Oct. 28, 2015

Ya’alon: Israel Is Surrounded by Jihadists – Bridget Johnson (PJ Media)

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, speaking at the U.S. National Defense University on Tuesday, said:

• “When it comes to Israel, the only real democracy in the Middle East, it’s like living on an island surrounded with jihadists: Shia, like Hizbullah in Lebanon; Daesh [ISIS]; Jabhat al-Nusra….In the past, it was Arab nationalism calling to have the Middle East be only Arab. There is no room for a Jewish state. Today, it’s Islamic motives, more than national motives, calling to eliminate the State of Israel as a Jewish state.”
• Ya’alon noted that Israel shares no border with Iran and has no territorial disputes with the Islamic Republic, yet “they call to wipe Israel from the map of the Earth because of Islamic ideology not allowing any non-Islamic entity to be on this piece of land of Israel.”
• “Those who claim that the problem is settlements – they murdered Jews before the construction of any settlements in the West Bank….Western like-minded people are ready to be deceived, manipulated by this kind of propaganda, forgetting the most important distinction between good and evil, going to relativism and other distinctions of victims and victimhood.” Ya’alon said a cooperative strategy with the U.S. to tackle the violence must be “based on moral clarity.”
• In response to a question from the Israeli Regional Study Team of the National War College about restarting the peace process, Ya’alon said the parameters pushed by the administration are unacceptable. “The borders between ours and the Palestinian entity can’t be a return to the 4 June 1967 lines. Why? Because they are indefensible borders.”

  See also Restoring a Security-First Peace Policy – Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Moshe Ya’alon

• From the study Israel’s Critical Requirements for Defensible Borders: The Foundation for a Secure Peace. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

  See also Ya’alon: Conflict Is Rooted in Denial of Jewish State, Not Settlements – Rebecca Shimoni Stoil
  Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said at the U.S. National Defense University on Tuesday: “Israel is aspiring for peace. As one who has experienced wars, I am anxious to have peace. I can tell you personally that I supported Oslo. I thought compromise might be a good idea to reach peace and tranquility. Unfortunately neither Yasser Arafat at that time and Abu Mazen [Abbas] today…even those two who are considered relatively moderate in the West, are not ready to recognize our right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people.”  (Times of Israel)

(Click on the title of any article to see the whole article…Ed.)