Avi Dichter, former head of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, has been following Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for years. He did so initially as an intelligence officer and in recent years as a politician in the Kadima Party and subsequently in the Likud. Now, as US-mediated negotiations with the PLO are nearing their moment of truth, Dichter is observing events from the outside, having failed to make the Likud’s Knesset list in the party's last primaries.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Dichter deflected claims and intimations by the left wing that time is running out, and that Abbas is the last Palestinian leader who can sign an agreement with Israel. “That’s nonsense,” Dichter asserts. “Abu Mazen [Abbas] has created such an illusion — that after him there’s only a cliff — and in Israel, even the most senior figures have adopted this. Who decided this? It’s an illusion.” 

Dichter argues that an agreement cannot be signed as long as the relationship between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian president is shaky and lacking basic trust. In the interview, he sought to debunk several myths and concepts that have taken hold in Israel in recent years, suggesting that in weighing its options, Israel should discount the idea that time is not in its favor.

Al-Monitor:  You left Kadima and joined the Netanyahu government. In your view, does he even want to reach an agreement based on the two-state idea?