Roey Gilad, who became Israel’s consul general for the Midwest United States this past summer, apparently has a flair for vivid figures of speech.
In an Israel briefing on Dec. 17 at the Helfaer Community Services Building, held during his first visit to Milwaukee, Gilad described the “Arab Spring” — the recent popular actions in several Arab countries that overthrew some dictators — as “a very wet winter” for Israel.
He later compared the process of making peace to riding a bicycle — unless you keep moving, the bicycle falls down — and said that trying to make peace with the Palestinians was like trying to ride a bicycle uphill.
He also later compared peace negotiations with the Palestinians to trying to build a bridge across a river that keeps changing its bed and whose banks are not firm.
But Gilad used these playful comparisons to convey a serious message about the situations shaping the mood of the Israeli public as they go into elections, scheduled for Jan. 22.
“There is a growing feeling of insecurity” among Israelis, and that makes “the general mood” turn to the political right, he said.
Gilad spoke to some 40 people attending an open meeting of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Jewish Community Relations Council and Israel and Overseas Committee.
As far as Israel is concerned, the chief effect of the Arab Spring is that it has made the Middle East political situation “even less stable,” and some Israelis are wishing that “it had the small stability it had before.”
For one, the unrest has brought Muslim fundamentalist political movements, all of which hate Israel and seek to destroy it, into at least positions of influence, if not to power.
For example, Hamas, the terrorist organization that now rules the Gaza Strip and has been firing missiles into Israel, is “the Palestinian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood” organization that is currently fighting for power in Egypt.
Hamas was “once isolated,” said Gilad, but today its members and leaders “are the darlings of the Arab world” and also of such non-Arab Muslim countries as Iran — which provides Hamas with missiles — and Turkey.
Gilad said “many in Israel are skeptical” that the cease fire Israel established with Hamas this past November will last much longer than it takes for Hamas to obtain a new supply of missiles from Libya and Iran.
However, these missiles have to go into the Gaza Strip through Egypt — and Egypt not only has its own domestic political problems now, but it is “facing a huge ‘fiscal cliff’” more potentially devastating than the one the U.S. government is facing.
Egypt’s economy would founder without the some $1.5 billion in U.S. aid it receives, Gilad said. Therefore, even Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood leaders “don’t need a headache in Gaza” and may do more to prevent missiles or other weapons from entering, he said.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), have sought and received United Nations General Assembly recognition as a “non-member observer state.”
However, this brings the Palestinians “not one inch closer to their own state,” Gilad said. “There are no shortcuts … Nothing can replace direct negotiations” with Israel.
Iran and its nuclear energy program remain Israel’s most serious problem. “Terrorism cannot bring Israel down,” but an Iranian nuclear bomb could, Gilad said. “That is the real challenge we are facing” and the most serious “since 1967 [the Six Day War], possibly since 1948 [Israel’s founding and War of Independence].”
However, “I’m one of those who believe that at the end of the day,” the leaders of the Iranian Shi’ite Muslim religious dictatorship “are logical players,” he said.
They are likely seeking nuclear weapons less for aggression than as “an insurance policy.” They know they have made enemies, and they think a nuclear weapon might make them more secure, Gilad said.
However, Gilad said the Iranian leaders may realize that they may take “one step too far” toward a nuclear weapon and then end up overthrown either by domestic revolution or outside intervention.
“I think they are not willing to commit political suicide,” said Gilad. “I believe with the right sanctions, accompanied by a reliable military option,” the Iranian leaders will end their nuclear weapons project.
In a conversation with The Chronicle after his presentation, Gilad, 51, said he came to diplomacy from his interest in Arab language and culture.
A native of Givatayim, an Israeli city east of Tel Aviv, he enjoyed hiking through Israel and in the Sinai Peninsula when he was young, and he encountered Palestinian Arabs, Bedouin, and Druse.
“I felt very attracted to these communities and this language, Arabic, and this religion,” he said. “I decided I would like to study it in a more profound way.”
He ultimately earned bachelor and master’s degrees in Middle Eastern studies, and he is a fluent speaker of Arabic as well as English.
He also decided that diplomacy would combine this interest with his liking for, and skill at, working with people.
“I think I am good at establishing dialogue with people,” he said. “Diplomacy is all about people-to-people dialogue.” Ultimately, he said, he would like to become Israel’s ambassador to an Arab country.
As consul general to the Midwest, he is based in Israel’s consulate in Chicago and is in charge of a staff of 20. From there, he will work on making “the Israeli national agenda more understood” and “promoting the interest of the state of Israel” in 11 states.
He will also be working on Israel’s commercial interests, “bringing more Israeli exports to America and American investment to Israel.”
He will also be seeking to “reach out to communities that in the past were not very much open to Israel, like the African American community, the Latino community, the Catholic community” and others.
He added that he also wants to “reach more elements in the Jewish community who are less open and less interested in the state of Israel, mainly the young people in different communities.”
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