Ami Ayalon - a former head of the Israeli internal security service (Shin Bet) - said that the war in Gaza cannot be won, and warned of the outbreak of a new intifada in the West Bank, stressing that Israel awaits what is worse than October 7, 2023 if it rejects peace. 

With these ideas, Le Monde newspaper summarized an interview - conducted by its special correspondent Kerem Maharal in Israel, and edited by Jean-Philippe Remy - with Admiral Ami Ayalon (78 years old), author of the book “Friendly Fire... This is how Israel became its own worst enemy,” and who undertook an intellectual and political journey that led him to question... About the concept of the enemy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and about the blindness of the Israeli security vision, which threatens - according to him - an endless war.

Ayalon began his speech - bypassing the journalist's question about the transformation represented by the withdrawal of part of the Israeli forces from Gaza, and does it mean the beginning of the end of the war? - saying that the problem facing all liberal democracies lies in the tension between terrorism and human rights, because any society that suffers from fear gives Priority is given to security over rights, especially if it is not his own rights, but rather the rights of others and the rights of minorities.

Ayalon: There are Palestinians who support Hamas not because they are committed to its ideology, but because they see it as the only organization fighting for their freedom and ending the Israeli occupation, and it is important to understand this in order to imagine what will happen next.

You must have a plan for the next day

This is what happens in Europe, the United States, and Israel, and the concept of victory when a democratic state confronts a terrorist group - according to Ayalon - is different from what it is in wars between countries, and is impossible to achieve, which means that reaching a political deal is better than military action, because any A "terrorist organization" will never surrender by raising the white flag.

Israel may kill members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), as Ayalon says, but Hamas will not disappear. He explained that there are Palestinians who support Hamas not because they are committed to its ideology, but because they see it as the only organization fighting for their freedom and ending the Israeli occupation, and it is important to understand this. It's up to us to imagine what will happen next.

But the Israeli government refuses to consider a clear solution for the “day after” in Gaza, and for the political system that will prevail after the war, and focuses on dismantling Hamas’ military capabilities and eliminating the movement’s political leadership. These are two goals that the Israeli army can achieve, but it takes two years to do so. Will we have the time?

Ayalon: We must fight for the Palestinian state, not because we love the Palestinians, but for the sake of our security and to save our identity (French)

Ayalon believes that there is a need to have a plan “for the next day” because the absence of political goals makes war an end in itself rather than a means to an end. When war becomes an end, it turns into an endless war, and those who do not have political plans cannot determine what victory is.

The former head of Shin Bet said that there are only two options for any political solution: either one state for all, and this will never succeed, because Islam and Judaism do not separate religion from the entity of the state, or the existence of two states in two different regions.

The two-state solution

Ayalon advises trying the two-state solution, but only after "understanding why it has not succeeded so far, taking into account that each camp has its own reading of the events of the past 30 years."

The Israelis - according to him - believe that they were willing to give up part of the land in exchange for security, but instead the intifada, attacks, etc. broke out, while the Palestinians say that they wanted to establish their own state, but instead they saw the establishment of more settlements and more Violence, restrictions on their movements, etc., and thus both sides felt betrayed and were convinced of the necessity of fighting all the time.

When asked what makes the two-state solution more likely to succeed now? Ayalon responded by saying, “Because from now on there is no solution other than an explosion of violence. I am trying to make clear to everyone who says I am wrong that if we reject peace, what awaits us will be more violent than October 7 (2023).”

Did the Hamas attack surprise you that day? The journalist asks him, and the former Shin Bet head responds that he said two weeks before October 7 in a television interview, “We are heading towards a major wave of violence. The energy is there, we feel it and we see an increase in attacks in the West Bank. We feel it in speeches and statements. This is based on "Instead of understanding what our enemies are telling us, our politicians focus on dividing Israelis just to elect them."

Ayalon added, "I did not imagine this attack in its particularities, but I was certain that we were heading toward a major series of acts of violence."

He concluded that Israeli civil society, which protested 10 months before the war, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to destroy its democracy through his judicial amendments, will return to demonstrating and “I hope that they will resume to demand the real solution, which is security, democracy, and ending the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, because the three are inseparable.” We must fight for the Palestinian state, not because we love the Palestinians, but for the sake of our security and to save our identity.”

Source: Le Monde