The following are excerpts from an interview with MK Yossi Beilin on Army Radio's morning show, "Ma Boer."

Razi Barkai: Good morning MK Yossi Beilin.

Yossi Beilin: Good Morning.

Razi Barkai:  [In the poll] there are several important contradictions in the respondents' answers, but I had to generalize, I would say that the Israeli public is very dovish and very hawkish.

Yossi Beilin: That has always been true. Always. I think this poll actually shows that people are "dying" to make peace but don’t really believe that that's realistic and are therefore ready to even speak with Hamas. If you ask me, I'm not happy with this response regarding Hamas at all. I'm not happy because Hamas isn’t ready to talk to us. The fact that 43% are willing to talk to Hamas doesn’t mean there's even a single percentage among Hamas willing to talk to us.

Razi Barkai: Were there an Israeli leader with both broad political support in the Knesset and courage who presented arrangements, say, identical to the Clinton document, would it be supported by the majority here?

Yossi Beilin: Of course. I don't have a shred of doubt.

Razi Barkai: Ehud Barak tried and that was the case, more or less. I know you have your reservations regarding that Camp David, but he more or less went in that direction, and he lost his government.

Yossi Beilin: He went there with 30 MKs in his coalition—don't forget that fact. He didn’t lose his government as a result of Camp David—he went there with no government.

Razi Barkai: Yeah, but when he went there a large part of his government left. It started with David Levy and avalanched from there.

Yossi Beilin: He went with a government, with Yitzhak Levy and the National Religious Party and with Sharansky and with the biggest extremists in Israeli society—meaning, it was clear from the get go, and he said it too, that once he ventured to the political "moment of truth," he'd be left without a government, and then he would go to the people and ask for the support of the majority, and get it.

…

Yossi Beilin: Listen, there are 70 MKs in the Knesset today, maybe 65, who are willing to reach a peace agreement with Syria over relinquishing the Golan Heights and with the Palestinians over dividing Jerusalem and the '67 borders, with adjustments.

Razi Barkai: And why are these people not willing to have you achieve this accomplishment for them? Why do they want Bibi [Netanyahu] to achieve it for them?

Yossi Beilin: I don't think they think Bibi can achieve it for them, but what I am saying is that be it the current coalition or not, in the current Knesset, it is possible to assemble a coalition that would go for it. The question is whether the person heading the government, or the person who will head the government next month, has the courage to assemble the coalition that would go for it. He can look at the results of the poll and understand. Whoever achieves peace agreements with the Syrians and the Palestinians will win a majority among the Israeli public. Whatever and how this agreement will be—we know how it'll be. It'll be more or less the Clinton parameters or the Geneva Accord. We simply reached a detailed agreement, so people can clearly understand the map, understand that the division of Jerusalem is actually the division of East Jerusalem. It can be done.

Razi Barkai: I may be able to accept what you're saying regarding the Syrian track, though not entirely, but on the Palestinian track there's another aspect that is not addressed in the Geneva Accord, and that is the aspect of the division of the land between two powers combating one another.

Yes, and that's why, I'm sorry to say, the agreement that would be reached today would not be implemented tomorrow. We have to reach what is termed a "shelf agreement." I don't love this name, but what they'll need to do is reach an agreement, and its implementation would be conditioned on the other side's ability to implement it. There would have to be two agreements—one agreement would be an agreement of principles, a detailed agreement, and the other would be an agreement on implementation. Here, in my opinion, without an international body, a multinational body that would help the Palestinian side and assist it in regaining control over security, it would not be possible to implement this agreement. You are completely right. There's a very significant change here that came as a result of the fact that the Israeli mega-hawk was willing to hand over Gaza to the Palestinians or to Hamas.