"In light of the fact that the PA does not fulfill its obligations," Yaalon said this morning, "Israel's point of departure is that any border that will be chosen, will be violated by violent activity - unless Israel manages to create significant deterrence."
Yaalon related to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and the reports that the Kadima Party favors additional such moves. He said that they are damaging to Israel's deterrence ability because "they are interpreted by the other side as weakness."
Regarding the Kassam rockets fired almost daily from Gaza towards the Negev and Ashkelon areas, the former Chief of Staff said, "Israel has not created reliable deterrence against this threat. Israel's unilateral withdrawals are interpreted as a running away from this threat... Gaza is turning, in front of our very eyes, into Qaedastan and Hamastan."
"The bottom line of this analysis," Yaalon concluded, "is that for the foreseeable future, the '67 borders are not defensible."
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who also addressed the Herzliya Conference today, said he will call on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to disarm Hamas and the other terrorist groups - even at the expense of "direct military confrontation." Carter said he will make this demand of Abu Mazen personally. Carter is in Israel for the purpose of serving as an official observer of the PA elections this Wednesday.
Among today's other speakers at the prestigious conference are:
Bentzi Lieberman, Chairman of both the Yesha Council and Samaria Regional Council
Prof. Uriel Reichman, President, IDC Herzliya
Amb. Dr. Daniel C. Kurtzer
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, Head of the Defensible Borders Project
Amb. Dr. Dore Gold, President, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
MK Dr. Ahmed Tibi, Knesset Economics Committee
Tzippy Livni, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
Yechiel Leket, World Chairman, Jewish National Fund
Efrat Duvdevani, Director, Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galilee
Dr. Faisal Azaiza, Head, Jewish-Arab Center, Haifa University
MK Amir Peretz, Chairman of the Labor Party
MKs Gideon Saar, Yossi Sarid, Michael Eitan, Yuli Tamir
Dan Margalit, Ma’ariv
State Comptroller Justice Micha Lindenstrauss
Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi
Amb. John R. Bolton, U.S. Representative to the UN (via video conference)
Former Prime Minister of France Laurent Fabius,
Shelly Yechimovitch
Speakers on Tuesday, the final day of the conference, include:
Ehud Olmert, Acting Prime Minister (7:30 PM)
Prof. Stanley Fischer, Governor, Bank of Israel
Prof. Alan Dershowitz
Dr. Eilat Mazar, Institute of Archeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ari Shavit, Ha’aretz
Prof. Moshe Kaveh, President, Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Uzi Arad
Prof. A. B. Yehoshua, Author
Prof. Yehuda Bauer, Yad Vashem
Ze'ev Bielski, Chairman of The Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization
Amb. Dr. Dennis Ross, Chairman, Jewish People Policy Planning Institute