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Source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Editors-Note-Avi-Dichters-region-473604
Dichter: Israel Can't Take Risks in the Golan Heights or the Jordan Valley
(Jerusalem Post) Avi Dichter interviewed by Yaakov Katz - Former Israel Security Agency chief Avi Dichter, the current head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said this week that fighting "terrorism is like driving in a jeep in the sand. The worst thing to do is to stop since you will sink. You need to keep on driving. The same with fighting terrorism. You can't stop." The rest of the world has not yet internalized what a war on terrorism looks like, he said. Dichter emphasized that even if the major powers in the region set borders and change the current makeup of some of the nation-states around Israel, "we need to be sure that the solution they bring does not fall on us." What this means practically is that Israel can't gamble with its security by withdrawing, for example, from strategic places like the Jordan Valley or the Golan Heights. "The debate about the Jordan Valley is over," he said. "We need to understand that what happened over the last six years - an Arab earthquake that no one foresaw - means that we can't take risks that will undermine our ability to be prepared for surprises and scenarios looming on the horizon."