GAZA CITY, November 29 (IslamOnline.net) - The Israeli army is mulling a proposal to enlist private security companies to guard illegal isolated Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an Israeli army's magazine reported Friday, November 28.

The new proposal came after an Israeli private organization gained last October rabbinical approval to train pigs to guard Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Senior Israeli army officers are discussing the new idea to spare their soldiers guarding the settlements the risk of being ambushed by Palestinian fighters, the Bamahane weekly said.

The weekly's military correspondent told Reuters news agency that the new proposal is mainly motivated by the government's austere budget, but added that the frustration of the Israeli soldiers was also a factor.

If given the go-ahead, it would be the first time ever in Israel to hire private security guards in lieu of army soldiers.

Private security companies in Israel usually employ low-rate immigrants or laid-off soldiers.

Arab Member of Knesset Abdel Malik Dehamshe said the new proposal proves that the three-year Palestinian Intifada has cost Israel dearly at all levels, adding that guarding the Jewish outposts was a drain on the Jewish state.

"Israeli soldiers have been wondering: 'Have we been conscripted to guard the settlements? Is it the duty of the army?'" Dehamshe told IslamOnline.net.

The Arab Mk further said that Palestinians in the West Bank can confirm that the Israeli army has hired mercenaries to guard the settlements, especially from the Israeli proxy militia in Lebanon [known as the South Lebanon Army (SLA)] under Antoine Lahd.

Ashraf Agrami, a Palestinian expert at Israeli affairs, told IOL that if this proposal was approved, it would curb the number of Jews coming to settlements.

"Any Jew coming to the settlements, let alone the settlers themselves, would feel insecure given that the army itself has failed to provide security to the outposts. And will private guards be able to match the highly trained army soldiers?" He said.

"This operation has put the arm's capability of guarding the settlements to the test," he said, adding that the Israeli cabinet wanted to find a way out of the current security limbo.

The number of the Israeli settlements has risen to 171 in the West Bank, al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip by the end of 2002, including 122 outposts in the West Bank, 32 in al-Quds and 17 in the Strip, according to the Palestinian Central Agency for Statistics.

The agency further put at 412,785 the number of Israeli settlers by the end of 2002, including 405,485 in the West Bank and al-Quds and 7,300 in Gaza Strip.

Israeli experts, who requested anonymity, said that a majority of the Israelis disapproves of the settlements and accuses settlers of trying to pit the Israelis against one another by insisting on their settlement activity and supporting occupation.