RT by @AnneMarieMineur: 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:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/14/shin-bet-ami-ayalon-calls-on-israel-release-intifada-leader-marwan-barghouti

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 dan…

🐦🔗: https://nitter.cz/RnaudBertrand/status/1746687801926828298#m

[2024-01-15 00:16 UTC]