Israel Faces Stark Election Choice, With Dove Favored To Lead Labor Party

If Ami Ayalon leads Israel’s Labor Party into the next election, voters will face the starkest election choice in the nation’s history. His vision includes surrendering parts of Jerusalem and most of Judea and Samaria, along with handing control of Israel’s holy places to international control.To achieve these goals he will bypass the Palestinian Arabs, if need be, and create an “axis of pragmatism” with Arab states and other countries to build a Palestinian State, he told an Israel Project gathering yesterday.Former admiral Ayalon is no lightweight. He served in Israel’s navy, commanding the elite Flotilla 13 frogman unit. He earned Israel’s highest military honor, the Ribbon of Valor, for leading the raid against Egyptian forces at Green Island. He rose to head the navy and served as director of Israel’s security services, the Shin Bet. He was elected last year to Parliament and is a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.Mr. Ayalon told the gathering he sees diplomacy and consensus as a replacement for traditional Israeli “unilateralism and use of military power.” This was reinforced by the recent war in Lebanon, he said. It demonstrated the limits of military power and taught important lessons in how to make peace.What was most significant was the unprecedented support Israel initially received from the Arab States and from the international community in dealing with Hezbollah, he said, because Hezbollah had crossed internationally recognized borders and because the Arab States saw the threat of Iran, through Hezbollah, as a greater threat than Israel.Israel needs to start work toward creating a Palestinian Arab state, he said. Mr. Ayalon said Israel could start the process without the Palestinian Arabs, and until they become a viable partner for peace Israel could work with America, Europe, and Arab states.He proposed a two state solution along the lines of Israel’s 1967 borders, with land exchanges for a few big Israeli settlements outside the 1967 border. Israel and a Palestinian state would split Jerusalem and neither would have sovereignty over holy places.Mr. Ayalon said that, in less than five to 10 years, the security fence will become the “de-facto border”and that the international community will come to accept it in the same way that they accepted the shift of the 1947 to 1967 borders. His “red lines,”he said, are that “no Palestinian shall return to the state of Israel under the title the ‘right of return'” and that Israel won’t withdraw unless someone else will take over and maintain stability. If necessary, he said, he’d accept international forces running the Palestinian Arab territory until the Palestinian Arabs were ready.Under the Ayalon plan, most Jews who live on the eastern side of Israel’s security fence in the West Bank would have to be withdrawn. He said he saw the settlers as “pioneers” and not opponents, but that now their mission — to get the Arab States to accept the existence of Israel in principle — had been accomplished.This is a highly controversial move, as the settlers have been encouraged by successive governments to rebuild Jewish communities on the grounds of old historic communities in Judea and Samaria. His plan would create hope among Palestinian Arabs that they could soon achieve a state and that their situation would improve. Once this happens, he said, support among Palestinian Arabs for peace will grow and support for terrorism will fall.Mr. Ayalon’s policy is in sharp contrast to that of Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Beiteinu’s Avigdor Lieberman, who see unilateral withdrawals as sops to terrorism and believe force is the only way to teach Israel’s enemies that Israel cannot be destroyed. Both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Lieberman ‘s parties promise not to divide Jerusalem and are champions of the settler movement.Mr. Ayalon is the favorite to take control of the Labor party, as the current leader, Amir Peretz, is under fire for his performance as defense minister in the recent Lebanon war.Mr. Peretz, meanwhile, is being criticized by Labor members for abandoning the party’s traditional policies by agreeing to join Prime Minister Olmert’s coalition. Mr. Peretz is slated to lose the party leadership in May — when the party is set to have an election — if he is not forced out before.A general election may happen soon in Israel, as Mr. Olmert’s approval rating is at an all time low and his coalition appears to be crumbling. He is unpopular among Israelis for making grand promises before the Lebanon war and then failing to accomplish them. The war is seen by a majority of Israelis as a failure.Mr. Olmert is also criticized for failing to prepare Israeli communities in the North for war. The other consequence of the war in Lebanon is that Mr. Olmert has been obliged to abandon his Kadima Party’s main policy plank — “realignment” or “unilateral withdrawal.” The Kadima party is seen as a failed entity and is expected to be defeated.

Israel Faces Stark Election Choice, With Dove Favored To Lead Labor Party

Israel Faces Stark Election Choice, With Dove Favored To Lead Labor Party

More from the New York Sun

UK Breakup Is on Table at High-Level Meeting at Cardiff

Wisconsin Congressman Swims Away From Sinking Plane After Emergency Lake Landing

Ricin Confirmed at Michigan Apartment Complex, Access Restricted as FBI Opens Probe

China’s Xi Dominates BRICS Summit at New Delhi in Rehearsal for Meeting With Trump

America’s Jobs Surge Is Good News for Trump’s Crackdown on Illegal Immigration

The Left, After Spending $9 Trillion To Change the Weather, Concedes the Money Was Wasted

Biggest AI Rivals Agree They Need To Pump Brakes as Anthropic CEO Warns AI Poses Risk to Humanity

Trump Calls for a ‘Unified Ireland,’ Provoking Anger From Kemi Badenoch and British Conservatives

More from the New York Sun

UK Breakup Is on Table at High-Level Meeting at Cardiff

Wisconsin Congressman Swims Away From Sinking Plane After Emergency Lake Landing

Ricin Confirmed at Michigan Apartment Complex, Access Restricted as FBI Opens Probe

China’s Xi Dominates BRICS Summit at New Delhi in Rehearsal for Meeting With Trump

America’s Jobs Surge Is Good News for Trump’s Crackdown on Illegal Immigration

The Left, After Spending $9 Trillion To Change the Weather, Concedes the Money Was Wasted

Biggest AI Rivals Agree They Need To Pump Brakes as Anthropic CEO Warns AI Poses Risk to Humanity

Trump Calls for a ‘Unified Ireland,’ Provoking Anger From Kemi Badenoch and British Conservatives