#Twitter marty time commando series#

Moreover, tensions in the region are escalating. administrations, whether they like it or not. State Department officials are traveling this week to Israel, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority in an effort to de-escalate tensions, reminding Washington that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a habit of pulling in U.S. As a result of the increasing Israeli-Palestinian clashes, U.S. So the time is ripe for resurfacing another approach.

It seems that the missing partner for negotiations is Israel, not less than the Palestinians. Moreover, Lapid has ruled out any talks with Palestinians when he becomes prime minister (the uncertainty surrounding Israel’s governing coalition notwithstanding), echoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and the government’s policy. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and foreign ministers from four Arab States, but, tellingly, no Palestinian representative. Just last month, at the Negev Summit, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid hosted U.S. Regrettably, this message did not get through to Israel’s political leaders then, and still has not. Our proposed “constructive unilateralism,” wrote Friedman, consists of Israel declaring “…its willingness to return to negotiations anytime and that it has no claims of sovereignty on any West Bank lands east of its security barrier… Such an initiative,” he added, “would radically change Israel’s image in the world, dramatically increase Palestinian incentives to negotiate and create a pathway for securing Israel as a Jewish democracy.” Our message resonated shortly afterwards in Thomas Friedman’s column, Power with Purpose, in the New York Times.

#Twitter marty time commando series#

Ten years ago, The New York Times published our op-ed Peace Without Partners, in which we called on Israel to “take constructive steps to advance the reality of two States based on the 1967 borders, with land swaps - regardless of whether Palestinian leaders have agreed to accept it.” We noted that “through a series of unilateral actions, gradual but tangible changes could begin to transform the situation on the ground.”Īnd we posited: “Imperfect as it is, this plan would reduce tensions and build hope among both Israelis and Palestinians.” And there is a way to move towards such a scenario. Nevertheless, a partition of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea into two nation-States and demarcating a border between them is indispensable to creating a future that will curtail and defeat that terrorism. We have never deluded ourselves that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will end Palestinian and Islamist terrorism. The three of us - a former Head of Shin Bet, Israel’s secret security service tasked with combatting terrorism a senior peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak and a former fighter pilot who leads social entrepreneurship projects involving Israeli Arabs and Jews - are familiar with Israel’s national security interests. 31, to which Israeli aircraft responded by attacking Gaza. And on April 18, Palestinians in Gaza fired a rocket into Israel for the first time since Dec. As we write this, 14 innocent people have been murdered in bloody, pre-meditated attacks, and dozens wounded. At the same time, tensions and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank are on the rise, with one analyst counting 15 Palestinians killed in the West Bank in clashes with Israel Defense Force during the first two weeks of April. Israelis are facing a surge of recent attacks by Palestinians, including on the cities of Hadera, Beer Sheba, B’nei Berak, and Tel Aviv. By Admiral (ret.) Ami Ayalon, Gilead Sher and Orni Petruschka