(June 18, 2008)

The General Security Service (GSS) alias Shabak alias Shin Bet is the operational nerve center of Israeli secret services. Those who head this organisation get informations not only by agents in or outside of Israel, they are in contact with every major political group in the country, watch every relevant non-government group closely and receive a lot of information unfiltered by the media every day. Likely those heads of service can be called “informed” about what´s happening in Israel.
So there must have been some reason for those former Chiefs of Shin Bet, Avraham Shalom (Bendor) (December 1980 to September 1986), Yaakov Peri (April 1988 to March 1995), Carmi Gillon (March 1995 to February 1996) and Maj. Gen. (res.) Ami Ayalon when they publicly critized their goverment on Friday, November 14, 2003 in most explicit ways, rejected raw war power politics and called ultimately for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The interview they gave has been silenced in and outside Israel, most people have forgotten about it. Though some say this could be the very right point of time to remember.

(…)

Ayalon: “Yaakov Peri says that one of the great errors of the political leadership today is that fact that most of the debate revolves around the question whether we do or do not have a partner. And I think that this is indeed an error. In this terrible situation, where civilians are slaughtered in restaurants and buses, in my opinion there is no other way but to take unilateral steps. And I believe that if the State of Israel were to get up tomorrow morning — or three years ago, as far as I am concerned — and leave the Gaza Strip and Gush Katif, and really and truly begin to dismantle illegal settlements, then I tend to believe, based on long standing acquaintance with our future dialogue partners, that the Palestinians would come to the negotiating table.”

We asked Shalom if he agrees with Peri. “Yes,” he says, “one hundred percent.” Gillon and Ayalon also agree with him.