Ex-Mossad director: We are the greatest threat to Israel

Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo denied that Iran or the Palestinians posed the greatest threat to Israel. In an article published in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper today, he said: “The biggest threat is us. Or, more precisely, the system of self-annihilation that has been developing in recent years, in a way that is very similar to the period of the destruction of the Second Temple.”

He pointed out that the right-wing parties in the opposition, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, refuse to recognise the results of the elections, “and even refuse to address the prime minister (Naftali Bennett) in his official capacity. When a leader of dozens of Knesset members does not implement this symbolic gesture, this severely undermines the political consensus that It is the cornerstone of the state’s existence.”

Pardo criticised the opposition’s boycott of all laws proposed by the government, although the opposition has the right to do so, and its role to try to overthrow the government, “but it is not reasonable to prevent the passage of laws that align with their position, with national security or with the public interest,” referring to a bill which imposes Israeli law on illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank. He added that “the political mindset of aiming to paralyze the government’s entire activity does not comply with the social convention rules on which any democratic regime is based.”

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He continued: “The Israeli discourse is characterized by impatience and verbal violence toward anyone who thinks differently. The Israeli Knesset constitutes a negative example that is trickling into Israeli society. This polarisation between a socialist and capitalist viewpoint, not even between liberals and conservatives or between the left and right, which is the prevalent belief.”

“The State of Israel has been without borders since June 10, 1967… We have been a state without a strategy since June 1967. There is almost no answer to the question of how we want to see the state of the Jews after 30 years, and no politicians are willing to set a goal. Most of them evade the answer. All the leaders of the state refrained from making a decision out of fear and they are still afraid to make a decision and to bear responsibility for giving up parts of the promised land. On the other hand, they are afraid of losing the Zionist dream of a Jewish state if they annex all parts of the homeland,” added Pardo.

He noted, “Anyone who labels themselves as a Zionist realises that a state in which there is no absolute Jewish majority will mark the end of the Zionist dream. Between the sea and the river today there are Zionist Jews, non-Zionist Jews, non-Jews within the 1967 borders, non-Jews in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and non-Jews in the Gaza Strip.”

The belief or delusion that the day will come when we find people would agree to be discriminated against, without equal rights with the Jewish owners of the house, is mad. We must acknowledge forever that there is no force in the world that prevents men from aspiring and seeking by any means freedom and equality.

Pardo concluded that “the word ‘border’ has several meanings in Hebrew, and the lack of demarcation will lead to the obliteration of moral and normative borders. Intolerance of the other opinion rejecting thresholds, and violence of all kinds, are only part of the loss of borders stemming from losing the desire to deal with the number one problem that the State of Israel presents, which is what state do we want and what are its borders.”

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