Former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Moshe Yaalon told a Thursday conference by the Katif Center and the Institute for National Security Studies on the question of Jewish settlement in Gaza and its unilateral removal by the government in 2005, "When leadership becomes a survivalist policy, people get applauded for a while but do not think about strategy."
Currently a senior research associate at the INSS, Ya'alon added as an example the proposal promoted by Minister Yisrael Katz to build a seaport for Gaza, "We have given up on a security envelope in Philadelphi [along the Gaza-Sinai border -ed] and now offer a port and I ask ... How much nonsense are you saying? When they tell me there will be an Israeli security check ... I say it will happen when hair grows on the palm of my hand."
Yaalon left politics after his portfolio was given to Avigdor Liberman for joining the government and he recently announced departure from the Likuk to form a party to compete in the next elections. He said the Disengagement of 2005 created a very big hole in what Likud forerunner Ze'ev Jabotinsky called "Israel's iron wall".