Press Conference with the participation of:
Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union Javier Solana
External Relations Commissioner of the European Commission Benita Ferrero-Waldner
Jerusalem, January 5, 2009
MFA SPOKESPERSON YIGAL PALMOR: Welcome to the Foreign Ministry. We will start with a statement by the Czech Foreign Minister, Mr. Schwarzenberg. Then Ms. Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, will make a statement. Then there will be two questions: one for the foreign press, one for the Israeli press. Thank you.
CZECH FM SCHWARZENBERG: Well, first of all, I would like to say that I'm very happy to be here in Jerusalem and in Eretz Israel twice in one month. Suddenly I‘ve achieved that in my life. Lamentably, I can only stay a very short time. But, of course, and I have to stress this, last time I came here only as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. This time I am leading a European Union delegation, and I'm more or less a spokesman for the 27 European states, which is, of course, a totally different role. And in this role, of course, I came here today to speak with my colleague, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
We had a very open and frank conversation, which was necessary. We presented the Israeli prime minister with the European Union’s view that a ceasefire should be established as soon as possible. Of course, the rocket attacks on Israel have to stop first, but we have to work for a ceasefire as soon as possible. Maybe we have a slightly different view of things, which we discussed during our lunch.
Of course, during the conversation, not only I was speaking, but my colleagues Javier Solana, Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner, Carl Bildt, and French Foreign Minister. Bernard Kouchner, were speaking too. So we really had a broad spectrum of European views brought to the attention of the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs.
[Continued speaking In Czech.]
Thank you so much.
FM LIVNI: Thank you. I would like to welcome to Israel the EU representatives under the new presidency of the Czech Republic. And, of course, this follows my visit to Paris. In the end, I think that was the last day of the French presidency. And now we all meet together here in a very complicated situation, but I would like to express clearly how Israel sees the situation.
I believe that we are all part of the same coalition against terror. What we face in the Gaza Strip is terror. Hamas, which is a designated terrorist organization, and didn't meet the requirements of the international community, including Europe, to accept Israel’s right to exist and to renounce violence and terrorism, is the same Hamas that has been targeting Israel for eight years now. This is the same Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip, a place that Israel left in order to give hope for peace. And now we need to act against terror, against Hamas, because this is part of our responsibility as a government, to give a peaceful life to our citizens.
I know that we all share the same understanding of what Hamas means. Israel is part of the international community, and all of us need to understand that the clear demand coming from the international community is to stop terror and violence. This is one thing.
Now, Israel acted in the manner we needed to in order to stop the terrorist activities against Israelis. There is an ongoing military operation these days. The idea was to change the equation that Hamas was keeping before the military operation. Before the military operation, the equation was that Hamas targets Israelis whenever it likes and Israel shows restraint. This stopped the day we initiated the military operation. This will no longer be the equation in this region. When Israel is targeted, Israel is going to retaliate. Israel is going to respond because this is an ongoing, long battle and war against terror.
We have nothing against the Palestinians. Moreover, in the Annapolis process, we decided to adopt a dual strategy, to launch a peace process with the Palestinians’ pragmatic leaders in order to create a vision of peace, to translate the vision of a two-state solution for the benefit of both our peoples: Israelis and Palestinians.
Now, as long as Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, as long as it doesn't accept the international community’s requirements, and part of that is the vision of two states, it is an obstacle not only to Israel but to the entire international community and to the Palestinians as well.
So we changed the equation. Now we have some military objectives within the Gaza Strip, and this is, as I said before, a long battle against terror. I can understand the international community’s eagerness to see the region calm. This is our dream as well. This is what we are looking for. Unfortunately, there are those who cannot accept the idea of living in peace in this region.
We see that the region is being divided between moderates and extremists; it’s as clear and simple as that. Everybody in this region needed to choose a camp, to choose where he belongs. Hamas has made its choice, by definition. It works with Iran, gets weapons from Iran, its headquarters are in Damascus, and it works closely with Hizbullah. The entire region, the moderate leadership in this region, understands that.
So what Israel is doing is not only expressing its right to defend itself, and this is the legitimate right of self-defense; but also represents the battle in this region and the fight against extremism and terror.
These are, of course, the objectives. This is the goal of what we are doing. We are now in difficult days in which there are still ongoing military operations. We have emphasized and reiterated that Israel is taking all the necessary steps to ease the humanitarian situation. We were asked about it, and I told my colleagues here that we are going to cooperate. For the first time, I think, there is also cooperation between the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry - good news inside Israel - in order to ease the bureaucracy for all the international humanitarian organizations. We are working together. We are working together with the EU. And this is unconditional. This is something that we are doing because of our values, because we are not trying to punish the population. And we are doing so even during a very difficult military operation in the Gaza Strip, and we'll do so in coordination [with the EU] because I understand their concerns when it comes to the humanitarian needs of the population.
As well as carrying out this military operation, we are trying to take all the necessary steps in order to avoid civilian casualties. But, unfortunately, since [Hamas operatives] hide among civilians, sometimes [civilian casualties] can happen. Of course, this can happen in any war, but Israel tries to avoid any kind of civilian casualties. Thank you.
Also a few words - my Czech is a little bit raspy, so I'll say a few words in Hebrew, if I may.
[Translated from Hebrew]
I met today with the European Union delegation. I explained our position, which in my view is also the international position, that this is a war against terror. Some of the world’s nations are today fighting terror in different places, whether against Al-Qaeda or other terrorist organizations; countries are sending forces to fight terror. We are not asking the world to send forces and fight alongside us in this war; we are only asking them to let us do this, until reaching the point we decide that we have obtained our goals for this stage. The war on terror is long; it does not end in one day. That’s how I see it. So the end will not be some kind of legitimization of any kind for Hamas. We need to maintain the delegitimization of Hamas that started since it rose to power, with the support of the international community, and has been in place for three years.
Hamas needs to understand that the equation has changed, that Israel will not accept any kind of firing at it, that when necessary we know how to act with force, and that’s what we’ll do if they decide in the future to fire at Israel.
In this context, I made it clear to my colleagues that we all need to be partners: Israel, the international community, and the moderate Arab states – who today know better than ever that Hamas has chosen which side it is on: it’s working with Iran, the long-range rockets arrived in an orderly manner in Gaza from Iran during recent months, and its headquarters are in Syria. In a war on terror, only if all of us, this whole coalition, stand together, then we can put an end to this, together.
Israel is now working according to the goals we set for ourselves and we will have to ascertain two things at the end of the process: one is that we change the equation, and I think we have already achieved this. We have achieved additional military objectives that we set for ourselves in this operation, and at the end of the day weapons are not still being smuggled into the Gaza Strip in a way that exposes more and more Israeli civilians to the intolerable process of a terrorist organization arming itself through the crossings.
In parallel, Israel, of course, as part of the strategy, is advancing the process we all believe in, which serves both Israeli and Palestinian interests – the Palestinians, not Hamas, and that is, of course, the process of trying to express the idea of two states in a peace agreement. Our ability to advance the one process also compels us to fight terror on the other side. One doesn’t come at the expense of the other; it works together.
CZECH RADIO REPORTER: I have a question for Minister Schwarzenberg. I would like to know, did you discuss any specific ceasefire proposal with Minister Livni? And, if so, can you specify some points of this proposal? And do you expect Israel to also fulfill the obligation to open the crossings to Gaza, as Palestinians have demanded for a very long time? Thank you.
FM SCHWARZENBERG: We didn't have a specific plan for the ceasefire because the ceasefire as such must be concluded by the involved parties. We can help work towards it. We can mediate. We can assist with a solution. But it's not up to us to propose the conditions of the ceasefire. I would say that it's not the moment to do so.
Of course, we discussed the crossings at length and the necessity to open them, and all along we stressed that it will not be possible for Gaza to have practically all the crossings closed; this is an unbearable status for the future and in this whole discussion we have to consider the status of the population of Gaza before and after the ceasefire.
FM LIVNI: About the crossings, let me just add that the crossings are open for humanitarian needs. Israel is not closing the crossings when it comes to the Palestinians’ humanitarian needs. But it's important to understand that, in 2005, we signed an agreement with the legitimate PA and with the EU, an agreement that relates to the Rafah Crossing, but this was an agreement between Israel and the legitimate Palestinian government. It's not something that anybody wants to implement with Hamas, which is not legitimate, does not accept Israel’s right to exist, and just wants to gain legitimacy through the opening of the crossings.
HA'ARETZ REPORTER: First, to the representatives of the EU, after your discussions here today, were you able to understand the political objective of the Israeli operation in Gaza? And do you agree with the Israeli demand that the military operation continue until Israel gets the guarantee it wants from the international community?
And the second question, to Minister Livni: There were a couple of ideas from the international community about a final settlement for this crisis. I wanted to ask you, what do you think about the suggestion for a possible international force of observers in the Gaza Strip?
FM SCHWARZENBERG: Well, I would like to say, as I stated in the beginning, that the European Union insists on a ceasefire at the earliest possible moment. I do not share the view that a ceasefire is only possible if all possible aims of the Israeli action are achieved. There, as I stated at the beginning, we have a difference of opinion. We do think that a ceasefire should be as early as possible and that a ceasefire would even ease the process to achieve those aims. That has to be clearly said.
FM LIVNI: Since we’re talking about final settlements in this conflict, I would like to make it clear that there is a conflict between Israel and the Palestinians which is going to be settled according to the vision of two states for two peoples, according to the Anapolis process. I wanted to make this distinction because unfortunately there's a kind of a mix between all of this. This is a fight against terrorism, and it is not going to be settled in an agreement with terror. We are fighting terror; we are not reaching an agreement with terror. I believe the international community understands this and they should say so.
As for observers, as you said, this is not an international force. You are talking about observers. So I just complimented UNIFIL for the last days in Lebanon. But now there's a need to fight terror, and if you are talking about observers within the Gaza Strip or not something that refers only to smuggling of weapons, I don't see any reason for it, and I don't see how this can help.
[Translated from Hebrew]
It’s important to make the distinction, since you asked how the conflict will end. There’s some confusion here. On the one hand, there is the conflict between us and the Palestinians, about which we are conducting negotiations with the pragmatic elements who believe in two states, which is where we want to go. On the other hand, we have the necessary war on terror. And a necessary war on terror does not end with an agreement. I don’t make agreements with terror. We fight terror, and that’s the whole idea. The moment we come to an agreement with terror, we lose our ability to reach an arrangement with the pragmatic elements. They don’t go together. When one gains, the other loses. I want the ones that gain to be the ones that I can reach a settlement with. The second I reach a settlement with terror, that’s when we can no longer pursue a true peace process, but only reconcile ourselves with terror.
The eight years in which Israel was attacked must not be made into some kind of gain for Hamas. They have to know that Israel will not accept the way of terror and let it gain politically. Only those who conduct dialogue with Israel will get what they consider political gain. I don’t see how observers in the Gaza Strip in the current situation could fight terror, and I don’t need anyone else to record fire in order to know that someone is attacking me. When a rocket lands, it lands here, and then we need to react.
The crossings are currently in line with the 2005 arrangement between us and the legitimate Palestinian Authority, not between us and Hamas,