This is a must-read interview of Ami Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet (Israel's secret service), one of the rare senior Israeli officials advocating for a 2-state solution:
theguardian.com/world/2024/jan…
Here is what he says: “We Israelis will have security only when they, Palestinians, will have hope. This is the equation. To say the same in military language: you cannot deter anyone, a person or a group, if he believes he has nothing to lose.”
He says Israelis do not accept the concept of a Palestinian identity: “We see them as people, not ‘a people’, a nation. 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.” But to him this mindset and the resulting occupation only brings violence: "we shall suffer violence because of the occupation. Occupation will not bring us security, it brought us violence and death."
He believes Israel should release Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian who has been jailed since 2002, serving a life sentence for murder after leading the second intifada: “Look into the Palestinian polls. He is the only leader who can lead Palestinians to a state alongside Israel. First of all because he believes in the concept of two states, and secondly because he won his legitimacy by sitting in our jails.”
He says support for Barghouti reflects the fact that current Palestinian backing for Hamas is rooted not in enthusiasm for their ideology per se, but the sense they are the only faction fighting effectively for a Palestinian state. Adding that the non-violence embraced in recent years by the rival Fatah faction (the "Palestinian authority" leading the West Bank) has been discredited by their failure to achieve a Palestinian state, which he characterizes as dangerous to both Israelis and Palestinians.
He says the alternative - led of course by Benjamin Netanyahu and supported by the majority of the Israeli public - is "hatred": “Every time when I say hatred is not a plan, it is not a policy, people are very upset”. He says there's no military solution here and that the fighting actually makes things worse: "You cannot destroy ideology by the use of military power. Sometimes it will be rooted deeper if you try. This is exactly what we see today. Today, 75% of Palestinians support Hamas. Before the war, it was less than 50%."
To me, he's one of the rare sane voices in Israel among (former) senior officials. At the ICJ the Israelis try to argue that the genocidal types are fringe elements of Israeli politics but I'm afraid that advocates for peace like Ayalon are the actual fringe 😓
@PACBI@GaryLineker@iocmedia@FIFAcom Thanks for using your platform and privilege again to speak out for Palestinian people and justice. Great example for Australian #Socceroos journalists, players, administrators to follow. #AsianCup#BDS
@iocmedia@FIFAcom We support the PFA demand and call for pressure on sporting bodies to suspend Israel until it ends its grave violations of international law, particularly its apartheid rule and the crime of genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza.
#GazaGenocide#CeasefireNow#DismantleApartheid
The Palestinian Football Association calls on @iocmedia, @FIFAcom and all regional and int'l sports bodies to take an urgent stance on Israel’s grave violations of human rights and subject it to legal accountability measures.
loom.ly/ZMg-H-4
I visited Julian Assange in prison this week with Jeremy Corbyn. It reaffirmed my anger at the injustice: 5 years in Belmarsh when his only crime was to tell the truth. It's outragous that our govt panders to the US extradition demand. All good people must fight for his release.
Rishi Sunak has claimed that voters are fine with him spending £50,000 a day on this ridiculously large private jet.
If you aren’t fine, RT and tell him to spend his own £720,000,000.
Where is his pay restraint?
Also like if you want him to f** off.
Jews returning home and making the desert green isn’t a Zionist slogan it’s a fact and a miracle.
Behind us is the Nana winery in Mitzpe Ramon, in the Negev🏜️🇮🇱
We have underpaid public sector workers…
Who are striking to earn more
So Govt plans to cap their ability to strike.
We have highly paid bankers & high earners
Who have no need to strike
Yet Govt plans to increase their wealth
If that isn’t class war, I don’t know what is.