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Israel: We Want to Coexist in Peace
[Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs] Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the London School of Economics on October 26: Israel left Gaza totally in 2005, to the last inch. We hoped to achieve an entire paradigm shift in the area so nobody will have the "pretext" of an occupation - so the Gazans will have a chance not only to control their own affairs but to build Gaza as a showpiece to the world. When we left Gaza there were about 1,000 acres of greenhouses. And none of the Palestinians wanted to buy them. So we raised $14 million from private investors. They could have employed at least 8,000 Palestinians, and fed many more. Unfortunately, two days later these greenhouses were burned to the ground. We do not have to agree on the past. Each people is entitled to its own narrative. Each people is also entitled to its own national vision and dreams. But then we hit this brick wall of reality. We cannot afford having a Palestinian state which will not live in peace with us, because we are not suicidal and we want to coexist in peace. Just as we made peace with Jordan and we made peace with Egypt, we can make peace with the Palestinians. It's not Heaven-ordained that we cannot live together peacefully with our Palestinian neighbors.