Israel is drawing up plans for a series of eventualities come September and a Palestinian declaration of statehood. The Migdal Oz plan, seen by YNet, is the Israeli document on how the army plans on maintaining order in the aftermath of the September state bid.
Israeli military officials in the GOC Central Command have outlined what they view to be the potential scenarios come September in terms of Palestinian reaction to a declaration of statehood.
The most likely scenario according to the commanders is a period of reflection by Palestinians where they compare reality with their expectations. However other scenarios include immediate protests and rioting or, according to some, all out war.
The plan outlines a series of measures for dealing with these scenarios including the acquisition of extra crowd dispersion tools such as tear gas as well as newer methods such as the “Scream” acoustic system which emits a load noise that aids in crowd dispertion. The Israeli army has recently doubled its annual purchases of crowd dispersion weapons in preparation for September, according to YNet.
Military officials have stated that they would deal with any attempts to cross the Israeli separation barriers by the same means dealt with Palestinian refugees seeking to cross the border during Nakba and Naksa day protests. ‘We will fire at the lower extremities,’ said a military insider.
The initiation of a third intifada would result in Israel striking at Palestinian state institutions and, according to YNet, a bank of possible targets is being developed for such a situation.
Palestinian leaders have stated their intention to go ahead with a bid for statehood in the UN in September despite Israeli and American pressure and doubts expressed internally by critics of the move.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has stated that Israel would consider a deceleration of statehood by Palestinians as reneging on previous Palestinian Israeli agreements including the 1994 Oslo Agreement which established the Palestinian Authority.
