German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle visited Gaza and Ramallah today. A look at what he said after the break.
FM Westerwelle and Development Minister Development Minister Dirk Niebel visited a sewage treatment plant in Gaza City, where Niebel urged Israel to fully lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip, and urged Hamas to stop shooting rockets into Israel.
"It's so important to have a permanent ceasefire and it's so important that Israel completely ends the blockade," he told a news conference at the Gaza City headquarters of UNWRA, the United Nations agency which assists Palestinian refugees.
Later, in Ramallah, Westerwelle said that though Germany supports a two-state solution and the Palestinians right to build their own state, they felt that unilateral declaration of a state was counter-productive and that
"negotiations are the right way,"
What Herr Westerwelle apparently fails to understand is that it takes two parties to negotiate, and that those parties have to be willing to make sacrifices...including politically risky ones...in order to advance the negotiations.
As Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made clear in his speech to Congress on May 24, Israel has no intention of being a good faith partner in any negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
Herr Westerwelle is correct, of course. Negotiations really are the right way. But the Palestinians cannot negotiate with themselves. Successive Israeli governments have made a big show of sitting down with the Palestinian Authority and then throwing up walls to prevent any real progress. Last years failed talks is a perfect example. Instead of doing the right thing, and taking a political risk, Netanyahu refused to extend the moratorium on settlement building.
When you look at the history of peace talks between Israel and the PA, one thing is clear: the Israeli government is not interested in peace, unless that peace is 100% on their terms. That, Herr Westerwelle, is not how negotiations work. And it is that attitude, that wanton refusal to come to the negotiating table with an open mind, or some kind of logical plan that can be discussed, or real concessions that you would be willing to make, that makes Germany's position wrong.
The Palestinian people, Mr. Westerwelle, have been waiting for generations now for this negotiated peace you favor. The time for waiting is over. The hope of seeing an Israeli government ready to negotiate honorably in good faith is over. The West seems content to let the Palestinians keep waiting...forever, I suppose. But the Palestinians should not be content. They should go ahead with the plan to seek recognition in September. It is the last, best hope for ever seeing a free Palestine.