Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon weighed in on Memorial Day, negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the possibility of a unity government on Tuesday, in a special interview with Army Radio.
“The bravery of bereaved families is invisible but very significant,” Ya’alon stated. “They overcome the pain, overcome the hole in their lives. This is true heroism.”
Ya’alon also addressed rumors of a unity government, noting that “we have an interest to expand the government without hurting its current composition.”
“I hope that someday it will happen,” he said, likely referring to a pact with the Zionist Union. “I will not go into details.”
“I think that given the challenges we are faced with at home and abroad, it is important to have a broad government without harming the current composition,” he added.
Those challenges include pressure from Paris to begin negotiations with the PA, which he confirmed have failed before due to the PA refusing to cooperate.
“They slammed the door to President [Barack] Obama and to Secretary [of State John] Kerry,” he said. “It’s not because of us that we haven’t held negotiations. There were always preconditions to even sit at the table and nothing came of it.”
“I do not think the political opportunity will come from outside, not by the French initiative or US involvement,” he added. “I even think that external intervention is harmful because in the end, what should be done, should be done among us and the Palestinians.”
He then called the idea of a peace deal in the foreseeable future an “illusion.”
Ya’alon further admitted that ISIS’s influence has grown in the Golan Heights, the Sinai, and even in Gaza. Despite this, he insisted that Operation Protective Edge did provide a deterrent to Hamas – keeping peace, along Israel’s borders, for now.
Even within Israel’s borders, “the wave of terror that began on Erev Rosh Hashanah is also in decline,” he noted. “It’s not over yet. But we started this year with three attacks per day. We must not forget that this is not the case today.”
“I think that the measures taken by the IDF, the Israel Police, and the Shin Bet security service have proven themselves and continue to prove themselves,” he added. “When a Palestinian child is educated from kindergarten to admire terrorists and dreams of a Palestinian state from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, you cannot make that generation compromise and make peace.”
