MK likens unilateral West Bank pullout to 9/11 jumpers
Like diving from the burning Twin Towers, a hasty evacuation of settlements would be certain suicide, ex-Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter says
Raphael Ahren is a former diplomatic correspondent at The Times of Israel.
Less than a week before Americans mark the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, Likud MK Avi Dichter on Tuesday compared any potential Israeli unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank to people jumping out of the windows of the burning World Trade Center towers on 9/11, arguing that both cases constitute certain suicide.
While acknowledging there were differences, Dichter said the often-made demand for a unilateral withdrawal is akin to the “difficult images of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, when people trapped on the upper floors of the Twin Towers jumped from the windows even though they knew that they were actually jumping to their deaths.”
Dichter, who heads the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, made the remark in response to the creation of a new movement calling for national referendum on the future of Israel’s West Bank presence. In a statement sent to reporters Tuesday, Dichter said he fully rejects any call for a unilateral evacuation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
But, said Dichter, the former head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, Israel is currently not about to take such a step.
“To tell you the truth, we’re very far from it. A unilateral withdrawal is, as far as we’re concerned, a suicidal leap,” he said. Israel is not in any immediate danger and the status quo will continue until a genuine opportunity arises to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians, he added.
“We must not interpret the fact that [Palestinian Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas is not ready to promote a political process as a situation requiring Israel to act unilaterally against its own interests just to please any government, however sympathetic to Israel it may be.”
Dichter said he had opposed a full withdrawal from the West Bank even back in 2005, when he headed the Shin Bet, since an Israeli military presence in the area is “essential” to the country’s security.
Dichter began his political career in Kadima, the centrist party founded by late prime minister Ariel Sharon in order to carry out the 2005 Gaza Disengagement, during which also four settlements in the northern West Bank were evacuated.
The new campaign, “Decision at 50,” was launched earlier this week by dovish organizations such as Peace Now and Blue White Future, alongside former security officials, ex-politicians, artists and activists.
Decision at 50 uses the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, in which Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank, to call for a referendum on whether Israel should remain in the territories or evacuate. Among its founders is Ami Ayalon, who headed the Shin Bet between 1996 and 2000 and who has been behind various peace efforts over the years.
“After 50 years of indecision by Israeli governments, it is time to bring the decision to the Israeli public and let the people decide on their own fate: a bi-national state or two states, 50 more years of military rule or a diplomatic resolution,” the initiative’s backers said.
In his statement to reporters, Dichter warned against the notion that everything but a rapid, unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank threatens the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
“With every diplomatic move, we need to examine what we gain from it, whether we are strengthening the State of Israel and bringing more security to its residents,” Dichter said. If necessary, Israel would decide to control the territories for another 20 years, he added.
“Time is not necessarily against us,” he suggested, referring to the upheavals brought by the Arab Spring.
Speaking to reporters at a briefing organized by The Israel Project Monday, Dichter also commented on a future Palestinian leadership struggle, calling for Israelis to prepare for a Hamas attempt to gain control of the Palestinian Authority.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas is 81, and while much attention is paid to potential successors from within his own Fatah party, Dichter said that Hamas is quietly planning to seize power of the PA by fielding its own presidential candidate. Hamas stands ready to replace Abbas whenever an opportunity arises, be it through elections or a bloody coup, Dichter said.
“They are getting ready. They are building their candidate. And who is going to be their candidate? There is only one name: Khaled Mashaal,” he said, referring to the terror group’s exiled political leader. Mashaal has “some kind of legitimacy in the world — in some European countries, let alone Russia and the Arab world.”
In his speeches in English, Mashaal hints that he is ready to accept a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines, Dichter said. But in Arabic, he makes plain that he seeks a Greater Palestine and demands the return of Palestinians to Jaffa, Lod, Acre, Safed and other cities in Israel.
Another reason Mashaal is hoping to become the next president of the PA is because he is from Silwad, a city north of Ramallah, Dichter said. Hamas knows that two thirds of Palestinians live in the West Bank (with one third residing in Gaza), and “they understand that the next president should come from the majority.”
Mashaal thus has two advantages in the race to replace Abbas as Palestinian leader, Dichter argued: He’s already the official leader of Hamas with some international standing and he is from the West Bank. “I recommend some focus on this option. I think that it’s one of the most relevant options in front of me,” he said.
