Netanel Semrik interviews Major General Danny Yatom about his new book - The Labyrinth of Power
NETANEL SEMRIK: Major General Danny Yatom, the former director of the
Mossad. First of all, thank you for joining us.
MAJOR GENERAL DANNY YATOM: Thank you very much for inviting me.
NETANEL SEMRIK: A few minutes after the launch of the new international
book, the English version, if you could share with us your emotions, your
thoughts?
DANNY YATOM: I'm very excited. It was a long dream to publish the book in
English and some other foreign languages. It was published in Hebrew and now,
I think, it is going to be an international book rather than an Israeli book, although
it is written, of course, by me, an Israeli. The main reason for me to write the
book and to publish it in some other languages than Hebrew --
NETANEL SEMRIK: English, Chinese.
DANNY YATOM: English, Chinese, etc. I hope that many others. The main
reason and the main goal is to let people know and understand what was
happening and what was going behind closed doors and closed windows in the
very long journey that we have done, but did not complete yet. For peace in the
Middle East.
NETANEL SEMRIK: When you are talking about closed doors, you are
emphasizing, for instance, the Israeli Mossad, the Prime Minister's office, the
offices in which the peacemaking and the war-making, the decisions were done?
DANNY YATOM: That's true. Those offices and rooms that usually the public
does not have any access to, like my office, when I directed the Mossad, the
office of the Prime Minister, but also the rooms where we negotiated with the
Jordanians, the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Lebanese in order to try and
bring a much better situation and life to the Middle East.
NETANEL SEMRIK: And you are talking about the vision of better life. If you
would pick one story, one picture, one president, one prime minister, that you
would like that the international reader, in English or in Chinese or in Russian,
will take to his heart, what picture, what venue will you take him?
DANNY YATOM: There are many, many memories and I have many, many
pictures - not only in the book but also in my imagination. But I think that the
Prime Minister that contributed more than others to the State of Israel and also to
the peace process during those days was the late Yitzchak Rabin to whom I
served as his Military Advisor, twice. He was fully committed to serve the
interests of the State of Israel, amongst many, and one of the first ones was his
relentless efforts to try and to achieve peace with our neighbors, because being a
soldier as he was, since he was 16, he knew very well that war will not solve the
Israeli-Palestinian or the Israeli-Arab conflict.
We were engaged in too many wars with our neighbors, and Rabin said that
there should be another way than a war, and he embarked on the path of peace
and he was ready to negotiate as long as it was needed and to make all efforts
needed and to make concessions as well so that the life of next generations and
the generation of our kids, but also our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will
live in a peaceful Middle East and not in a Middle East torn to pieces, instead of a
Middle East that lives in peace.
NETANEL SEMRIK: Danny Yatom, I want to thank you so much for this first
step of the publishing process, and on behalf of all the team here in Contento, I
want to thank you for joining now Contento TV and thank you very much.
Starting the next phase of marketing, of promotion of the book in a variety of
languages. Thank you.
DANNY YATOM: And of course I would like to thank you, Netanel, and your
wonderful team, for being so professional and doing whatever is needed and
pushing wherever it was needed in order to publish this version in English.
Thank you very much.
NETANEL SEMRIK: Thank you. Thank you General Danny Yatom, thank you.
DANNY YATOM: Thank you.
