(Communicated by the President's Spokesperson)
President Shimon Peres held a working political meeting this morning with the Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, Karl Schwarzenberg, the Foreign Minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt, and the European Union Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferraro-Waldner.
President Peres opened the meeting with remarks on European-Israeli relations, particularly pertaining to the current fighting in the Gaza Strip. He said that Israel is not in the business of public relations or improving its image, but of fighting a comprehensive war against murderous terror, which is of Iran's making. "Europe needs to open its eyes with respect to the fighting in Gaza. None of the European countries would tolerate rocket fire on their citizens, and they must understand that Hamas is a terror organization of the worst order that uses its population of women and children as human shields."
Israel is guarding and defending its children, President Peres said, while Hamas is hiding rockets and explosives in children's rooms, hospitals, and universities. Unfortunately the cost of Hamas's horrendous conduct is injury to innocent children. President Peres told the members of the delegation that Hamas intends to destroy Israeli towns by smuggling tons of explosive materials underground through tunnels; Hamas has also bombed the crossings between Gaza and Israel, thereby preventing a portion of the humanitarian aid shipments from getting to the Palestinian population.
Commissioner Benita Ferraro-Waldner told President Peres that every nation has the right to defend itself, but that Israel's actions in Gaza were disproportionate. "We have met with the heads of international humanitarian organizations and delegations, and we were told that there is a serious problem in Gaza of distributing the delegations' shipments. We have come to Israel in order to advance the initiative for a humanitarian ceasefire and I will tell you, Mr. President, that you have a serious problem with international advocacy, and that Israel's image is being destroyed."
President Peres reminded his guests that Hamas is the one that has been firing missiles on the passageways and which broke the ceasefire, and that there is no choice but to cut off the contacts between Gaza and Iran in order to enable stability and peace to come to the region.