After a career in the army, Rear Admiral Ami Ayalon headed the Israeli domestic intelligence service, the Shin Bet, between 1996 and 2000. He has since undertaken an intellectual and political journey which has led him to question on the notion of enemy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as on the wanderings of the Israeli security vision which threatens, according to him, to lead to an “endless war”. Aged 78, he is the author of Friendly Fire: How Israel Became Its Own Worst Enemy (“Friendly Fire: How Israel Became Its Own Worst Enemy,” Steerforth, 2020, untranslated).
Part of Israeli troops are beginning to disengage from Gaza, while the government promises a new operational phase, of less intensity. Is this a turning point in the war against Hamas in Gaza, the beginning of its end?
I believe this question goes well beyond the details of this military campaign. Basically, what is the situation? Our problem lies in the tension between terror and human rights. All liberal democracies face a conflict between terrorist violence and fundamental rights, compounded by fear. When a person or a community experiences fear, they will prioritize security over rights, especially when the rights are not their own rights, but those of others, those of a minority. So we are giving up the rights of a minority in the idea that we are going to fight terrorism. And we don’t understand that one day, no doubt, we will congratulate ourselves on having killed bad guysbut that we will have lost our identity.
Is this what is happening now in the war in Gaza?
This is what happens all the time, both in Europe and the United States as well as in Israel. It is a global phenomenon within liberal democracies. But let’s talk about the Israeli case. What I’m trying to analyze is the concept of victory. When a democracy faces a terrorist group, it results in a different type of victory. Today, most wars pit States not against other States, but against “organizations” (movements, rebellions, guerrillas, etc.). This means conflicts in which it is impossible to prevail as before, by obtaining a better political deal through military action.
What is a victory, then, in this context?
A “terrorist organization” will never surrender by raising the white flag. You are going to kill members of Al-Qaeda, without succeeding in making them disappear. In Gaza, it’s the same, we are not fighting a state, we are fighting a terrorist organization. But we are not waging war on the Palestinians. There are Palestinians who support Hamas. They do this not because they adhere to the movement’s religious ideology, but because they see Hamas as the only organization fighting for their freedom and an end to the Israeli occupation. [dans les territoires occupés]. This is what is important to understand in order to imagine what happens next.
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