He had never spoken so openly. In a series of conversations with Al-Monitor, retired Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, the 21st chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), provided a wide-ranging overview of Israel’s military campaign against the Islamic State (IS) throughout the Middle East and the blows Israel has inflicted on Iran and its Quds Force in recent years.

Eizenkot served as IDF chief for four years (2015-2019). During his term, Israel had almost assassinated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qasem Soleimani 18 months before the United States did in January 2020, Eizenkot revealed. Israel had also destroyed all the IRGC’s facilities in Syria, an outcome that he described as tantamount to a destruction of Israel’s major arms development industries.

Along with his obvious pride in Israel’s military power, Eizenkot also issued dire warnings about the country’s future, warning that the prolonged stalemate with the Palestinians could result in the eventual creation of one Israeli state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, putting an end to the Zionist dream of a Jewish state, as Israel would lose its Jewish-population majority.

He proposed a plan for separating from the Palestinians, specifically in three key arenas that the Palestinians claim as their own — the Gaza Strip, from which Israel had already pulled out; the Jordan Valley with its sparse Jewish population; and the northern part of Samaria in the West Bank, where only 160 Israeli families make their home. Israel could take steps to enhance some sort of Palestinian autonomy there, while preserving Israeli security interests.