Dagan urges Tel Aviv to adopt Saudi initiative

Meir Dagan, the former chief of Israel’s external intelligence body, Mossad, urged the Netanyahu government to launch a new political initiative with the aim of ensuring Israel’s existence in the region.
 
In his first comments on the main “challenges” facing Tel Aviv, Dagan stated that Israel must present an initiative to the Palestinians: “We have no other way, and not because they are my top priority, but because I am concerned about Israel’s well-being and I want to do what I can to ensure Israel’s existence. If we don’t make proposals and if we don’t take the initiative, we will eventually find ourselves in a corner,” he said.

---

“Put the ball in [the Palestinians’] court. Let them have the [political] dilemma.”
 
In his remarks to a Tel Aviv leadership conference at Tel Aviv University, Thursday (June 2), Dagan called on Israel to adopt the Saudi peace initiative, which outlines normalisation of relations with Arab countries in return for Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 borders, recognising an independent Palestinian state, and agreeing with the Palestinians on a just solution to the refugee issue.