Friday, November 01, 2002

General for the Hawks
It was April 2, and Israel had just started a ground offensive into the West Bank after a series of suicide bombings. Yasir Arafat was pinned by Israeli forces in his compound in Ramallah, and Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli army chief of staff, saw his chance to act.

"We should kick him out," General Mofaz urged the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, while the two men met with troops.

The moment, captured by an Israeli television crew, was seen in Israel as classic Mofaz. Mr. Sharon's government — Israel's civilian leaders — had just voted not to exile the Palestinian leader. But that did not deter the general from pushing for his preferred policy.

Now, Mr. Mofaz, whose term as chief of staff ended in July, has been tapped by Mr. Sharon to oversee the generals himself, masterminding Israel's military strategy as defense minister. If the appointment is approved as expected by the government and Parliament, he will replace Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who pulled his moderate party, Labor, out of the government on Wednesday in a dispute over budget priorities.

Mr. Mofaz, 54, sometimes clashed with Mr. Ben-Eliezer, who criticized him as politicizing his job and at least once considered firing him.

But he has always seemed in step with Mr. Sharon. "I know," Mr. Sharon replied, when Mr. Mofaz urged Mr. Arafat's ouster on April 2.

It is a measure of Mr. Mofaz's impact on the conflict that Palestinians invoke his name with almost as much bitterness as they do Mr. Sharon's.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/01/international/middleeast/01MOFA.html

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