'More balance.' Shalom
Photo: Niv Calderon
Minister Shalom to EU: Press PA to return to negotiating table
Regional cooperation minister tells 20 European ambassadors to Israel 'you cannot accept 100 percent of the Palestinians' complaints and demands and not hear Israel's positions'; adds nothing standing in way of resuming peace process after PM accepted 'two-states for two peoples' paradigm
Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud) on Monday called on European ambassadors to pressure the Palestinians into returning to the negotiating table immediately and display "more balance" regarding the Palestinians' grievances toward Israel.
During his meeting with 20 European ambassadors, including the envoy from the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, the minister for regional cooperation said "you cannot accept 100 percent of the Palestinians' complaints and demands and not hear Israel's positions."
According to Shalom, there was nothing standing in the way of renewing the peace process after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the "two states for two people" paradigm in his recent policy speech at Bar-Ilan University. The PM, however, said a future Palestinian state would have to be demilitarized.
"I told (the ambassadors) that they have the ability to pressure the Palestinians into resuming political and economic negotiations," he said, "if (the Europeans) want to be involved in regional cooperation, they are welcome to do so, including involvement in joint Jewish and Arab projects in the Negev and Galilee regions."
Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser recently said that Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state was not a prerequisite for the resumption of the peace negotiations, but rather a condition for the implementation of any future agreements.
Shalom also discussed Israel's blockade on Gaza and told the European ambassadors that Israel was continuing to ease restrictions on the transfer of goods to the Hamas-ruled territory due to humanitarian concerns.
"Imagine that 5,000 rockets would have been fired on your countries and you would still have to provide food and other goods (to the aggressor)," the minister said. "We will not allow the transfer of iron and cement because these materials are later used against us in the form of fortification and producing weapons."
