Binational state is an existential threat to Israel, ex-Mossad chief warns

Tamir Pardo: This is a ticking time bomb and for some reason we have chosen to bury our heads deep in the sand • "One day we will reach a binational state because it will become impossible to undo the Gordian knot between the populations," he warns.

Lilach Shoval, Gideon Allon - Israel Hayom 
Former Mossad Director Tamir Pardo said Tuesday he believes only one thing poses an existential threat to Israel -- a binational state.

Pardo was speaking at a security and strategy conference hosted by the Netanya Academic College in honor of the late Mossad chief Meir Dagan. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and other senior defense officials also spoke at the conference.

"The Jewish state faces one existential threat. This is a ticking time bomb and for some reason we have chosen to bury our heads deep, deep in the sand, opting to follow alternative facts and escape reality by creating external existential threats.

"Two religions, Jews and Muslims, reside between Jordan and the sea and their numbers are almost identical. One day we will reach a binational state because it will become impossible to undo the Gordian knot between the populations. That's what happens if you don't come to a decision."

Pardo asserted that "Israel has to choose what it wants, what's best for it -- not just for this afternoon, but for years to come. We have to stop burying our heads in the sand and confront the demographic reality and the question of what kind of country we want.

"The writing is on the wall -- all you have to do is look up and read it. The key to ensuring Israel moves in the right direction requires courageous leadership willing to confront the difficult reality and lead a new path," he said.

Current Mossad Director Yossi Cohen noted that Iran's aspirations for regional domination remain the same and it is employing new tactics to that end. "As long as the ayatollahs' regime exists, Iran will pose a challenge to Israel," he said.

Cohen said the dangers Israel faces are clear, and that Iran's nuclear ambitions remain the primary threat to the Jewish state.

"We simply have to be more sophisticated. Our outlook should focus on the long term and we have to pursue complex courses of action, the kind that do not end in one year," he said.

Gadi Eizenkot told the audience that Israel's security interests call for maintaining the relative calm achieved on its borders.

Lieberman's speech touched on the Syrian civil war: "We have no interest in interfering in Syria, for or against [Syrian President Bashar] Assad.

"The State of Israel and the defense establishment acts when one of three conditions has to be in play -- fire at our territory, when we detect significant weapons deliveries to terrorist groups, or in a 'ticking time bomb' situation, meaning when we know of an imminent terrorist attack."

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Avi Dichter said that "Russia will determine how involved Iran will be in Syria, on Syrian soil. Hezbollah's operations in Syria will derive from that."