I can't believe this is happening, but Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya'alon is making me pine for his predecessor, Ehud Barak. 

When I heard Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon of the Likud declare, “Israel is not interested in the two-state solution and will not discuss it,” I waited with bated breath for the reaction of his direct boss. Would the defense minister, the most senior member of the government, distance himself from his deputy’s remarks, which contradict the public, and allegedly the official, position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Can a politician angling for the job of prime minister afford to ignore such a resounding slap in the face to Netanyahu’s Bar-Ilan speech, which has become the spearhead of Israeli foreign policy? By the way, this Friday, June 14, marks the fourth anniversary of that so-called historic speech, which has since turned out to be no more than a brilliant public relations ploy.

On the other hand, I remembered that Ya'alon himself, prior to his appointment as defense minister several months ago, spoke out on this issue with even greater force. Ya'alon, then vice prime minister and minister for strategic affairs, said in an interview with the Israeli daily Maariv, “Forget those expressions. You don’t have a partner for this. [Palestinian Chairman] Abu Mazen rejected it. He will not put an end to Palestinian demands, even if we draw back to the 1967 borderlines. He will not give up the Right of Return. … There are quite a number of people among us who keep repeating the mistaken paradigm that we can achieve an end to the conflict along the 1967 borderlines.” To remove all doubt regarding his opinion on the prospects of establishing an independent Palestinian state, Ya'alon said in that same interview, “The Palestinians have two politically independent entities today.”

So how can one expect him now to denounce his deputy’s remarks? I asked myself.