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Israeli President to EU Parliament: "Respect Israeli Considerations, Even When Different from Your Own"

(Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) President Reuven Rivlin - Israeli President Reuven Rivlin addressed the European Parliament on Wednesday in Hebrew: Israel wishes, and indeed must, remain first and foremost a national homeland, a safe haven for the Jewish People. The State of Israel is by no means a compensation for the Holocaust, but the Holocaust has posited as a basic tenet the necessity and vitality of the return of the Jewish People to history, as a nation taking its fate in its own hands. I feel that the massive criticism aimed at Israel in Europe stems from, inter alia, a misunderstanding and an impatience toward this existential need of the Jewish nation and the State of Israel. As friends and as true allies, I call upon you and ask you, let us be patient. Please respect the Israeli considerations, even when different from your own. Respect Israeli sovereignty, and the democratic process of its decision-making. Respect Israel's staunch commitment, indeed its very duty, to protect its citizens. For us it is the most sacred commandment of all. We are living in a reality where the plague of murderous jihadi fundamentalism, religious fanaticism and incitement - embodied in the Islamic State and Hizbullah - are at our very borders and have not missed out Gaza and the West Bank either; we live in a reality of a chaos-stricken Middle East in which uncertainty is the only certainty. As years go by and rounds of negotiations fail one by one, bringing in their wake waves of murderous violence and terror, it seems that this assumption of a "lack of good will" proves not only to be fundamentally erroneous, but to ignore the circumstances, the capabilities, and the present situation on the ground, which by definition would lead to the failure of any attempt to negotiate a permanent agreement. One cannot hope to achieve better results while resorting to the same outlooks and tools which have failed time after time previously. The French initiative, adopted by the EU institutions only a few days ago, suffers from those very fundamental faults. The attempt to return to negotiations for negotiations' sake not only does not bring us near the long-awaited solution, but rather drags us further away from it. This striving for a permanent agreement "now" is the chronicle of a predictable failure which will only push the two peoples deeper into despair. If Europe is interested in serving as a constructive factor in striving for a future agreement, it will be incumbent upon you, its leaders, to focus efforts at this time in a patient and methodic building of trust. Not through divestments, but through investment; not by boycotts, but by cooperation.
2016-06-23 00:00:00
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