Hamas rejects every core humanitarian principle. It directs its attacks against civilians deliberately at innocent people.

Transcription

1 Lecture by the Ambassador of Israel to Japan, H.E. Mr. Nissim Ben Shitrit How Can We Overcome the Palestinian Impasse? The Attack on Gaza and the Prospect of Peace Process January 22 nd, 2009 Sasakawa Peace Foundation (Moderator) Now we would like to start the lecture by the Ambassador of Israel to Japan. It is titled How can we overcome the Palestinian Impasse? the attack on Gaza and the Prospect of Peace Process. The lecture will be given by His Excellency Nissim Ben Shitrit. Thank you so much to all of you for coming amidst your busy schedule, and your cooperation for the tight security measures today. Now we would like to call upon Mr. Jiro Hanyu, Chairman of Sasakawa Peace Foundation to give his opening remarks. (Hanyu) Thank you so much for coming. My name is Jiro Hanyu, the Chairman of Sasakawa Peace Foundation. I d like to thank you for coming to this lecture by H.E. Ambassador Nissim Ben Shitrit. I d like to express my sincere gratitude to the Ambassador for accepting to give today s lecture, although it was a shortnoticed request. Also, I would like to thank the people at the Israeli Embassy for their support to realize this event. As our name, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation shows, peace is the very important element in our activities However, our activities have been mainly in Asia, and we have not had enough experiences in the Middle East. But we started to realize that we need to study more about this region, although a little late, and thought many in Japan feel in the same way. Therefore we decided to organize this series of lectures, today by the Ambassador of Israel, Mr. Nisshim Ben Shitrit, and tomorrow by the Representative of the Permanent General Mission of Palestine in Japan. I hope these lectures will be a starting point for us to learn more about the region. The conflict between Israeli and the Palestinian, how will this develop, and how will it be resolved? We don t have any answers yet, but through today s and tomorrow s lectures I hope we will find some hint for the future. After the Ambassador s lecture, this is really exceptional, we will take a lot of time for the Q and A session, because the Ambassador is very willing to answer your questions. However, please understand that we cannot allow any propaganda or comments that would be a threat or an insult to others. Lastly, today we have very tight security, which is partly a request from the police here, but we also would like to secure the safety of the audience and the lecturer, as the responsibility of the host. So we also felt that we needed tight security. I m sure this has caused you inconveniences but I hope you will understand. Now we would like to move on to Ambassador Nissm Ben-Shetrit s lecture. Thank you. (Moderator) We shall ask H.E. Ambassador to give his lecture entitled the Palestinian situation and the future of the peace negotiations, but before that I d like to briefly introduce his backgrounds. The Ambassador has learned the Jewish ethnology and bible studies at the Hebrew University, and he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1969 after he finished his service for the military. In Israel he has rich experiences with administrative works, and from he served Senior Deputy Director General and Head of Administrative Division. He 1

2 was assigned to Turkey and Washington D.C., and Japan is his third overseas posting. He was appointed to be the Ambassador of Israel to Japan in August Now, I d like to ask H.E. Mr. Ben Shitrit to give his lecture. (H.E. Mr. Nissim Ben Shitrit) Thank you very much. Minasama konnichiwa. This is the only Japanese word I can say today. I am sorry about the inconvenience because of me security measures. I didn t ask for it but this is up to the Institutions here. Allow me to start with a quote: We will conquer Rome and then all of Europe. When we are done with Europe, we will conquer both the Americas, and we will not give up Eastern Europe either. The speaker in need of such territory went on to say that all the Jews should be annihilated. If you are trying to remember when during the history of mankind such a comment was made and by whom, the answer is by a so-called legitimate representative of a democratic institute. It might sound like Hitler, talks like Hitler, but these words were spoken by Dr. Yunis al-astal, the Hamas member of the Palestinian Parliament. Hamas leaders do not try to hide their views regarding Jews extermination and their desire to world domination by radical Islam. As you know we have just finished 3 weeks of fighting against terror in the Gaza Strip. Israel decision to act against this terror was made after years in which Israel was under attack from the Gaza Strip. The aim of the Israeli operation is to target terrorism and to convey a clear message to Hamas that the equation has been changed. Namely, Israel will no longer accept a situation in which its citizens are under threat. Hamas knows that Israel is not going to accept any more of this ongoing terror. The other thing of course is to stop the firing of missiles at Israel this is something that Israel s civilians have suffered from for eight years. Eight years that the citizens of southern Israel have been traumatized by daily missile attacks from Gaza. For eight years more than 8,000 rockets and mortar shells have targeted Israeli towns. For eight years the residents over there had a bare 15 seconds to hurry and find a cover. Ladies and gentlemen, 15 seconds would not give the members of this meeting enough time to leave this room. Israel looked for any possible way to avoid military operation. In 2005, Israel removed from the Gaza strip every last one of its soldiers and of its 8,000 civilians. We did this with intention to create an opening for peace and for the Palestinians to build a prosperous society. But Hamas regime that brutally seized control over Gaza, murdering scores of their fellow Palestinians, has no interest in peace. Hamas made it clear that he will not accept any former agreement or declarations that can be constructive to the future of the region including the rejection of the Annapolis process. For Hamas the peace is the enemy. Despite that, we have put great efforts to avoid confrontation. We also agreed six months ago to an Egyptian brokered tahadia a situation of calm. Hamas violated this arrangement on a daily basis. Over 365 rockets and shells were fired during this period, while it used the so-called calm to build up supplies of weapons, among them rockets, mortar shells and missiles, smuggled through tunnels into the Gaza Strip with great help of the number one Hamas sponsor, Iran. With its new Iranian missiles, Hamas is now able to reach as far as the cities of Ashdod and Beer Sheva placing over one million Israelis in the shadow of its terror. In the face of such terrorism we had no choice but to defend ourselves not from the Palestinians people, but from the terrorists who have taken them hostage. This operation exercised not to gain territory or power, but to demonstrate that our restraint should not be mistaken as a weakness and to give back to our citizens their basic right for normal life. 2

3 Hamas rejects every core humanitarian principle. It directs its attacks against civilians deliberately at innocent people. Hamas adopted the terrorists tactic the coward s tactic of using civilians as a shield while its leaders flee from combat. It hides its missiles and terrorists bases in homes and hospitals and mosques, and deliberately launches attacks from in and around schools and UN facilities with tragic results. For Israel, every civilian death Israeli or Palestinian is a tragedy. In responding to terrorist attacks that show no respect for human life, Israel takes steps and every possible measure to limit civilian casualties. We have dropped thousands of leaflets and made thousands of phone calls to Palestinian civilians in order to avoid harm. Since the start of the operation, Israel facilitated the entry into Gaza for trucks delivering over 100,000 tons of humanitarian assistance. The international community should place responsibility for the humanitarian situation on the shoulders of the terrorists that have chosen violence over peace. The Hamas leaders who, from their bunkers and luxury hotels in Damascus, have abandoned the people of Gaza, and have chosen to endanger and exploit them rather than protect them. This conflict is a clash between two separate world views, between moderates and extremists, like Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. Between those who seek to preserve life and humanity on one side and those who glorify death and destruction on the other side. There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. There is no equivalence between a State which equips civilian homes with bomb shelters and a terrorist regime that fills them with explosives. There is no equivalence between a State using force in exercise of its right of self defense and a terrorist organization for which the very resort to violence is unlawful. The situation now is not about a cease fire with terrorism, it is about ensuring the end of terrorism from Gaza, and the end of smuggling weapons into Gaza, so that there is no longer a need for Israeli defensive operations. This conflict will end when the International community stands determined and united against terrorism and against extremist countries that support and sponsor terror. I would like to remind you that terror and extremists are not only to be found in the Middle East as well as Japan has its own challenges to face with this regard. We are all partners that share mutual understanding to the importance of this matter. We should have a strong stand and a clear message that terror and extremism are unbearable and unacceptable. Anything less than this will only embolden Hamas. Anything less will reward Iran, North Korea, Syria, the Hezbollah and the Taliban. Anything less will be a major setback for hopes for peace and prosperity for the Palestinians themselves. It is not enough to support peace; we have to confront those who work to destroy it. Now there is no choice but for the international community, including Japan, to take side itself. And they did. Ladies and gentlemen, the worldwide protests against Israel s incursion are so full of hatred that they leave me with a terrible feeling that these protests have little to do with so-called disproportionality of the Israeli response to Hamas rockets. My fear is that the rage we see is far more profound and dangerous than we would like to believe. Many people in the world just cannot bear the Jewish State having the same rights they so readily grant to other nations. Many accusations have been made upon Israel during the last 3 weeks and during our short modern history. But I believe that one must ask himself do the standards in which Israel is being judged upon apply only to Israel and the Middle East conflict or to all conflict areas around the world? I would like to remind you that while we are speaking, other conflicts are taking place around the globe the 3

4 fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the long lasting disputes in Africa, the situation in Iraq and some clashes in Sri Lanka. And still the spotlights have been focusing only on the operation in Gaza. Countries are fighting the war against terrorism miles away from their homelands because they understand the great importance of this fight for the future stability and security of the world. Israel is fighting terrorism in its backyard. When we are talking about the fight against terrorism we must also not forget the Arab countries that deal with terror that threat their own stability. Why is Lebanon allowed to use brutal measures to uproot the radical Islam growth and why isn t Israel allowed doing the same even though it faces greater threats? In the struggle between Israel and Hamas, there can be no victory without legitimacy. Israel needs support. And Israel can win support only with the truth. Israel is trying to get its message through to the world. That Hamas calling for the extermination of Jews, that Hamas with Iran wants to take over the world, that proportional response has not adhered to in past conflicts or on present ones, and that Hamas is just like any other terror organization. If Hamas wins this propaganda, the entire free world will be the loser. We all cannot afford to lose. The truth must prevail. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your patience and I m ready to take your questions and we can start. (Moderator) Thank you so much Your Excellency. We would like to open the floor and invite questions from the audience. We would like to take 2 or 3 questions at a time, if that is all right with you, Your Excellency. Anybody who wishes to ask a question? (Question) My question is about the background or timing of this defense, as you might call it, or attack by Israel on the Hamas. I tried to understand why now? I thought that in a way, Israel shares the fate with the U.S., for example the economic assistance of the US means a lot for Israel, and since the US s financial crisis is such a serious state now, Israel might have been very much pressured. But this doesn t explain enough. Also, Putin hasn t reacted to the attack this time, nor did the US. Because of the sharp drop of oil price it is said that GNP of Russia has declined by 40%. So maybe Russia is welcoming what you did, expecting your military operation would raise the oil price. Also, as to the US, they cannot take any action due to the change of US presidency. The US also might be able to expect the elevation of US dollar by this military risk. This is my analysis. Perhaps you could enlighten me about the reason behind the timing of your military operation. (H.E. Mr. Nissim) You are giving us too much credit. We are not that important in this world, and the operation was taken let me remind you because the facts are completely different. Before we took this operation, 2 days before this operation was exercised, the Foreign Minister of Israel made a travel to Cairo to meet President Mubarak. She wanted to meet President Mubarak because she would like to convince President Mubarak to convince Hamas to extend the Calm agreement, which was expired a few days before. At that very same day the response of Hamas was 40 rockets on Israeli towns. So that was the answer of Hamas for asking to extend the Calm agreement. So if you think that we met some kind of an agreement with Hamas to attack Israel in order to attack them back, I don t believe so. We exhaust every possibility to try to extend the Calm Agreement with Hamas in order to prevent us from taking this kind of operation. Hamas didn t agree. We had no choice. 4

5 We ve decided to protect our citizens, and this is the only reason not the situation in Israel, not the economic situation in Russia, and of course not the situation in the United States. We had no choice unless to take this kind of operation to try to teach the international community and to call them and this is the wake-up call for the international community that enough is enough. We will not tolerate launching rockets on a daily basis on our citizens. And this is the only answer. (Moderator) Thank you. That question was about the timing of the attack, and the Ambassador s answer was, the Calm Agreement had expired, and Israel tried to extend the agreement but Hamas responded with rocket attacks, and that was the background for starting Israeli military operation. Are there any other questions? Please raise your hand. (Question) Well, amidst this fighting, there was an information leak, news coverage on New York Times that Israel will attack/air raid Iran and will ask for U.S. assistance. My first question is, is that true that Israel planned to attack or air-raid Iran and asked for the U.S. assistance? And secondly, why this kind of information was leaked to New York Times at such timing and how this worked to bring about today s ceasefire. (Moderator) Thank you very much. Maybe we d get some more questions and then ask the Ambassador to answer those questions. (Question) It is reported that Israel started preparation for this military operations 6 months ago. But this seems to contradict with the Ambassador s answer that the operation started in response to rockets attacks by Hamas. Secondly, Mr. Ambassador said that Israel was attacked with more than 8,000 rockets. Could I ask you how many victims have been there? (Moderator) Okay, now we have 3 questions, so please Ambassador. (H.E. Mr. Nissim) Let me answer the first question about attacking Iran in the New York Times. Well Iran is not the problem of Israel itself. Iran and the nuclear project is the problem of the international community. Israel is not going there to deal with Iran itself, because this is a most important issue around the globe. I believe the international community should tackle this problem, not the Israelis itself. We had no intention to attack Iran. I don t know where New York Times got this information from but it doesn t matter because we don t have any intention to attack Iran. As I said, this is the problem of the whole world. If Iran will possess nuclear power, it will endanger the stability of the world; it will endanger the Middle East, it will endanger the Gulf countries and the neighbors of Iran. It will I presume endanger also so many countries around the world that this should be tackled with the international community and not only with Israel. So this is my answer. We have no intention to attack Iran. The second question about the preparation from 6 months ago for the operation, show me any army in the world who is not planning any kind of operations many months ago. This is the nature of an army. Every normal army, every serious army should be prepared for some kind of scenarios. It is including the Israeli army 5

6 of course. And about the casualties, 8,000 rockets are not fireworks. 8,000 rockets meant to kill people. 8,000 rockets were launched on Israeli citizens. If only we take 1 rocket for 1 citizen, it could kill 8,000 citizens. Now I m not going to apologize because Israelis providing shelter to their citizens. And we are well prepared for these attacks. I don t believe somebody would like to say 8,000 victims in order to take this kind of operation. Enough if they are launching 8,000 rockets to take this kind of operation. So this is not a matter of the proportion of victims between the Palestinians and the Israelis, but it is a matter of attacking. Hamas attacking Israel for 8 years, and we restrained ourselves, and we try to find other solutions to stop this firing. After 8 years every normal country who would like to protect their citizens would take the same action, and that is what Israel did. (Moderator) Thank you very much. (Question) After 3 weeks of attack, in the end of last week you announced the ceasefire. Were there any standards or conditions for ceasefire from the beginning? What was the condition for you to declare ceasefire? You said the purpose was to send a clear message to Hamas and to protect your citizens. Have those objectives been met? There has been a great deal of victims, but what evaluation would you give to the military operation? Do you think the operation was successful? (H.E. Mr. Nissim) This is not a matter of success, because a lot of people got killed, we are not happy. We are not killing Palestinians just for the sake of killing Palestinians. If we wanted to do so, the only thing we had to do is to bomb from the air the densely populated Gaza, and we could kill thousands of people in a one minute. Our intention is to bring the international community to the understanding that this situation could no longer be possible in the area. We would like to see calm and peace in this region. We disengage from Gaza strip and we left Gaza to the administration of the Palestinians, and we would like to see a peaceful area around the southern border of Israel. We achieved first of all, the attention of the international community. Because the United States and EU are ready now to help to monitor smuggling of weapons to Gaza Strip and this is the most important thing that we achieved in this operation. The other thing is to bring to the international community attention that the equation has been changed and we are not waiting no longer to this kind of launching rockets any more. We will react against these launching rockets. So the international community with the moderate Arab countries should decide whether they would like to see a new Palestinian state established in the near future, or they would like to see continuing conflict in the region. I hope the international community would like to see the establishment of a Palestinian state. As you know we are continuing negotiations with the Palestinian authority with the moderate Palestinians with Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and with Abu Ala (Ahmed Qurei) - and we would like to continue this kind of negotiations immediately after the elections in Israel. So what it should be? A new Palestinian state or a conflict. I'd rather see a new Palestinian state hopefully it will be a peaceful state. (Moderator) Thank you. 6

7 (Question) I understand your points very clearly because I was in the Middle East for quite many years and I sympathize with your situation, but at the same time I really sympathize with the Arab people in Palestine, and this is my dilemma since I came back from the Middle East. And the question is, for the immediate situation I understand your explanation. But what really puzzles me is when Hamas was elected as the regime for the Palestinian people, why Israel and actually the United States of America flatly rejected to deal with the Hamas regime, because it was politically authorized to represent the Palestinian people, but because of its platform to destroy Israel, you rejected to deal with Hamas. So I wonder if that was a mistake in the political sense, and by doing so you have radicalized the Hamas people so much so that it has come to this point. How do you think about this. (H.E. Mr. Nissim) First of all let me tell you, let me surprise you I also sympathize with the Palestinians suffering, and I hate to see that. Second, you know Hamas is a very radical, very extremist entity, and if you ve been in the region for so many years, you should know the platform of Hamas. Hamas declaring that they are going and they want to destroy Israel. Hamas is the long arm of Iran. Iran doesn t hide the intention of destroying Israel and they are declaring it from many stages around the world including yesterday. So I would like to ask you a question. You don t have to answer. Would you deal with somebody who would like to kill you? Would you deal with somebody who declared every day that I would like to kill you? You don t have to answer me. And second, do we have to deal separately with the moderate Palestinians on the West Bank and with Hamas in Gaza Strip? Do we have to accept two Palestinian states neighboring Israel one in the West Bank, let s call it moderate, and we are taking a big risk here; and the other one extremist in Gaza Strip. This is the situation you would like to see in the Middle East? It will not solve any problem. It will increase the tension, it will radical the extremists. It will not solve anything. So in order to bring the moderate Palestinians to talk with us, we launched the Annapolis Process, and this is the only process we would like to see in the region. If Hamas would like to join this kind of process, they should abandon terrorism, they should recognize Israel and they should respect previous agreements with Israel. So this is the situation right now. the Palestinian society is divided as you know. Hamas doesn t want to talk to the Palestinians, let alone with the Israelis. So let s first Hamas talk to the Palestinians, and then we talk to Hamas and the Palestinians together. For the meantime they refuse to do so. So this is the situation right now and you should know that. (Moderator) The person with the yellow shirt, could he go ahead. (Question) Your Excellency, in your remarks you ve said repeatedly that this is a wake-up call for the international society, that international society should be more involved in the peace processes of the region. But Israel did not respond to UN resolution for ceasefire. That seems to be the contradiction, and that is what people in Japan and other countries felt strongly against. I would like to invite your comment on that. (Moderator) The person in the middle row. 7

8 (Question) We are an organization humanitarian aid organization, working in the area since First of all I would like to say that our organization does welcome the ceasefire temporary ceasefire and we do hope for a permanent ceasefire that will be to eternal peace in the region and which will benefit all children and families in Gaza as well as in Israel. The question I d like to ask is about your government s restrictions on humanitarian access by aid organizations into Gaza. You are well aware of the destruction done on to the U.N. storage facilities which many of the aid supplies were stored waiting to be distributed. It s quite obvious that the humanitarian situation is dire right now, and children and families are in need of non-food items as well as food and medical supplies and hygiene kits. Can you please explain to me your Government s eagerness and the practical measures that you intend to make in terms of rapid humanitarian access as my organization is concerned. (Moderator) question for this time around. There was another person who raised their hand at the same time, so that would be the third (Question) Apart from Palestine, there was a talk about Iran. Obama during the election campaign said that he wanted to have peaceful relations with Iran, but after being elected, he has changed his stance the Bush way. Maybe there was pressure from Israel to take a hard line against Iran? Anyway, if the United States will start a peace process with Iran and Iran accept to give up on the development of any nuclear weapons and to use the atomic power only for the peaceful purposes, would that be acceptable to Israel? Secondly about Hamas, some say that it is the United States that brought down pro-us government in Iran, and support the establishment of anti-us regime there, but in a same way, some might make a shrewd guess that Hamas is created by Mossad, to raise the international tension, or Israeli people s awareness about defense. What do you think? (Moderator) There are 3 different questions, Ambassador, can you take them all? (H.E. Mr. Nissim) You have so much information on the region. (laughing) Israel has enough headaches for itself to deal with the American Policy. If American would like to engage with Iran, so be it. I hope they will succeed and we would like to engage with Iran if they will accept it. I believe that any diplomatic effort should be made before anything else, and this is the Israel policy. Let s leave this issue to President Obama. He was in the office for only one day, give him some chance to regroup and try to tackle with much more issues on his desk, and then we ll deal with this issue together. I believe that they will realize that if Iran would like sincere talks about this nuclear project, they will engage if they will gain time just to achieve their goals and possess atomic bombs, this is something else, but I don t want to intervene in the American Policy. So Israel is among the international community, will do the most efforts to try to prevent Iran from possessing the nuclear power and this is the main goal. Let s wait and see what will happen in the near future. About the humanitarian aid, as far as I know during this operation, Israel on a constant basis, transfer humanitarian aid to Gaza. Tons of foods, medical equipments, medicines, fuels and gas to the civilians were transferred on a daily basis. We took everyday 3 to 4 hours ceasefire humanitarian ceasefire to create a humanitarian corridor in order to transfer aid to the Palestinians. Unfortunately Hamas controlled those convoys. Even yesterday, a Jordanian convoy, which brought humanitarian aid to Gaza, was seized by Hamas and took by 8

9 force to their compounds in order to bring those humanitarian aids to their compounds. I believe that the international community should monitor this humanitarian aid to Gaza so it can come to the right hands and not to the hands of Hamas. And this is the situation right now, because Hamas is still controlling Gaza. We cannot moderate Hamas. They will use the same tactics that they used before. They will try to control Gaza again, and I believe this is a matter of to bring to the international community attention how to control this humanitarian aid because we are talking about a great deal of money and a great deal of humanitarian aid. About the Security Council. A minute after Security Council was decided on the resolution for ceasefire, Hamas launched so many rockets on the towns of Israel that it was not necessary even to think about this resolution because the minute this resolution was taken, that minute Hamas rejected this resolution. Anyway we decided unilaterally to cease fire without talking to Hamas, and Hamas followed us by taking a ceasefire 2 days later. The fact is that Israel decided to take a ceasefire unilaterally and this is the situation right now. Either it is because of the Security Council Resolution or Israeli Resolution it doesn t matter. The fact is that there is a ceasefire now and all the troops of the Israelis are out of Gaza Strip. (Moderator) Thank you very much. Anybody else? The person in the front. (Question) I d like to ask you about the use of ammunitions. Yesterday you said defense force has admitted the use of white phosphorous, the use of which is so controversial especially in densely populated areas. And after the ceasefire, many media including NHK has gone into the area and discovered that white phosphorous was used in densely populated areas. Do you think this is justifiable by saying Hamas is hiding among the people and using the human shield? (H.E. Mr. Nissim) Well, according to my knowledge, the use of white phosphorous in this operation was for 2 things: one is to create smoke in order to cover the troops; and the second for illumination, to light the area during the nights. And yes we use white phosphorous for this kind of reasons. This is not against the international law and we use weapons only complying with the international law, not against them. So the idea we admit of course that we use white phosphorous but only for those purposes. For creating smoke and illuminating the area. (Moderator) Your Excellency, thank you for your quick answer. Any other question, please. (Question) According to the newspapers, huge number of people got killed in Gaza. The families of the dead and many people have ill feelings against Israel, and I think that is only natural. And there might be some people who go further and say that Israel should not exist. So let me ask the question about the future what would the Israeli Government is going to do from now on. (Moderator) Do you have any other questions at this round? Please raise your hand. If not, I d like to invite the Ambassador to answer the question. Please. 9

10 (H.E. Mr. Nissim) As I said Israel is engaged with the Palestinians. This is our interest to establish a Palestinian state, but we would like to know that this Palestinian state will be a peaceful Palestinian state. Because if we will establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Hamas will control the West Bank, the airports, the major cities in Israel will be in the range of the missiles of the Hamas. So we would like to make sure that this Palestinian state will be a peaceful Palestinian state. We are talking with the Palestinians almost one year since Annapolis process, and we would like to continue these talks with the Palestinians immediately after the elections in Israel. No matter who will be elected, he will continue these talks with the Palestinians. I would like to remind you there is only, maybe most of you don t know, but there are only 5 million Jews in the state of Israel 5 million Jews among 300 million Arabs surrounding us and almost 1 billion and maybe more Muslims around the world. We have to make sure that Israel, the state of Israel, will have all the assurances that we will live next to peaceful neighbors like Jordan, like Egypt, we would like to see a Palestinian state as a peaceful state. This is our concern. We don t have much Jews around the world. We are very few. It is less than a small town in Japan. Now let me tell you one more thing. A million civilians were threatened by Hamas on a daily basis from Gaza Strip. A million is 1/5 of the Israeli population. Imagine here in Japan a fifth of the Japanese population is almost 25 million Japanese. Would you like to see 25 million Japanese threatened by missiles on a daily basis from your neighbors? I don t think so. So this is the fight for the existence of Israel, for the existence of the Jewish people, and this is what we are doing right now. Nobody will tolerate launching rockets on 1 million citizens in the state of Israel or in any other state nobody! The fifth of the population of any state, nobody will tolerate it. So this is the situation right now. You ask about the future, I m telling you this is our interest, to establish a Palestine state and we are talking to the Palestinians. Unfortunately they are divided, they have to decide what to do, and this is the situation. (Moderator) Thank you very much. Any other questions? (Question) I remember there were news reports saying that Israel s attack this time was not meant to exterminate Hamas, since Israel indeed need the division of Palestine government. According to them, it is because Israel has much doubts about the establishment of integrated Palestine state, as Your Excellency raised the question of if the established state of Palestine will be a peaceful one or not. I would like your comment on that. Another thing is, in the initial stage of Israel s attack on Gaza, President Sarkozy of France suggested to play the mediating role for the peace processes, but Israel Government had ignored it completely. After that Israel responded to the appeal by Egypt for the peace negotiation. If you know the reason, can you elaborate on that please? (H.E. Mr. Nissim) I ll answer the last question. We never ignored the immediate affairs, President Sarkozy. On the contrary President Sarkozy was in Israel and it was a very fruitful discussion between Sarkozy and our Prime Minister. With the help of the Egyptians together, of the initiative of the Egyptians and the French people, we decided to a ceasefire. These are the facts. I don t know from where this kind of information that we neglected Sarkozy initiative came. The other question is about Hamas and Palestinians. There are a lot of allegations and accusations about Israel but I didn t hear this kind of accusation that we didn t create Hamas. We don t want to see the 10

11 Palestinian society divided. We would like to see a unified Palestinian society, a moderate Palestinian society we would like to create this with Israel. And as I said and I ll say it again this is our interest, to establish a Palestinian State we don t want to control 3 million Palestinians. We would like to leave them to live their lives. We would like to see them in their country. We would like to see their state established. But we have to make sure that this state will not endanger the citizens of Israel, and this is our concern. We don t care if Hamas would like to create peace or not. We are dealing with the moderates, with the moderate Palestinians, and this is the only entity we are talking to. If they are willing to join these kinds of talks we will be glad to join them with the conditions that I mentioned before. (Moderator) Thank you very much. Yes. (Question) Could you share with us your views that how this operation could impact the election coming on November 18, and I understand this is a hard question to answer as the Ambassador. But could you share your views as one of the Israeli citizens? (H.E. Mr. Nissim) Well, to tell you the truth, I don t know how many parties are involved in these elections because we are only 5 million but we have so many parties in Israeli, more than Japan I believe. This is very difficult to predict, who will benefit from this operation and who will not, because 2 of the parties at least the Kadima party and the Labor party are involved in this operation and they are against each other in the elections. So if one will gain some points, the other will lose. I don t believe they intend to go this operation just because of the elections. I know this idea is running among the journalists. I don t agree with this idea. I believe the Israeli Government decided to exercise this operation because they ve decided to protect the Israeli citizens and nothing more and nothing less. I cannot predict who will gain and who will lose from this operation, so you can see the polls going up and down for all parties and this is very difficult and I don t want to do that. (Question) The ex-ambassador of Israel to Japan, he was very enthusiastic about Karate, and commonalities between the old culture of Israel and Japan. He wrote in Japanese on the examples of the commonalities such as some Yamabushi ritual called Torieboshi, Torii (this is like a gate to the shrine), or the expression like Hazukashime. From your point of view, are there any commonalities between your culture and Japanese culture? (H.E. Mr. Nissim) I believe, there are a lot of similarities between Japan and Israel, and one of them is not Karate, because I don t know Karate, I came on peace. I don t want to fight anybody here in Japan. Maybe we should have another lecture about the similarities between Japan and Israel, and then I ll be more prepared for this kind of lecture and I ll answer you properly. (Moderator) The person in the front. (Question) I think compared to the United States, Japan probably has maintained relatively good relations with 11

12 both sides of Israel and the Palestinians. current humanitarian situation in Gaza as well as the Peace process overall. As Ambassador to Tokyo, what role do you think Japan can play in the (H.E. Mr. Nissim) Japan is playing already a big important role in the area. During the peaceful time and during this crisis. During the peaceful times they are supporting and financing a major project in Jericho, which will cost 150 million dollars. For the Palestinians this is an agro-technology project in Jericho. Japan among the biggest donors already donated almost 1 billion dollars during 10 years. For the current situation, Japan donated 10 million dollars as humanitarian aid and in addition to that they are going to provide Palestinians with some humanitarian aid from their facilities here in Japan and elsewhere, and it will be very soon. So they are taking a very important role in the Middle East and I believe this is the way Japan should tackle this issue. (Moderator) Thank you very much. The person in the middle row please. (Question) My question is about anti-terrorism fence. Israel is still building anti-terrorism fence. These fences are causing inconveniences to the ordinary Palestinians. What is the reason you are still building these fences and what are you going to do in the future with these fences. (H.E. Mr. Nissim) Good that you called it fence and not a wall because most of the people are saying this is a wall, but in fact only 5% of this fence is a wall and 95% is a fence. This fence was built for a simple reason to protect the Israeli citizens from terrorist acts. During the years as you know and you might know, many many terrorists acts including suicide bombers and explosives and car bombs have killed hundreds of Israelis coming from the West Bank, and we decided to prevent this kind of terrorist acts from the West Bank. So we have decided to build a temporary fence in order to defend the citizens of Israel. This fence is removable of course if we will achieve a peace agreement with the Palestinians, if the Palestinian state will be established, this fence could be removed immediately. We have said that many times before and I am going to say it again, this is the only purpose for this fence. This fence saves lives many Israeli lives and we can see it, we can see the facts on the ground. Immediately after this fence was established, the number of terrorist attacks against Israel reduced dramatically. So it proves that it will save lives. When we sign a peace agreement with the Palestinians, of course it could state that it could be removed according to the agreement with the Palestinians. (Moderator) We thank the Ambassador very much for answering all the questions very kindly. Thank you so much Your Excellency. (H.E. Mr. Nissim) Thank you so much. (End of lecture) 12