Former GSS head warns against 'apartheid'
By Tal Muscal

Jerusalem Post

JERUSALEM (December 5, 2000) - Former General Security Service head Ami Ayalon yesterday blamed the eruption of the Aksa intifada on the Palestinian Authority's perception that it hadn't been offered an "honorable compromise" for a peace deal.

"The Palestinians learned there is another way, they learned it from Hizbullah and from us when we put them in a situation of having a gun at their head. We have always returned to the [peace] process under violence," Ayalon said in a speech at the annual conference of the Finance Ministry's budget division.

He also noted that the riots triggered by the opening of an exit to a tunnel near the Western Wall in 1996 had led to the resumption of negotiations and the subsequent Hebron agreement.

The original discussion on economics switched to a discussion of security arrangements and political values when Ayalon asked whether Israel wants to maintain an apartheid policy, saying that he didn't consider it an option.

"Is apartheid acceptable? I say no. The question is how democratic we really are, and how Jewish the nation should be," he said, adding, "This is a dilemma we wanted to delay."

According to Ayalon, all political decisions to continue the peace process "are taken from the democratic essence of Israel."

He also appeared to criticize the government for refusing to release Fatah prisoners "with blood on their hands." On the other hand, he noted, the government had given in to Hizbullah demands to free gunmen with "blood on their hands" in exchange for body parts of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon.

Full economic separation from the Palestinians is impossible, Ayalon said, "even if tall fences are created." Likening the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to that of Siamese twins, he continued, "We share the same life system. While the choice to disconnect is ours, we need to remember that such decisions affect us internally."

A move toward separation, he said, would push the Palestinians to "act against us for lack of a better choice."

He also said there is a limit to the use of force employed by both sides. Referring to the current relationship with the PA, he said complex security arrangements hamper a normal economic exchange. The stringent body checks of each Palestinian worker entering Israel have become "a protracted nightmarish experience with the ability to lead people to despair."