“I can sleep with clear mind”, Yitzhak Pondak, told the Israeli Army Radio [Galei Tzahal] last week, “otherwise the number of Arabs in Israel would have been a million more than their number now”.
Pondak headed Platoon #53 of the Givati Brigade, and served as Israel’s ambassador in Tanzania.
“Under my command, soldiers destroyed Arab villages”, he said, “We did what we needed to do, otherwise the number of Arabs now would have been a million more”.
Responding to a question regarding lectures he gives to Israeli soldiers, Pondak said that “the Israel is still facing the same dangers it faced when it was created in 1948”, and added “Should the Jews fail to fight the same way they fought back then, our state will be in real danger”.
He also claimed that should a war break out now, “the Jews will be able to sacrifice the same way they did in 1948”, according to the retired general.
“Wars unite the ranks of the Jewish people”, he added, “after wars, Jews form parties and become divided”.
He also said that he is sorry for the death of 145 Israeli soldiers under his command throughout his years of service, and added that “should those soldiers miraculously come back to life now, and witness the current divisions in the Israeli Jewish society, they would run back to their graves”.
Pondak also served as the Israeli Military Commander of the Gaza Strip in the early seventies of last century. He said that the credit former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, got for “stopping Arab terrorism in 1971 is overrated”.
“Sharon was harsh without a reason”, he said, “Sharon once told senior military generals that he will give a bottle of Champaign to every soldier who kills an enemy fighter, and will give a soda to every soldier who captures a wounded enemy”.