From Dani Dayan Interview

Following up on the trip of Dani Dayan to Washington, there are these excerpts from this interview:-

Dani Dayan, former head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, Israel’s top settler group, scoffed at Secretary of State John Kerry’s latest peace push during a sit-down on Wednesday with the Washington Free Beacon.  Dayan was in D.C. to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and other Washington insiders in an effort to galvanize support for Israel’s settler communities and warn that the administration’s renewed efforts to foster peace will likely end in violence.


...“I’m sure [President Barack] Obama knows Kerry has no chance to succeed,” Dayan said, explaining that the Obama of 2013 is very different from the Obama of 2008 when it comes to the peace process...“That’s a tremendous mistake to let Kerry try,” Dayan added. “Why? Because he has no chance to succeed. And his failure will damage Israel, the Palestinians, and will damage the United States of America.”

“It will damage Israel because the expectations he created will blow up and may bring violence,” he explained. “It will damage the Palestinians because they will be frustrated and do crazy things, and we pay a price for the crazy things they do like it always happens.”

“But mainly it will damage the U.S. because the U.S. will be perceived again as a failure,” he continued.

Dayan said he communicated this message to more than a dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers and aides during a series of meetings last week...Dayan said his newfound ability to sit down with top officials in D.C. is proof that the oft-criticized settler movement is gaining legitimacy.  “People used to neglect our existence. Now they are thirsty to hear us,” Dayan said. “The change is as dramatic as it can be.”

...The two-state solution is effectively dead, Dayan said.  “In the short and mid term we have to forget about finding a solution because the pursuit of a solution prevents us from doing beneficial things on the ground, like [fostering] human rights, more freedom and democracy, more prosperity, better dwelling conditions” for the Palestinians, he said.

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