Diskin: Internal Divisions Bigger Threat Than ISIS, Hizbullah

– The former director of the Shin Bet, Yuval Diskin, declared that “it is neither Islamic State nor Hizbullah which is the leading existential threat against Israel, but the divisions and lack of unity within the country.”

Diskin made the remarks during an interview conducted by attorney Dov Weisglass in the Rabin Center in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

“The kind of behavior we have in the state of Israel today cannot lead to security. It is not leadership, it is a political elite concerned primarily with its own survival and not leading us to anywhere. I regret to say, that also on the Palestinian side the leadership is weak, and the combination of the two, is a lethal combination.”

Disking continued, saying that “a Palestinian state cannot exist by itself, surrounded on all three sides by Israel, Egypt and Jordan. It would be sufficient that any one of the three would not desire its establishment, and it will not be.

“Therefore, any arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians alone will not work. Instead of starting with the Palestinians and then moving outward to the region, we have to start with the region and then come to the Palestinians. It will be a process that will take years, but in the end it may bring peace as well.”

Diskin says he is not optimistic, because “I think that the most dangerous thing for us is not the external threats, but the internal divisions: between right and left, religious and secular, Jews and Arabs, and between the periphery and the center of the country.”

This article appeared in print on page 7 of the February 22nd, 2016 edition of Hamodia.