Press Room

Jerusalem, 9 nov. (APCom) - The Israeli attack on Gaza's Beit Hanoun, in which 18 were killed, "is a horrible event which makes us all feel bad”, but Israel cannot give up on defending its security with military actions, not least because any slight release of pressure "would strengthen Jihadist terrorism". These are the words of Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, former UN Ambassador to Israel and ex-advisor of Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, during a meeting in Jerusalem with a group of European journalists.

During the conversation, Gold acknowledges the Iranian threat but at the same time points the way to a new regional cooperation which could lay the basis for rejuvenating the peace process. Dismissing dialogue with Syria, Gold sees opportunities with Saudi Arabia and suggests involving Jordan in the West Bank's administration, envisaging a kind of "confederation between the Palestinian Authority and the reign of Amman", an idea he claims is endorsed by Washington. "This is the best way to get out of the present quagmire" he assures. And to the US, fresh from the political earthquake of the Midterm Elections, he sends an unequivocal message: an early withdrawal from Iraq would be perceived by the other side as a victory and would create a terrorist tsunami in the Middle East.

Gold puts the "main issue" of security at the centre of every discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And he does not give much credit to the idea that the terrorist activities could be counteracted by reviving economic growth in the Palestinian territories. "Even if we managed to convince the world's ten largest multi-nationals to invest in the West Bank, who would build a micro-chip factory in Ramallah, risking attack from from any of the dozens of militias acting in the area?" Gold adds that the simplest way to increase Palestinian living standards would be to liberalise check-points on the Israeli borders. "But would we also be willing to allow any suicide bomber to enter Israel to blow up cafes and shopping malls? As long as we don't solve the security issue, it will be very difficult to progress on other fronts", he adds.

The way forward he suggests instead is a new diplomatic effort with neighbouring countries. "We need to find some players in the region who think like us", Gold explains. But unlike many leftist Israelis – who have advised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to give credit to the signals of dialogue coming from Damascus – Gold promptly cuts Syria out of the picture. "As long as Bashar Assad continues to show that he is not prepared to change friends – the ex-ambassador says, referring to the Syrian president's financial support for Hezbollah – I do not believe there could be any credible option as far as Syria is concerned". Instead Saudi Arabia could be a possible partner, given Riyadh's anti-Hezbollah stance during the Lebanon war. "This could be the basis for a quiet cooperation – no handshakes on the White House lawn, no signing of Treaties – but the beginning of an understanding between us" Gold declares.

The other player could be Jordan, at the moment seemingly worried about "Jihadist infiltrations" within its Bedouin population, which could destabilise King Abdullah II. Gold offers a "new idea: dispatching a Palestinian brigade to the West Bank and Gaza under Jordanian command", a proposal previously suggested by King Abdullah himself, recalls Sharon's fomer right-hand man – but which the Israelis shied away from. Now the US, he claims, supports this idea “because it could stabilize the situation on the ground".

Is this a Neo-conservative political fantasy? Gold invites a testing of the waters, at least. “We need new regional alliances – he says – to help us deal with the very menacing region we face, and maybe in those alliances we could find the basis to stabilize the area and restart the peace process". But then he is quick to apply the brakes: "at the moment we are in a very preliminary phase".