HERZLIYA, Israel, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The Israeli army's former commander said Monday that a withdrawal from the occupied territories will not resolve the dispute with the Palestinians.
Retired Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, who was deputy chief of general staff and then chief of general staff during most of the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, made his remarks during a briefing at the Herzliya Conference.
He criticized the assumption that an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the creation of a Palestinian state would resolve the dispute. It is "erroneous," he said. In 2005 Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip.
Yaalon noted that senior Fatah officials had said in internal deliberations that the interim Oslo peace accords with Israel were designed to help them reach Palestine, not end the dispute.
The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat initiated the intifada proving he opposed a partition, Yaalon maintained. This, however, contradicts the Shabak security agency's finding that Arafat did not initiate the intifada.
Yaalon also noted that the Islamic Hamas clearly talks of creating a Palestinian Islamic state over the land which means there is no room for a Jewish state. Hence he recommended: "We must stop asking ourselves what is the solution (or) look for a solution now. There are no immediate solutions. One has to talk of long-term strategies."
Yaalon stepped down as military chief of general staff in 2005 and his views clearly place him in the hawkish side of Israel's political map, a potential asset to a right-wing party in the next elections.
What might hamper his political career is his possible responsibility for the army's poor readiness for last summer's Lebanon war and its failure to prevent Hezbollah's buildup. When asked, Yaalon declined to discuss the matter, saying he would do so after a state commission of inquiry publishes its report.
