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Ya’alon advocates new responsible approach to Israeli politics
Israel’s former defence minister said yesterday that Israeli politics is rife with self-interest and must become more responsible for the sake of society as a whole.
Moshe Ya’alon, who served as defence minister until May, was speaking at a conference at Bar Ilan University.
He bemoaned the numerous criminal investigations associated with the country’s leaders and said: “If there is no confidence in the leadership, there is no leadership.”
Expanding on the point, Ya’alon asked: “When the leadership is busy with petty politics, in quarrels and factionalism, [they target] at times the Arabs, the settlers, left-wingers, ultra-Orthodox people, or gays and lesbians, and now, Ashkenazi [Eastern European origin] and Sephardi [Middle Eastern origin] people… Where does this come from?”
He argued that leadership was “the ability to take decisions not out of political survival – online extreme comments, the media, or one community or another should not budge you from your path”.
Ya’alon also warned that “when the Palestinians talk about the occupation, they are referring to the entire territory of the land of Israel” and not just the West Bank. He said that both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas shared the same outlook in this regard and that “the Arab leadership does not recognise Israel as a Jewish state”.
Ya’alon also took aim at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that Netanyahu had agreed to maintain only a security presence in the Jordan Valley as part of peace talks which ended in 2014. Ya’alon said that unlike Netanyahu, he “wouldn’t give up complete Israeli control over the Jordan Valley”. He added that Israel should work towards a regional peace agreement and encourage Palestinians to work in Israel.
Netanyahu’s Likud Party said in a statement that Ya’alon is “prepared to say anything today for someone to remember he exists”.
Ya’alon resigned as defence minister and a Knesset member after a cabinet reshuffle and made clear his sharp disagreements with Netanyahu. He has since said that he will launch a challenge for the country’s leadership.