Will Fallujah and Najaf be the Americans’ Jenin?
This writer also uses the comparison:
U.S. weighs tactics: NATO carrot or Israeli stick
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military, coping with powder kegs in two very different cities in Iraq, is reviewing tactics used in other high-stakes episodes of strife to test the will–and ability–of Iraqis in Fallujah and Najaf to root out violence and hand over opponents of the U.S.-led coalition.
In particular, sources familiar with the discussions said that U.S. military leaders have mulled the consequences of the urban warfare that Israeli soldiers waged in April 2002 in the West Bank town of Jenin, a densely populated Palestinian stronghold of resistance, and negotiations employed in Macedonia in August 2001 when NATO troops were used to cool an armed rebellion in the former Yugoslav republic.
Military and coalition sources said, the hope is to avoid confrontations in Fallujah, a Sunni stronghold, and Najaf, a Shiite holy city, that would cause high casualties or more bad feelings inside and beyond Iraq toward the U.S. occupation.
U.S. military leaders, who were advised by the Israeli army about urban warfare before the Iraq invasion, acknowledge privately that open combat in either city now could be create a situation similar to what happened in Jenin.
Undoubtedly the Iraqis have made the linkage already, as they are acutely aware that their occupation parallels the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians in many respects. This is what Lakhdar Brahimi meant when he referred to Israel’s policies as being “poison in the region.”