Bethel Finances: Ex-Mossad chief Halevy: Negotiations with Palestinians impossible

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Former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority were impossible. The committee discussed the pending unilateral UN declaration of an independent Palestinian state in September.

Halevy warned, "The area for maneuver is shrinking and the ability of the Quartet (the US, EU, Russia, and the UN) to influence the negotiations is declining." He added that what Israel wanted in the past two years is not longer achievable.

"It's impossible to reach a permanent settlement because it's impossible to hold negotiations on a permanent settlement and not implement it because whoever signs an agreement on the Palestinian side won't be the man who implements it," Halevy said.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Prof. Gabriella Shalev painted a bleak diplomatic picture. "Our standing in the UN is at a nadir. This nadir began with Operation Cast Lead and who knows when it will end," she said, adding, "The unilateral declaration by the Palestinians is not the objective - I see it as a step, an interim objective by the Palestinians to bring about our collapse in the eyes of the world."

Shalev said that Israel must make a diplomatic effort to persuade countries that "a unilateral declaration, if made, is a step with no advantage for Palestinians, and will unquestionably damage the peace process."

Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) said, "The Israeli government has its head in the sand. Without a diplomatic initiative, yesterday's events will be repeated in September." He added that Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu's government has lost the initiative. It must prepare for any scenario. It can, and must, explain its positions."

Mofaz concluded that the government's conduct has resulted in Israel's isolation and being driven out of the consensus. "The prime minister is stuck in a reality in which he goes to the US to try to rescue Israel from the situation he has put it in."