Knesset Member Isaac (Buji) Herzog, head of the Labor faction in the Knesset, is worried. Last week [February 4] he travelled to Ramallah to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Herzog arrived at Fayyad’s chambers accompanied by a retinue of Palestinian policemen, sat with Fayyad for more than an hour, and returned with the strong sense that if negotiations with the Palestinians are not renewed in the very near future — all the sides will be sorry.

In an interview with Al-Monitor he tells us about his meeting with Fayyad and promises that the Labor Party will support the diplomatic process even from the opposition. Herzog joins the growing chorus of voices in the political system who believe that it will be very hard to reach a final-status agreement with the Palestinians in the near future, thus we should aim for an interim agreement. Some examples of politicians who share this vision, are former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (who is evidently coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) and Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz.

You met last week with Salam Fayyad, and came back very concerned …

“I was the first Israeli statesman to go to Ramallah after the elections. We had a very deep conversation. We had talked for a long time about meeting. We know each other a long time. During the election campaign, it was less convenient. I assume that he wanted to exchange views and make himself heard regarding one substantive issue, before any talk regarding a diplomatic process. That issue is: the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. He told me, clearly and unequivocally, that ‘If we continue to be dependent every single month on the decision of Israel’s prime minister to free up our tax funds — we will collapse. Because we have responsibility over the territory and over people and it’s impossible to build it from hand to mouth, they suffer from great budgetary suffocation and the systems are collapsing.”