‘We have to accept a Palestinian state. There is no other way’, says former head of Shin Bet

Former naval commander Ami Ayalon once had the highest security clearance. As the ex-head of Shin Bet from 1996 to 2000, he was trusted to oversee counter-intelligence projects and high-risk operations – all in a bid to protect the Jewish State from an attack.

He later moved into politics, sitting as Minister without Portfolio under Ehud Olmert in 2007, months after losing the Labor Party leadership bid to Ehud Barak in 2007.

But on October 7 – 50 years since the Yom Kippur War – his worst fears were realised. That morning, he received a call from his son – a teacher. “He called me asking for the code to our family safe, so he could take his gun. It’s a very big safe, they built it when I was Director of Shin Bet. I wanted to know why. He said: ‘You don’t know what is happening here?’ I turned on the radio and I understood.” Within a few hours, Ayalon was on an El Al flight back home to Israel.

Since then, two of his children have been called up to serve as reservists, and he has a grandson heading to the northern border as tensions escalate with Hezbollah.
Speaking to the Jewish News ahead of a visit to London with pro-peace group Yachad UK, he says that the Hamas attack made him “angry” – but that he also saw an “opportunity” for peace.

“I was just furious. It was clear to me that we were heading to a wave of violence,” says Ayalon, who also believes Israeli society has changed. “We are afraid, we lost confidence, we lost a sense of security, we are humiliated. We feel that we do not have leadership.”

He adds: “We hate, we are looking for revenge. We think that anyone who tells us we are wrong, hates us and is antisemitic.”

Ayalon, 78, blames Israel’s decision-makers for mistakes made ahead of the Hamas attack.
“We assumed [Hamas] had been deterred,” says Ayalon, who served in Israel’s navy for 34 years, receiving the Medal of Valour.

“We had all of the information, but there was a double failure from our security community and our government. For years, the government has tried to manage a conflict instead of solve it. When you try to manage a conflict, the conflict ends up managing you,” he says.

Today, he is politically homeless – saying he votes for “policy, not a political leader. I am trying to convince people that when we go to vote, we have to ask questions.”

He explains: “I will support any party that says they will not only ‘support’ a Palestinian State, but that they will ‘recognise’ one.” For Ayalon, this is the primary road to long-lasting peace.

Asked to respond to critics who say that recognition of a Palestinian State, less than a year after Hamas’ attack, could be interpreted as rewarding the terrorist group, he says: “Unfortunately, they are right, but there is no other way.

“In life, we have to choose between bad options. Even when I was the commander in the Navy, I said we have to recognise a Palestinian State, because it is much easier to negotiate with a State than with organisations. Even for the right of return; if they have a State, Palestinians will return to the State of Palestine.”
And will a two-state solution, whereby Palestinians run a Palestinian State, bring an end to conflict and to terrorism?

“No, that is too idealistic,” he says. “We are living in the Middle East and I am not naïve. What I am saying is, Israel will be safer, while keeping our identity as a Jewish democracy.

“We will still have terrorism but on a minor scale,” he says adding: “We also have Jewish terrorists. Remember, the terrorists that killed our prime minister [Rabin] were Jewish.”

It’s safe to say that Rabin – who put Ayalon forward for the Shin Bet role before his assassination in 1995 – was his hero.

“Rabin was the bravest Israeli prime minister,” he says. “Leadership is always a combination of a dreamer and a pragmatic leader. He was a political leader who understood the limits of what can be achieved using military power.”
Ayalon adds: “He understood the major lesson of the Yom Kippur war: our security doctrine should be based on a political agreement and peace.”
Born in Tiberias in 1945 to Romanian parents who fled the Holocaust, Ayalon grew up in a kibbutz. Now living in a moshav, he finds peace in relaxing by his olive orchard.

But he’s not coming to the UK for a rest. Ayalon, who has written a book, ‘Friendly Fire’, is in the UK to spread a message, through media interviews and meeting community leaders.

“The Jewish community abroad should play a major role in the future of Israel,” he says. “Israel is the only state in the world which belongs to people who are not its citizens; it is a state for the Jewish people. Every Jew can decide whether he wants to be a citizen, whether he wants to play a role in deciding on the future.”

Friendly Fire; how Israel became its own worst enemy by Ami Ayalon with Anthony David