Dan Schueftan

Dan Schueftan is (2002) a Senior Fellow at The Shalem Center and at the National Security Research Center at Haifa University. In an article called Separation Anxiety in the Jerusalem Post on 13 November 2000, Larry Derfner described him as 'Israel's "Mr. Separation"' and 'a classic "Labor hawk"' Larry Derfner, "Separation Anxiety", Jerusalem Post, 13 November 2000. Derfner writes:
 * HAIFA University Prof. Dan Schueftan can rightly be called Israel's "Mr. Separation." A classic "Labor hawk" and one of the founders of the Third Way party, he has been examining the idea of separation for decades, and discussing it with virtually every top political and military figure in the country. Since publishing Corach Ha'hafrada (the English title being, "Disengagement - Israel and the Palestinian Entity") late last year, his discussions and correspondences with leading politicians and military leaders have stepped up considerably. Schueftan agrees with Shahal that separation would not offer a foolproof solution for terror, but that a "wall," as he puts it, would "stop most terrorists from getting in. It would be hard to pass and easy to defend." The high concrete wall recently erected in Gilo to fend off bullets from Beit Jallah - with little effectiveness so far, it must be said - is an example of separation, he notes. Schueftan favors removing those 30,000-40,000 settlers in isolated West Bank settlements, and the 7,000 or so settlers in Gaza. He even favors relinquishing control over most of the Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. "There's no reason to absorb those people. And you can't have separation if you maintain Jerusalem as an open city, because then Palestinians who can't get to Tel Aviv through [the West Bank border city] Tulkarm will get there through Jerusalem," he says. While giving up Israeli rule over Jerusalem's Palestinians, Schueftan would not relinquish the Temple Mount because of its importance to Judaism, nor would he give up the Hebron settlement, for the same reason. BUT REGARDING the settlements to be given up, Schueftan emphasizes that they should not be uprooted now. "This would give the Palestinians a prize for their violence," he says. In the first stage of separation, the Palestinians should suffer and get no land or anything else that they value, Schueftan maintains. This is a time for sticks alone, no carrots. The two things that need to be done first, he says, is to stop Palestinians from working in Israel and putting up the wall, he says. In the year or two it takes to complete these tasks and teach the Palestinians a lesson, the isolated settlements can be defended by rings of soldiers, he continues. But this is what settlers are always complaining about - being forced to live under siege, in ghettos, in fortresses. How would he deal with settler opposition to the plan? "Everyone in this country lives in a fortress," he replies. "If the settlers don't like it, they don't have to like it." Acknowledging that even the most meticulously executed separation plan cannot stop every suicide bomber, Schueftan says: "The only way to really stop terror is to force the Palestinians to police themselves, and hold the leaders personally accountable for every terror attack that occurs. If a bus blows up, we have to make life hell for Arafat and his gang. Paralyze them, kidnap them, don't let them move, insult them, humiliate them. You have to teach them like you teach a dog - the only way is to rub their faces in it, and in the end they'll break. Whatever doesn't work with force, works with more force." ... As for Schueftan's idea of forcing the Palestinians to police their terrorists, he says: "There is no difference between Palestinian policemen and Palestinian terrorists - they're all the same." With that, he dismisses the third way - separation - and the second way - the Oslo Accords. . He is well-known for making racist remarks about Arabs .   Schueftan is a hawk on war with Iran.

Dan Schueftan was an officer in the Israeli air force control centre at the time of the attack on the USS Liberty and heard an Israeli pilot say that the ship was American.

From a Henry Jackson Society event profile:
 * Dr. Dan Schueftan has been consulting with and briefing Members of the US Senate, the House of Representatives and their staff, as well as top professionals and key political appointees in the executive branch since 1977. He has been briefing ministers, parliamentarians, political leaders, senior officers, defense and intelligence officials and government advisors in Europe since 1975. He regularly lectures at universities and research centers in the United States and Europe since the mid-1970s. Dr. Schueftan has published extensively on contemporary Middle Eastern history, with emphasis on Arab-Israeli relations, Inter-Arab politics and American policy in the Middle East. His books cover a wide variety of topics: A Jordanian Option - Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians (1986); Attrition: Egypt's Post War Political Strategy 1967-1970 (1989); Disengagement - Israel and the Palestinian Entity (1999). This last book, advocating disengagement, had a considerable effect on Israeli policy makers. Dr. Schueftan most recent book (2011) is Palestinians in Israel - the Arab Minority and the Jewish State.

Affiliations

 * National Security Research Center at Haifa University – deputy director
 * Shalem Center
 * Shiloh Institute at Tel Aviv University, former researcher
 * Truman Institute at the Hebrew University, former researcher
 * Yad Tabenkin, former researcher

External Resources

 * IsraCast: interview list various dates.