By, Orlando Radice
2 min read
ByOrlando Radice, Orlando Radice
Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom has said that he is in favour of a resumption of negotiations towards a two-state solution as soon as the world powers’ talks with Iran have come to a conclusion.
The minister, who would head up any such diplomatic process with the Palestinians, said: “We want to resume negotiations but it takes two to tango.”
He added that Israel had eased travel restrictions in the West Bank for Ramadan, but that this kind of move requires “reciprocity” on the part of the Palestinians.
“The Palestinians have chosen the unilateral path... they want to achieve their targets at any price,” he said.
Mr Shalom was speaking at the UK-Israel Shared Strategic Challenges Conference organised by Israel advocacy group Bicom on Monday.
When asked whether he remained of the opinion that settlements outside the main blocs in the West Bank should be removed as part of a two-state solution, he replied that there was “no sovereignty in the West Bank… Israel is a democracy, if anyone – Labour, Likud, Zionist Union – decide on that policy, then it will happen”.
He denied that Israel’s relationship with the US was “in tatters”, as former Israeli ambassador to Washington Michael Oren recently claimed.
“First, we need to remember that the support for Israel is bipartisan. Also, Obama is standing with Israel in a number of very important ways. Friends can agree to differ.”
There was concern that former minister and IDF chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, who also spoke at the conference, risked being arrested during his time in the UK under the law of universal jurisdiction.
As a former official with no diplomatic immunity, there were fears that Mr Mofaz could have been pursued by pro-Palestinian groups who use UK courts to file for arrest warrants.
At time of publication, Mr Mofaz had not been served any arrest warrant. He refused to comment on the possibility.
Groups including the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights had urged the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, to have him arrested. Backed by Amnesty International campaigns manager Kristyan Benedict, PCHR urged supporters to contact Attorney General Jeremy Wright and have Mr Mofaz detained.
Mr Benedict, who was forced to apologise in 2012 after posting an offensive tweet about three Jewish MPs, wrote on Twitter: “An urgent call on the UKs Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute visiting war crimes suspect Shaul Mofaz”.
In an on-stage interview with Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland, Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog said that a “bold peace plan” should be one of Israel’s primary tools to fight the boycott movement, and the current settlement policy was “adverse to our interests”.
“We have to move on the peace process. I demand that Netanyahu moves. If I take office I will reignite the process,” he said.
He added, however, that “BDS has nothing to do with settlements”, arguing that the movement was driven by those who wish to delegitimise and remove Israel from the map.
Asked whether he thought Israeli politicians had exaggerated the danger posed by boycotters, he agreed that the issue “could have been treated differently”.
Many are expecting that within a few months Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will offer Mr Herzog the position of foreign minister in order to ward off international criticism over a failing peace process. Mr Herzog refused to rule out accepting such a role, and emphasised that he and the prime minister were co-operating closely on many policy matters.
On Iran, Mr Herzog said that there was “no daylight” between him and Mr Netanyahu, and stressed that he would like to see a diplomatic resolution of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear threat “if the deal is reasonable”.
