This is a speech by Admiral (ret.) Ami Ayalon, former Director of the Shin Bet (Ramat Hasharon, July 13, 2024).

We know that Netanyahu is a corrupt leader, and that his leadership is corrupting. We know that his leadership led to the greatest disaster experienced by the Jewish people since the Holocaust. We know that he will do anything to prevent the return of the hostages and to end the war — continuing the war as his way to escape prison. We know that this government is leading us in “a march of folly” to the end of the Zionist dream. And since we know and agree, I will not talk about what we all know.

I came to talk about the things that most of us refuse to see. To talk about the blind spots of hundreds of thousands of wonderful Israelis fighting against the judicial coup that erases Israel’s democratic identity, but at the same time, who refuse to see the reality in Judea and Samaria that threatens its security and its Jewish-democratic identity. Less than a month and a half ago, on May 29 of this year, the Commander of the Central Command was forced to sign an order transferring all civilian governmental powers to an administrative mechanism headed by Minister Smotrich in his role as a Minister in the Ministry of Defense.

Finance Minister and Minister in the Ministry of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich

This means that as of June this year, all civilian administration in the West Bank — land management, planning and building, supervision and enforcement of illegal outpost construction, local authorities management, trade and economy, management of nature reserves and archaeological sites — passed to the authority of a minister who supports Jewish terrorism. Who in the past planned to carry out a terrorist attack against Israeli citizens and only the “right to remain silent,” reserved solely for Israelis, prevented an indictment against him.

If the transfer of powers — contrary to international law and threatening Israel’s identity in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence — is not invalidated by the Supreme Court, it becomes an official declaration that the territories of Judea and Samaria have been annexed to Israel. The International Criminal Court, currently dealing with the issue, will be able to conclude its investigation and announce that Israel indeed ceased to be an occupier, subject to international law restrictions, and became an apartheid state. The implications for our status in the world, such as accelerated sanctions in the fields of economy, academia, and security, will not be long in coming.

Yoav Gallant, the Defense Minister, will lose his authority to decide when armored military convoys can enter [the West Bank] to transport Jewish worshipers to Joseph’s Tomb, if Palestinians can be dispossessed of their fields or if their homes will be demolished, or when and where outposts will be built or demolished, since even the legal advisors of the Civil Administration will be appointed by [Minister Smotrich’s] people in the Ministry of Defense. The army will remain to extinguish the fires ignited by [Minister Smotrich] and his people.

And we who refuse to see the reality, will continue to protest in the streets of Israel’s cities and send our youth to battles to protect the rioters. And I ask — when did we decide as a people on the annexation of the West Bank? Were we ever asked the question by a government decision? By a Knesset decision? Did we hold a referendum? After all, for the transfer of even one square meter of Israel’s sovereign territory, we are required to hold a referendum. And rightly so. And for the annexation of more than 3,700 square kilometers (not including East Jerusalem which was annexed in the past), including nearly 3 million Palestinians, the authorized person, the Commander of the central command, signed without any of us knowing.

The matter will be brought to the Supreme Court to rule. Therefore, the discussion today is where will we be on that day? From this square, I turn today to the hundreds of thousands protesting in the streets and to the millions of Israeli citizens who believe in our right to struggle and in our power to shape the future of a Jewish-democratic Israel. And I say clearly, “Until we separate from the Palestinians, Israel will not be safe, and until we separate from the Palestinians, Israel will not be democratic.”

If we continue to turn a blind eye, to remain silent, we all — the silent, the blind, the fools, and the corrupt — will find ourselves carrying the Zionist dream, realized with the establishment of the Jewish-democratic State of Israel, to its death. We are marching in a march of folly, following a weak leader who has lost his way and is politically led by a minority messianic group that believes in Rabbi Kahane’s racist and Jewish supremacist doctrine and exploits the weaknesses of democracy to bring about its collapse. I came today not to discourage and frighten. I came knowing that we can choose a different path, believing that we have the ability to shape our future.

We are the majority: the majority that is fed up with Netanyahu and demands elections. In the name of the majority that determined that Netanyahu’s “conflict management” policy — which weakened the moderate Palestinian leadership and strengthened Hamas, which seeks to destroy us — this policy is the main factor that led to the massacre on Saturday, October 7, 2023. In the name of the majority demanding the return of the hostages who, on October 7, were abandoned by the Israeli government and the security system in all its branches. In the name of the majority that understands that the IDF has already crushed the main military power of Hamas. The majority whose victory picture is the victory of morality and mutual responsibility. And it will be achieved when all Israelis, men, women, elderly and children, who are in the tunnels and cellars of Hamas in Gaza return home.

In the name of the majority that understands that even if we have to pay by releasing terrorists with blood on their hands or through a prolonged process leading to separation from the Palestinians, this will be the first step on the path to the correction we must make in shaping anew the character of a Jewish-democratic Israel in the face of the challenges of the 21st century; the majority that sees that we are not alone; that supports a regional alliance of moderate Islamic states including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the Emirates, together with Western democracies; the majority that understands that the American outline is the right way to face the threat posed by Iran and its stranglehold proxies in the region.

In the face of toxic leadership leading to regional war, we have a duty to continue to fight. We do not have the right to despair. We received from our parents a state on a silver platter. They paid for it with blood and gave up their present and future to ensure us, their children, hope. We are the majority. If we only open our eyes to see the great opportunity before us, we will choose the path of hope. Even though it is long and full of obstacles, it is the path leading us to a future worth living in. And if necessary, also worth dying for. If we choose this path, we will win.

Ami Ayalon is a former commander of the Israeli navy, former director of the Israeli Security Agency and a former member of the Knesset for the Labor Party. For his actions during military service he was awarded the Medal of Valor, Israel’s highest decoration. He is the author of Friendly Fire: How Israel Became Its Own Worst Enemy and the Hope for Its Future.