Leadership Quote by Silvan Shalom

“Never, never” is doing more work here than any policy detail. Shalom isn’t merely predicting Palestinian noncompliance; he’s foreclosing the very category of compliance. The repetition is a rhetorical lock: it turns a contingent political dispute into a permanent condition, an identity. That move matters because it shifts debate away from measurable benchmarks (arrests, weapons seizures, funding cutoffs) and toward an existential claim about character and inevitability. If the other side can’t change, then negotiation becomes theater and hardline measures become not just defensible but necessary.

The phrase “infrastructure of terrorist organizations” is equally strategic. “Infrastructure” suggests something embedded and systemic, not a handful of militants. It blurs boundaries between armed groups and the broader social or governing fabric, making dismantlement sound both required and practically impossible. That tension is useful: it sets an unattainable standard while insisting it’s the only acceptable one.

Contextually, this kind of language fits the post-Oslo, Second Intifada-era argument about “performance-based” peace: Palestinians must first prove they can police violence before Israel can be expected to take significant risks. Shalom’s line functions as preemption against international pressure and domestic criticism alike. If you convince audiences that the Palestinians will “never” fulfill security commitments, then any Israeli concession can be framed as naive, and any stalemate can be blamed on the same immutable failure. The subtext is less about what Palestinians will do than about what Israel should refuse to do.