Former Mossad Chief Says Time of Rare Opportunity

Former head of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, said that while the secret regional cooperation currently taking place between Israel and Sunni Arab countries is “very important, it will not advance the legitimacy of the existence of the state of Israel.”

Pardo said that he believes “there will be no regional conference or negotiation with the Arab countries unless or until there is progress with the Palestinians. We find ourselves in a time of rare opportunity that will not soon return, and we must seize upon it.

“Security is not defined solely by security, but by economic growth, education and health. These also contribute to security. Israel must decide what its goals are, where it wants to go, and how it wants the state to look at the end of the process. To my regret, there is no consensus about these things, and so it does not know what it wants, or even how to express it,” Pardo said.

The comments echoed a speech Pardo made last August, at an annual memorial for fallen Druze soldiers in the north, where he said: “There is no outside existential threat to Israel; the only real existential threat is internal division.”