....you should try and read it in full .....its long .
Its soooooo Barak ........his ego just jumps from the written page .
Here is the link :
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.635978
Anhow with regard to the Palestinians and to BDS this is what he said : .....
Question : " Where do you think Netanyahu’s passivity on the Palestinian issue will lead? " ....
“In the end, passivity and avoidance of taking action lead to something being imposed on you that is far less good than what you could have achieved. And there is always the considerable danger that you will cross, without sensing it, the point of no return, and when you snap out of it and really want the previous situation back, it will simply not be possible, you will slide down a slippery slope. We saw examples of this in the last century in a neighboring continent – in South Africa during the apartheid years. It may have been Mark Twain who once said, ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.’
“We have been ruling another nation for 47 years. We are ignoring the fact that the situation has changed in the international arena. The leaders and the people themselves don’t remember the circumstances and the struggle under which the State of Israel emerged. There are no leaders or publics in the world who remember the Holocaust as a personal experience. What they’ve seen for decades is the reversal of the image that accompanied Israel. It’s not David and his slingshot being threatened by Goliath.
“What registers in the consciousness is the Palestinian youth who is symbolically using David’s weapon against Israelis who are armed to the teeth inside tanks, and with missiles and so forth. That image is becoming embedded in the public consciousness abroad. In the 21st century, there is no chance of maintaining over time a situation that will be accepted by the international community in which Israel continues to rule those millions of people and does not allow them to vote for the Knesset.”
Question" When will the day come when the world will treat us as it treated F.W. de Klerk in South Africa?" ......
“It will come. It will come. It’s a slippery slope, and on that slippery slope we are marching in the direction of one state for two nations. The feeling that’s taking shape internationally is that Israel doesn’t really have the intention – that the critical mass of the Israeli leadership has reached the conclusion that there is no reasonable two-nation solution that can guarantee Israel security, and that it has no alternative but to continue holding on to the entire territory and grant them autonomous rights. And [we think that] because we have no alternative, the world will be compelled to accept that.
“In fact, all these assumptions are groundless, it’s just due to the absence of an assertive discourse. The world won’t buy it. It’s just an illusion. That idea will be repulsed brutally by our best friends. At a certain stage, it might be possible to hide that intention by means of speeches at Tel Hai College, or a speech at the University of Haifa, after your Bar-Ilan University speech. So there will be a couple of more speeches, which will generate ambiguity for a time, but the international community is becoming disillusioned, and it will follow a course we have seen [elsewhere]. I deliberately do not want to mention the name of what happened in another continent.”
Question " The apartheid regime [in South Africa] collapsed under the strain of a world economic boycott. Do you discern the same approach developing in our case? "....
“Gradual processes of Israel’s delegitimization are occurring below the surface. The BDS movement is developing. Its name is derived from the movement that finally brought about the collapse of South Africa, which was economically and militarily stronger than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa together, but could not keep standing because it could not withstand international isolation. As long as those voices against Israel came from Eritrea or Mauritania, fine; when they start to come from Scandinavia and Britain, it’s a serious problem. Look at Israel’s standing in the community of labor organizations worldwide – it’s a very grim situation. That will continue with consumer organizations, pension funds, the universities.”
Question " Have you yourself encountered this movement? " ....
“I give many talks at American universities, and I can make a comparison with the past, because I also gave talks on campuses 10 years ago, and I was a student in the United States 35 years ago. Then, 35 years ago, the universities were bastions of sympathy for Israel. Today, you come to a university and you’re told in advance whether there will be a demonstration or there won’t be a demonstration of the opposite orientation.
“These groups are quantitatively negligible, but in terms of their essence, they are the future leadership of the United States and of the world. It’s a gradual trend, but it’s sliding toward a tipping point, and at the end of that tipping point awaits a slope or, heaven forbid, an abyss.”
Source : http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.635978
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