The government of Ariel Sharon, meeting today for the first time, is to urge Israel's parliament to approve a law that would allow the security service to torture Arab detainees. Political sources said Sharon's administration, which was sworn in on Wednesday, was sympathetic to the demand and had enough support to push the measure through the Knesset. Last month we arrested a girl who lured an Israeli boy via the internet to Ramallah, where he was brutally murdered. It took us 30 days to get a confession out of her. If we had been allowed to apply physical pressure she would have confessed after a couple of hours.
Physical pressure saves time and sometimes life.
Force was routinely used by the security services until 1984, when two Palestinians were murdered during a Shin Bet investigation. Political sources say the nation's mood has been changed by the tense military situation and the government would probably succeed in pushing the measure through. The move has come despite signs that the first meeting will soon take place between Sharon and Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Sharon's son, Omri, met one of Arafat's senior advisers secretly in Tel Aviv last week, apparently to discuss the violence. In a concession, the Israelis yesterday allowed the Palestinian parliament to hold its first full session since the beginning of the uprising.