Non-Israelis often find it surprising or counter-intuitive that Israel’s top brass, its senior security officials are consistently more dovish than its political leadership. For years, Israeli security officials – retired officials publicly and serving ones privately -- have been the most solid proponents of the two-state solution. Anecdotally, this was a well-known fact.

Now there is a scientific study that shows just how true this truism is. This episode features Dr. Guy Ziv of the School of International Service at American University, and Benjamin L. Shaver, a master’s student at the University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations. Their new study shows that some 85% of Israel’s leading retired generals, spymasters and other senior security officials support a peace agreement based on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

APN asked me if I would write another op-ed for Lag B’Omer as I did many years ago. After re-reading what I composed in 2010, I sadly thought to myself, “Nothing has changed.” Except for names and places, this is as applicable today as when it appeared in the LA Jewish Journal nine years ago. If anything, things have gotten worse.

Update: this action, now closed, ran in May 2019.  

The Trump administration, at the direction of National Security Advisor John Bolton, is ramping up its provocations against Iran and moving the United States perilously close to an unnecessary war. This crescendo comes one year after Trump’s decision to put the US in violation of the Iran nuclear deal.

Tell Congress to take a stand against an unauthorized war of choice against Iran.