June 14: The Mossad and the Occupation

In a classified report made on this date in 1967, Mossad agents who had engaged in discussions with Palestinians on the West Bank following Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War recommended that an independent Palestinian state be immediately established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, based on the 1949 armistice lines, with some minor adjustments, and that Israel “take upon itself the initiative to solve the [refugee] problem once and for all” by organizing an international effort to resettle Palestinians in the new state. Five days later, the Israeli government offered Egypt and Syria return of the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights for a peace settlement (neither the Gaza Strip nor the West Bank were mentioned in the offer), but both Arab countries refused to negotiate. Forty-four years later, on June 4, 2011, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, made a retirement speech criticizing what he called “the stupidity” of the Netanyahu government for not embracing the Saudi Peace Plan, which offered Israel normal relations with all Arab countries if it reaches a peace agreement with the Palestinians based on the 1967 borders.

Dagan is “one of the most rightwing militant people ever born here . . . who ate Arabs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When this man says that the leadership has no vision and is irresponsible, we should stop sleeping soundly at night.” —Ben Caspit, Maariv