|
Trending Topics
|
David and Goliath in the Middle East
(Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Danny Ayalon - Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told the plenum of the Council of Europe on Tuesday: "We have been alone sitting at the negotiating table for nine months...but we are still waiting for the Palestinians to take their seat....There is absolutely no reason to place more obstacles than were placed before; we once again reiterate our call for the Palestinians to meet with us without preconditions from either side." In response to the contention that the Palestinians are foregoing 78% of historic Palestine, Ayalon stated that there has never been a Palestinian state in history and the word "Palestine" is Roman in origin and not Arabic. In reaction to a comment that Israel was Goliath and the Palestinians are David, Ayalon responded: "If anyone is David in the Middle East, it is Israel. There is one Jewish state with 22 Arab states, and 6 million Jews compared with 300 million Arabs in the Middle East. Israel's territory totals a third of one percent of the whole land mass in the Middle East."