Israel Prize winner Yehoram Gaon, 77, will publish in coming days an autobiography entitled, "I am still walking."
Gaon is an Israeli singer, actor, director, producer, TV and radio host, and public figure. He was chosen to light one of the torches during the Memorial Day ceremony commemorating fallen IDF soldiers and the victims of terror attacks.
A few pages before the end of the book, Gaon begins to talk about political issues, including his experience as a member of Jerusalem's council, his meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his presence during the signing of the Jordan-Israel peace treaty, and more.
In an interview with Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Gaon said there will "definitely" be no peace with Palestinian Arabs in the coming years.
"It definitely will not happen in the next few years," Gaon said. "I'm looking at our entire history, and I can recognize the huge mistake we make when we put our trust in land."
"People mistakenly think that if we give back Judea and Samaria, Israel will have peace. I think about what happened here before 1967, before the 1948 War of Independence. I think about the siege on Jerusalem. All these things happened before there was an 'occupation' - and people were still murdered.
"I'm looking at what's happening around us. The Muslim world is on fire, and they're trying to blame everything that's happening on the conflict between us and the Palestinians. You start to understand things [when you look at the broader picture]. You understand that we are a tiny dot on the map, with the entire Muslim world burning up around us.
"Even if we give back Judea and Samaria, and Highway 6 becomes Israel's new border, the conflict won't end.
"If it was just politics, the territory would solve its own problems."
"So what do we do now, just accept the status quo?" the interviewer asked.
"Patience is the name of the game," Gaon replied. "We've waited two thousand years. What's another hundred? Nothing. It'll pass in the blink of an eye. We're here, we represent 4,000 years of history. That's a huge privilege."
"I'm calm because I trust our strength and our wisdom. I hear what all sorts of people are saying - it's almost over, it's the end, we're falling apart. Nonsense. We are not falling apart at all. We get stronger each year."
"Don't you see disturbing trends - racism, extremism, violence - in Israeli society?" the interviewer interjected.
"I'm a Jew, and I'm an Israeli. I believe in the Land of Israel and in Israel's eternity. I believe that this time, we came here to stay. You can call me a rightist, you can call me a leftist, you can call me a centrist. Trends are for professors," Gaon concluded.