Four former Israeli security service chiefs have launched a scathing attack on the government's handling of the peace process with the Palestinians. The men called for Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and dismantle Jewish settlements, or face "disaster". The former intelligence chiefs said Sharon's insistence on a complete halt to "terrorist attacks" before peace talks could begin in earnest was either misguided or a ploy to avoid negotiations and continue the policies of Israeli expansionism. Their comments follow remarks last month by Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, who said Israeli measures have generated anger among Palestinians. The former Shin Bet chiefs - Yaakov Perry, Ami Ayalon, Avraham Shalom and Carmi Gilon - made their criticisms in an interview with the Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. "[Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon has spoken often about the need for painful compromises, and there are no painful compromises except evacuation of settlements," Yaakov Peri, Shin Bet chief from 1988 to 1995, told the Yediot Ahronoth daily. "We are heading downhill towards near-catastrophe. If nothing happens and we go on living by the sword, we will continue to wallow in the mud and destroy ourselves," he said. Perry said Israelis should listen to those with more experience. Speaking on Israel radio, he called for Israel to take unilateral steps, saying: "We need to take the situation into our own hands and leave Gaza with all the difficulty that that entails." Peri's successor, Karmi Gilon, who led the Shin Bet between 1995 and 1996, said the Israeli Government's strategy for handling the Palestinian uprising was short-sighted. "It is dealing solely with the question of how to prevent the next terrorist attack. It [ignores] the question of how we get out of the mess we find ourselves in today," he said. Avraham Shalom, who headed the service from 1980 to 1986, said Israel was heading for disaster if "we do not recognise once and for all that there is another people which is suffering and towards which we are behaving shamefully". He backed Gen Ya'alon's earlier view that Israel's treatment of ordinary Palestinians was wrong. "We must once and for all admit there is another side, that it has feelings, that it is suffering and that we are behaving disgracefully ... this entire behaviour is the result of the occupation," he said. Ami Ayalon, Shin Bet chief from 1996 to 2000 and co-author of an unofficial peace plan, said that without a peace deal Israel was endangering its existence. "We are taking sure, steady steps to a place where the State of Israel will no longer be a democracy and a home for the Jewish people," he said. However, Israeli government officials called the men's criticisms naive. An unnamed Israeli Government official told Reuters news agency: "The situation is not as weak as [the former Shin Bet chiefs] describe," adding that Israel would relieve restrictions on Palestinians wherever it could. The defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, said in a recent interview that the army could defeat the armed Palestinian groups, although he warned it could take generations. Palestinians are becoming less interested in trying to reach a two-state solution, preferring instead to wait until they outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and then agitating for the vote, Israel's deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was quoted as saying in a newspaper report published yesterday. In response, Israel should quickly impose a unilateral settlement on the Palestinians, he said. The settlement should "maximise the number of Jews [and] minimise the number of Palestinians" in Israeli's territory, he said. Israel should not withdraw to the 1967 borders and not divide Jerusalem. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon