Former Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon gave an address yesterday at the Shalem Center on the consequences of the Hamas takeover of Gaza:
Ya’alon said Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip and the creation of "the first jihadist Arab entity" on Israel’s doorstep last month was "the last nail in the coffin" in a string of faulty conceptions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that had characterized Israeli and Western policy for decades.
Ya’alon covered at least five “faulty conceptions” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Ya’alon said the faulty conceptions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict included the beliefs that [1] the Palestinians want — or were able — to establish an independent state within the pre-1967 armistice lines, that [2] the creation of two states within those boundaries would solve the conflict, that [3] land for peace was the basis for any peace agreement, that [4] peace would bring security, and that [5] the key to stability in the Middle East was the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In an incisive post, Lynn-B analyzes each of these points. Ya’alon had an important bloggers conference call last year that is worth listening to again.