TEL AVIV, Israel, June 10 (UPI) -- In a series of interviews to Israeli media, the just-retired head of the Shabak security service, Avi Dichter, seemed confident the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements would go through; dismissed warnings the Palestinian intifada would resume after that; revealed Shabak arrested Jewish suicide bombers; and predicted that the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas were on a collision course.
Dichter, 53, stepped down May 15 after being credited with curbing terror attacks that had gripped the country during the intifada.
Now, in interviews on his lawn near the sea in Ashkelon, he upheld Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned withdrawal from Gaza that would put his town almost within the range of Hamas' Qassam rockets. However, he insisted Israel should not withdraw from West Bank towns unless proper security arrangements were in place.
"Sitting in Gaza produces more dangers than opportunities," Dichter told Yediot Aharonot newspaper.
"Today when you enter Beit Hanun (in the northern Gaza Strip) to handle a Qassam (rocket attack) you get hit with mortar bombs (in the southern Gaza Strip settlement block of) Katif," he said.
After the withdrawal, Palestinian militants will have "dramatically" fewer targets to choose from. "It will be easier to operate against the Qassam after the disengagement when we no longer endanger the residents of the (Katif) block," he said.
He expected Palestinians to depict the pullback as a victory over Israel, comparing it to Hezbollah's attacks that resulted in Israel's withdraw from southern Lebanon in May 2000, four months before the intifada erupted.
The claim might hurt Israel's ego but Israelis should "swallow that," he said.
The real picture is different, he argued. The Palestinian attempt to emulate Hezbollah was "their strategic mistake. They admit it, today. They did not expect it (the intifada) to end this way," he said.
They "started the wave of terror ... when there was nothing between the terror arena and the victims. What do they see now? The fence," he said alluding to the barrier Israel is building in and around the West Bank.
Israel entered Palestinian headquarters in Jerusalem's Orient House, closed it, and made off with all its documents, he indicated.
"They were so confident (the site was secure) that not one paper was missing there," Dichter told Maariv.
"They were kicked out of Jerusalem. They see the changes in the Palestinian leadership," he continued alluding to the rise of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who has all along opposed the armed uprising.
Hamas agreed to a "tahadiya", or calm, because its political leaders' movements were curtailed. "Hamas leaders wanted suicide bombings, but did not want to commit suicide (themselves)," he said.
"They saw that when they fire a Qassam, we go in ... they understood this would make the population turn against them and they initiated ... the Tahadiya," he said.
The lesson they learnt would deter them, he maintained.
On the other hand, he expected "a violent struggle between Fatah (the ruling party) and Hamas. The decision will not be Abu Mazen's but that of Fatah activists in the field. Fatah in Gaza is coming very close to that point," he told Yediot Aharonot.
The situation in the West Bank is different and Israel must not relinquish security responsibility before the Palestinian Authority assumes control, he added.
"You can prevent terror in the (West) Bank only if the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) controls or the (Palestinian) apparatus controls," he said.
If Israel does not operate in the northern West Bank town of Jenin "there will be a vacuum and chances are that terrorist organizations and not the (Palestinian) Authority's apparatus will enter," he said.
"The possibilities (for attacks on Israel) that exist in the West Bank could fulfill all the militants' dreams," he said in an apparent reference to the fact the security barrier - 95 percent fence, 5 percent wall -- does not surround the entire area yet, that settlements are spread out, and that some of Israel's major towns would be within range of Palestinian rockets and mortar bombs.
He seemed confident the disengagement would take place, despite the vociferous opposition to it.
"Sharon is determined," he noted.
Dichter predicted most of the 8,000 settlers due to be evacuated would show passive resistance. However, "there are extremist Jews who have no compunction about shooting Jews ... Why is it so difficult to understand that? If they killed a prime minister (Yitzhak Rabin in 1995) why shouldn't they kill a soldier, an officer or a policeman in the field?"
"They understand that only hitting the prime minister could halt the disengagement," he said.
The Gaza Strip settlers are concerned about the extremists who have been moving in and "it is no surprise" that those extremists have squatted in an abandoned, rather secluded, hotel by the sea.
On May 1, two right-wing activists filled their cars with gas, doused their clothes, and planned to collide on a major highway in Tel Aviv but police arrested them on the way.
"They would have been killed instantly," but could have caused a bigger disaster if a car with children or a fuel tanker would have passed nearby, Dichter said.
"When you ask them, 'Didn't you think for a moment what would happen after this?' they had no pertinent answer. A young rabbi approved the operation," Dichter noted.
Sharon would be a Jewish suicide bomber's primary target, which explains the heavy security surrounding him and his entourage.
"The (would-be attackers) would not be frustrated if they hit his entourage," Dichter told Yediot Aharonot.
Last month he had met some of the West Bank settlers' prominent rabbis and warned them against an attack on the Muslim shrines atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
"If that happens, there would be an unprecedented wave of Muslim attacks on Jews ... None of the rabbis could wash his hands clean of that," he recalled having warned.
At the beginning of the intifada, Israel aimed at "fair play," he said.
In November 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was the leader at the time, decided to attack Palestinian headquarters but not to hit people. Shaul Mofaz, who was then chief of general staff (and is now the defense minister), asked how could that be done.
"I phoned my colleagues on the Palestinian side. I told them there was a decision to attack and I suggest they get away," Dichter said.
The attitude changed after a mob inside a Ramallah police station lynched two Israeli reservists who entered town by mistake.
"We started with targeted killings of terror activists whom it was impossible, or too dangerous to reach otherwise," said Dichter. "This method is studied today all over the world. Every week delegations come to learn ... Not only the Americans. It is the sexiest subject in counter-terror fighting. Its effectiveness is stunning," he said.
There is no "fair play' in this war, he concluded in the Haaretz interview. It is better to use a fighter plane to hit a suicide bomber and his dispatcher than endanger troops.
Dichter predicted widespread looting in the Gaza Strip settlements once the Israelis leave.
"Masses will storm (the settlements) to take the Jew's tile and faucet. The Palestinian policeman who will stand in their way hasn't been born yet. The idea of posting an international force there is a joke."
Dichter is planning to go to Washington for three months as guest of a research institute and is yet to decide whether to turn to business, education or politics. He is a gifted speaker and an excellent storyteller.
In the meantime he is trying to bone up on how to use the Internet.
"My children have no patience," he told Haaretz. "They say: 'Tell us what you need and we'll search for you, but we don't have time to explain to you how it works.'"
