Prime Minister Ariel Sharon chose the stage of IDF's Central Command Wednesday to chastise settler calls for soldiers to refuse orders, saying they were threatening the fabric of the state's existence.

He said he planned take steps to enforce punishment for anyone calling for disobedience or incitement to violence. Sharon also pledged to the troops that any attempts to harm security forces during settlement evacuation would be met with severe army response.

"Whoever calls to refuse or to resist violently is making a mistake that endangers our very existence in this place," Sharon told soldiers at the Central Command headquarters in Jerusalem's Naveh Ya'akov neighborhood. "There will be no compromise. Whoever lifts a hand against security forces, whoever organizes refusal, whoever threatens them, we will act in full force against them."

Sharon made the comments during a morning meeting with the IDF paratroopers from the 890th battalion and police forces who participated in the clearing of two caravans from an illegal outpost outside the Nablus-area settlement of Yitzhar in the West Bank on Monday, during which an intense altercation erupted as settlers physically resisted the evacuation.

"I must say that I saw and heard that you acted with restraint and equanimity; you bit your lips, but you carried out the mission.

"I heard the curses and insults and the incitement against the IDF, against the commanders, against the soldiers, against the police personnel. I ask you: Don't take it personally. It is not directed against you - it is directed against the Government, against the Knesset and against me.

"I want to tell the inciters, the cursers, the abusers – leave the IDF alone. Curse me, but leave the army out of politics," Sharon said.
"Your work is difficult, but necessary," was the prime minister's singular message to the security forces Wednesday morning.

"The IDF has always been at the heart of national agreement and there it must remain. It is possible to evacuate a community, it is possible to rebuild. The IDF, the military of the Israeli people would be very difficult to rebuild," he added.

"I don't know if you know this," Sharon told the troops. "But I too was once a member of the 890th battalion." (He was its commander in the 1950s)
"I saw the pictures of the evacuation of the outpost. I know it wasn't an easy mission.

Neither was it one you all trained for. But this is the mission you were given and it has to be carried out for the sake of the security for all the citizens of the state, for all of us."

The Council of Jewish Settlement in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip wrote off the prime minister's statements as a "provocation" which is trying to de-legitimize the settlers' struggle.

Despite the flurry of recent outbreaks and belligerent rhetoric on either side, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon says that the phenomenon of resisting orders barely exists in the army.

Responding to the government's threats of a severe response to resistance and trying to sooth the storm, Ya'alon warned that blowing the dispute out of proportion would only exacerbate it.

"I, first of all, do not see a trend of refusal in the IDF. I suggest not to get bogged down in various scenarios, which I do not see as having any grounds in reality at the moment," Ya'alon said.

"This may in the end turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy," he warned.

Also speaking at the assembly, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that the judicial system must support the security forces in the conflict with settlers.

JerusalemPost.com