Pleasure to join @shofarbymenorah this Sunday for a conversation with former head of the Israeli Shin Bet and former Commander of the Israeli Navy, Ami Ayalon, about his new book ‘Friendly Fire’.

Ayalon: "During the first Intifada, I understood what Amos Oz and Prof Yeshayahu Leibowitz told us - that if we will continue occupying the land, it will destroy us as a people and a society, it will be the end of the Zionist dream"

Ayalon "If we shall go on creating settlements, believing that all the land is ours, it will bring us to the end of the Zionist dream of Israel as a Jewish democracy that is based on Israel's Deceleration of Independence"

Ayalon "My time at the Shin Bet changed the way I see Palestinian society and Israeli society and I came to believe that we have to change the way we see people around us, otherwise we will lose our identity"

Ayalon says: "In the Shin Bet I learned that our enemy, the Palestinians, are not targets, they are human beings."

Ayalon "At war, you don't need to accept the views of your enemy, but you have to understand their motives. To hate your enemy is a huge mistake not just morally but strategically too. Victory is not about revenge, it's about achieving a better life".

Ayalon: "When a person has nothing to lose they become unpredictable, irrational and very dangerous. We are very close to the point where Palestinians believe, as a people, that they have nothing to lose".

Ayalon says that despite all this he is optimistic, "we can shape our future, we can influence it. Israelis are very afraid, politicians tell Israelis that we are doomed, but we are a major power in the Middle East in any parameter."

Ayalon reminds us that all the Arab states that signed the Arab Peace Initiative accept that Israel is here to stay - "that is a victory," he says "but most Israelis still believe that we are fighting against an enemy that wants us in the sea, it's unbelievable for me."

Asked about the importance of the recent agreement with the UAE Ayalon says that "every peace agreement, especially with a Muslim state, is an achievement, but we were never at war with the UAE, no one was killed as a result of a war between us."

This agreement proves what the Israeli peace camp have been saying all along, says Ayalon, "if Israel will make concessions on the Palestinian issue we can gain the support of the Arab street and of our neighbours."