By: CHRIS GRAEME
ISRAELI DEPUTY Prime Minister Tzipi Livni spelled out Israel’s concerns over the disintegration of Gaza during her two day visit to Lisbon on Thursday and Friday last week.
The tough-talking politician, who is also Israel’s Foreign Minister, was in Lisbon ahead of Portugal’s Presidency of the European Union, which starts next month, to discuss bilateral European Union-Israeli relations, bi-lateral Portuguese-Israeli relations and the current crisis in the Middle East.
During the official visit, Tzipi Livni had audiences with Cavaco Silva, the President of the Portuguese parliament, the Portuguese Foreign Minister Luís Amado, and the Prime Minister, José Socrates.
Discussions
The two foreign ministers discussed their bi-lateral relationship which is “based on friendship” and the “celebration of a 30 year diplomatic relationship.”
Luís Amado explained the historic role and courage of Portuguese diplomat Sousa Mendes who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazi extermination camps during the war by issuing Portuguese visas against Salazar’s expressed wishes.
“Of course we discussed the situation in the region (Middle East) which is complicated and difficult, but the Israeli goal is to promote the process of reaching a solution through the understanding that any agreement between Palestinians and Israelis should be based upon two pillars: one is acceptance of two different peoples and the need to live side by side in peace, the other is to confront terrorism” said Tzipi Livni.
The Israeli minister said that the current situation in the Gaza strip “wasn’t helping matters in a situation which was “not of Israel’s making.” She also labelled Hamas a “terrorist organization.”
Asked how she viewed the creation of an effective Hamas mini state within the Gaza strip, Tzipi Livni said that Israel left the Gaza strip in order to create a window of opportunity for peace.
“We took our forces out, we dismantled settlements, we left greenhouses for Palestinian farmers, in the idea that maybe this could be the beginning of a Palestinian state that would flourish and live in peace with Israel, but what we have got in return is this terrible mess.”
On general relations with the Middle East the Israeli minister said; “My message is to above all state that we (Israel, the EU and Portugal) are on the same side as the Middle Eastern countries and I would like to underline and reinforce the idea that we are looking for a two-state solution.”
“There is a big divide between what Israel is and the way it is seen in Europe. The way to peace is through dialogue with the moderates and pressure on the extremists, whether Hamas, the Iranians or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon,” she added.
Brink of civil war
The West Bank and Gaza Strip were effectively on the brink of all out civil war last week following factional violence between the radical and theocratic Islamic group Hamas and the secular but corrupt Fatah group.
On Friday Gaza was without government after the Palestinian Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed his coalition with Hamas by sacking Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
Working for peace
Both the Americans and Israelis have failed to recognise Hamas as anything other than a terrorist organization, which is funded by Iran, and in turn fails to recognise the state of Israel.
Fatah, a secular democratic Palestinian party, on the other hand, does recognise Israel’s right to existence and is working for peace, compromise and accommodation with Tel Aviv. Its government, however, is notoriously corrupt and has achieved little by way of raising the standard of living for the poverty stricken Palestinians.
By the weekend 110 people had died in the week-long conflict between Hamas and Fatah which is threatening to create two separate states within Palestine: Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Fatah-controlled West Bank.
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