At the end of last week [Dec. 20], IDF Chief of Staff Lipkin-Shahak passed away — the [Israeli Defense Force's first and last Chief of Staff who communicated with the Palestinians at eye level as equals, and not only through the sight of a rifle. Major General Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who passed away at age 68, understood that stable relations with the Palestinians could not endure over time when resting on only one foothold: the security foothold. Lipkin-Shahak started out as an army man, then became a minister in Barak’s government and, finally, an activist in civilian peace organizations (including the Geneva Agreement and the IPI — Israel Peace Initiative).

Throughout, Lipkin-Shahak never stopped searching for the second, political foothold on which to support stable relations with the Palestinians. It is hard to assess how many Israeli lives were saved from Hamas terror attacks by virtue of the relations based on mutual trust, that Shahak cultivated with the security and political leadership in the territories. As part of his diverse activities, Shahak must have met several times with two high-level officers in the American army; Marine Corps reserve Major Steven White and Retired Colonel Philip Dermer — both of whom served for many years in the USSC (United States Security Coordinator to Israel and the Palestinian Authority). A few days before Shahak’s death, the two American officers visited Israel and held a briefing. Shahak could have unhesitatingly signed his agreement to what was the bottom line of that discussion: that if there is any importance to the expression “there is no partner” — an expression coined by Ehud Barak, Chief of Staff before Shahak — then it is not necessarily the Palestinian side that fits the description.

The USSC is the only entity that still functions today in the United States-Israel-Palestinian Authority triangle. The role of the USSC is to guide the Palestinian security forces and act as a bridge between the sides. In the briefing held Dec. 18 for the operatives of the Israel Policy Forum (IPF), a centrist Jewish organization, the two officers reported the depth of distrust evinced toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And no, this is not about distrust on the part of high-echelon Palestinian officers, but also from Israeli officers. “We asked a senior IDF general, 'just what was it that we accomplished from 2007 to 2010?' said one of the two American officers. The man answered, ''My job was to enable [my Israeli] government to negotiate with the Palestinians without a knife against its neck. I think that I successfully delivered that with your American help and with Palestinian help. But unfortunately, it was my government that did not choose to build upon that.'”

Thereafter, White shared with the forum participants his impressions from a meeting he held with another IDF officer who is now in the Defense Ministry: “In the past he always was careful to stick to the official line of the Israelis government,” said White, “but this time it was completely different. He said to me: it appears that my government's doing everything it can to put a bullet through the head of [Palestinian Authority Chairman] Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority without any thought whatsoever as to what follows.”