peace process is not what US diplomats term a ‘slippery slope,’ in which negotiations and Israeli concessions eventually resume regardless of the violence. ‘What’s required is clarity from my government,’ Woolsey says.”
ADMIRAL LEIGHTON SMITH, USN (ret.) – former commander of US-led peace-keeping forces in Bosnia and recent participant on the 1997 JINSA Officer’s Trip to Israel:
(Excerpted from “Tackling Terror”, by Steve Rodan, The Jerusalem Post, 3/29/97)
“Admiral (ret.) Leighton Smith, who until several months ago held several US Navy posts including commander of the 55,000 member US-led peace-keeping force in Bosnia, spent a week here meeting government officials and military leaders in a visit sponsored by the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.
He says he sees similarities between the Balkans and Israel. The difference is that with all its problems, Bosnia is one contiguous territory while the Palestinian Authority rules areas that sandwich a narrow Israel.
‘The problem here is that there is a terrorist problem within the boundaries of [Israel],” says Smith. “You’ve got terrorism all over the place. You can’t tolerate terrorism as a means to drive a country to concede what it does not want to concede.'”