Vlaamse Vrienden van Israël

Persconferentie door de Israëlische Vice-minister voor Buitenlandse Zaken Danny Ayalon, afgelopen woensdag 8 juli 2009, omtrent de stand van zaken in de vredesonderhandelingen met de Palestijnse Autoriteit van Mahmoud Abbas. Hierin legt hij onder meer uit hoe, drie maanden nadat de Israëlische regering de deur openzette voor de Palestijnen om onderhandelingen op te starten om te komen tot een duurzame vrede en de vorming van Palestijns zelfbestuur op de Westelijke Jordaanoever, er tot nog toe nog altijd geen antwoord is gekomen van de Palestijnse Autoriteit.

Om te onderhandelen moet je [minstens] met twee zijn. Wie denkt te weten hoe hij/zij de Palestijnen  ooit aan de onderhandelingstafel kan krijgen, àls ze al uberhaupt ooit zouden willen onderhandelen[!], mag het hier altijd poneren. We zouden het ook nog altijd voor de zoveelste keer aan Barack Obama kunnen vragen, misschien tovert die wel een wit konijn uit zijn hoed? Wie uiteraard het bestaansrecht en de soevereiniteit van Israël nog altijd weigert te erkennen, en de facto de vernietiging van de Joodse staat Israël voorstaat (de sympathisanten van de door Iran gesponsorde en bewapende terreurgroepen Hamas en Hezbollah bv.), hoeft zelfs helemaal niet te antwoorden. Voor de volledige persconferentie klik hier.

Danny Aylon: “First, let me say that since the new government of Israel started its tenure three months ago, we have been waiting for the response of the Palestinians to our call to sit with us directly, and without any preconditions. This call has been made publically, and has been forwarded to the Palestinians – And it was made in a very, very concrete way by both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.”

“Unfortunately, so far, we have not received any response from the Palestinians, and we would like them to move forward, irrespective of outstanding issues. We would like to sit with them in order to solve many of the issues. And again, irrespective of that, we are moving forward on the other two tracks that Israel believes are major pillars to establish peaceful coexistence and, hopefully, peaceful relations and a treaty with the Palestinians.”

Ramallah, 27 april 2009. Mahmoud Abbas: 'Ik weiger de Joodse staat te erkennen'

“Besides the political pillar, which of course is very important to us, there are two others: Capacity building, which is taking place – and of course, we support and applaud the good work of General Dayton, the Europeans, and anyone who can help build the Palestinians’ capacity to govern themselves in a responsible way, to do away with terror, and to create another entity. If we do want to create another entity here, an independent, sovereign one, the last thing we need is a terror state or a failed state. So this capacity building is continued with the help and facilitation of the Israeli government. And then, there is the third pillar, or the third area, which is the economic one.”

“This government also believes that, with all due respect to conferences, to press events and to high level dialogs, if people on the ground do not feel the change in their lives, whether it is economic, whether it is social, whether it is cultural, and security of course, on the Israeli part, then all these talks are not worth very much. So, in order, also, to have a bottom – up approach and to really change the situation on the ground, Israel has taken major steps to help spur Palestinian West Bank economy. And, despite, I emphasize, despite the risk involved to the Israelis, we are taking this risk in order to really have a major change on the ground.”