Itongadol.- Israel\’s opposition to the new French diplomatic initiative would lessen if the initiative enshrined Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, Foreign Ministry director-general told The Jerusalem Post.
Gold, on the eve of Sunday\’s visit here by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, reiterated Israel\’s opposition to the plan, which includes a ministerial meeting later this month in Paris to set out parameters of a peace deal, and a follow up international conference later this year. Neither Israel nor the Palestinian Authority have been invited to the summit.
Gold also voiced Israel\’s anger at France\’s vote last month at the UNESCO Executive Board meeting in favor of a resolution on Jerusalem that expunged any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.
“When French diplomats vote for a resolution at UNESCO that rejects the historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem, it should not come as a surprise that Israel rejects the French initiative and the political horizon it aspires to ultimately expose,” he said.
“It would be much easier for Abbas to come to Jerusalem to meet Prime Minister Netanyahu, rather than set up this multi-state enterprise in Paris, which I don\’t think gets us any closer to a negotiated solution, and in fact makes a negotiated solution more distant,” Gold said.
In addition to diverging from the principle that a settlement will come through direct negotiations between the sides, Gold said that one of the major things missing from the French initiative was any type of Palestinian recognition of the rights of the Jewish people to a nation-state of their own, something the Palestinians have consistently refused to do.
“I don\’t see in the principles put forward by the French initiative some reference to the Jewish state,” he said.
Asked whether the addition of such a clause would lessen Israel\’s opposition to it, he replied: “I think that would be a very important factor. All I\’m saying is that there are things missing in this initiative.”
On another matter, Gold defended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\’s declaration last month during a special cabinet meeting held on the Golan Heights that Israel would never leave the region. The premier has come under some criticism for this move, with opponents arguing that with these comments he triggered a response by the international community, which included statements from several capitals – including Washington – stating that they did not recognize Israel\’s control over the area.
“Today we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot agreement,” Gold said of the accord that divided the former Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire.
“But you don\’t have to be an international diplomat to image that it is very possible that in the basement of one of the chancelleries in Europe or elsewhere, there is a modern Sykes-Picot sitting down and trying to imagine how the Middle East will be divided in the future. Before anybody gets any ideas about the Golan Heights it was important for the prime minister to lay down his claim that the Golan will remain Israeli territory.”