Former Shin Bet chief: Ending internal conflict key for Israel
The public debate on the peace process between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin has sharpened a bitter point: The “implications of failing to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are far more existential than the Iranian nuclear issue.”
An unbridled public debate erupted this week on Dec. 4 in Israel between two main approaches dividing the Israeli public in connection with the peace process, diplomatic isolation and the Jewish state’s other geostrategic struggles.
Characteristically standing on the right side of the spectrum is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On the left side, with another surprising and brave foray, is former Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin. The two exchanged public verbal blows that slid into charged mud-slinging. That aside, this long-standing fundamental dispute has rived Israelis for a very long time.
Diskin delivered a talk on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Geneva Initiative that saw the participation of some 600 people in Tel Aviv. The following is the thrust of what he said: It is time to prefer the sanctity of the people to the sanctity of the land, making Israel a home that does not require occupying another people. Israel must freeze the settlements. The number of settlers in the West Bank has reached such levels that no government will be able to evict them.
Diskin also called on making goodwill gestures vis-a-vis the Palestinians. In his opinion, the most important gesture is to totally freeze construction in the settlements. The second is to release prisoners. According to him, there should be no release of prisoners in the setting of the "cynical and revolting deal, which sought a priori to avoid freezing the settlements, which is what the government did."
