In an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, outgoing army chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon predicted that unless Israel commits to further withdrawals after implementing the disengagement plan, another violent crisis with Palestinians, “which will begin in the West Bank”, will take place.
"If there is an Israeli commitment to another move, we will gain another period of quiet," he said. "If not, there will be an eruption of violence”
Ya’alon warned that establishing a Palestinian state by the year 2008, as stated in the road map peace plan, will lead to a future war.
“The idea that a Palestinian state can be established by 2008, and will then produce stability, is divorced from reality and dangerous, as any such state will be a state that will try to undermine Israel." He said.
“A two-state solution is simply not relevant. It is a story that the Western world tells with Western eyes. And that story does not comprehend the scale of the gap and the scale of the problem. We, too, are sweeping it under the carpet." He added.
He accused that the Palestinians are working to maintain a “gang-based” reality rather than a “state foundation.”
Ya’alon also said that he believes that the implementation of the disengagement plan will not create “a situation of stability”, and that eventually the army will have to return to Gaza.
Ya’alon: “Israel defendable without the Golan Heighs”
The outgoing Israeli army Chief of Staff, Moshe Ya’alon, in a first-ever interview with an Arabic newspaper, said on Tuesday that Israeli will be able to defend itself “even after an eventual withdrawal from the Golan Heights”.
Speaking to the Arabic London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, Ya’alon said that he does not believe that peace between Israeli and Arab countries as something which will happen in the near future.
“Many years will have to pass before the wounds heal, and the animosity between is disappears”, Ya’alon said.
Also, Ya’alon criticized what he described as “the hesitant policies of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas”, and added that Abbas is “not tough enough, allowing other parties, especially Hamas to gain power”, according to Ya’alon, while at the same time praised the public statements of Abbas against “terror”.
Ya’alon claimed that Hamas is still developing Qassam homemade shells “although it is sticking to a temporary ceasefire”, and claimed that Hamas is still smuggling weapons from Egypt.
“Abbas should have arrested Mohammad Abu Hindi, the senior Islamic Jihad member, directly after the suicide bombing which took place at the Stage club in Tel Aviv”, Ya’alon said.
Also, Ya’alon criticized the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat for what he described as “obstructing the chance to reach calm during the Intifada”, and added that even though “both sides suffered in this war, the Palestinians suffered more”.
Ya’alon claimed that the late president would “have found any excuse to start al-Aqsa Intifada”, in September 2000, and that the provocative visit of Sharon, with his armed bodyguards was not the real cause.
Ya’alon charged that the Intifada was not an uprising of the people, but ‘a planned terror attack”, according to Ya’alon.
During the interview, Ya’alon said that Israel has military ties with Arab countries in North Africa and the ‘Persian Gulf’, and that he was good ties with the Jordanian chief of staff and the top echelons in the kingdom’s army.
“Despite the fact the Israel and Egypt have strong economic ties, I do not have such ties with the Egyptian army”, Ya’alon added.
