Ex-Shin Bet head says Israel should negotiate with jailed intifada leader
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by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
When a former head of Israeli intelligence says it is time to release Marwan Barghouti and to negotiate, it is a recognition of the profound failure of the past governments he worked for.
His current perspective is much changed from what it was before and a world away from the ideas that dominate Netanyahu’s government today.
For example:
- “We Israelis will have security only when they, Palestinians, will have hope.”
- “We see them as people, not ‘a people’, a nation,” he said. “We cannot accept [the idea of a Palestinian people] because if we do, it creates a huge obstacle in the concept of the state of Israel.”
- Hamas is not just a militia, but “an ideology with an organisation, and the organisation has a military wing”, he said. “You cannot destroy ideology by the use of military power. Sometimes it will be rooted deeper if you try.
- “I know what happens to wars without a political goal. The war becomes a goal in itself, instead of being a means to achieve a political goal.”
RK
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Sun 14 Jan 2024. Read the original here.
Ex-Shin Bet head says Israel should negotiate with jailed intifada leader
Israel will not have security until Palestinians have their own state, Ami Ayalon says in Guardian interview
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There is a longer article based on his interview in Haaretz.
Although his analyses of the position of the two conflicting parties might – from the perspective of his side of the ethnic equation that is – be (not so much correct, as well an effort of being) constructive, he again does make the basic fatal mistake, of insultingly patronizing trying to dictate the Palestinians, who to choose for the fulfillment of HIS objective.
I do remember Meir Dagan (ex-Mossad) – on foot of open warfare with Netanyahu until his very death in 2016 – once having said the very same thing (*), but Dagan at that time seemed to be more empathic, rather than pragmatic in suggesting that kind of scenario, and that is an entire different approach of the situation.
I think the Palestinians – and yes, they are indeed a People and the longtime inhabitants / owners of Palestine and not just a loose collection of people – have gone now (most certainly after the still ongoing ethnic cleansing endeavor of Nakba 3.0) beyond the idea of having to share their territory with a community of settler colonial terrorists (that call themselves a People, purely on reli-metaphysical grounds) : They want their entire territory back – from the river to the sea – and not just an ever shrinking part of it, and rightly so…
(*) https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/spymasters-final-interview-reveals-deep-rift-in-israel-1.142082
Interesting link from Robert Bleeker. Knowing that an ex Mossad, Meir Dagan was willing to criticise Netanyahu and argue for a better way forward, gives you some hope. I hope he died naturally, I say that because from Netanyahu’s actions against the Palestinians, he’s not the sort to take on. Will someone else stand up and criticise Netanyahu, we can only hope.