Isaac Herzog called on the French to stop assailing Israel internationally, while offering his vision for a diplomatic resolution in the region.
By: Atara Beck, World Israel News
French President Francois Hollande (L) and PM Netanyahu. (Edi Israel/Flash90)
Israeli Opposition leader Isaac Herzog met with French President Francois Hollande and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday evening at the Elysee Palace in Paris, and urged them to stop promoting diplomatic action against Israel in the international arena.
“Decisions of this nature serve as a reward for terrorism and for BDS [anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement]. They paralyze the chances of regional moves,” Herzog reportedly told the French leaders, according to Israel’s Ynet. “Israelis would not accept diktats from the world. Israel is a sovereign nation and any move or decision of this nature hurt the Israeli public’s willingness to move forward towards changing the situation in the Middle East.”
Offering another course of action, Herzog presented Hollande and Fabius with the principles of his plan for a diplomatic resolution of the situation in Israel through a full separation from the Palestinians.
“The attempt to try and reach a Palestinian state now is unrealistic,” he told the French, according to Ynet. “A Palestinian state cannot be established now because the Palestinians currently do not have a leadership that controls all of their territories and could lead such a move.”
He said creating a separation between Israel and Palestinians, accompanied by security and economic measures, would lead to calm in the area and to an increase in the sense of security.
“Therefore, the world’s nations must change directions and aim for what’s realistic – primarily a separation that brings calm to the area, and then the international community should back diplomatic moves,” he reportedly said.
Herzog reiterated his statements form last week that while he was “a big supporter of the two states vision” it was not realistically viable at this time. “It can’t become a reality now. The hatred and incitement among the Palestinians is just too great, the hostility between the two nations and the leaders’ inability to act is preventing the two states solution. Separation and security are a necessary first step on the way to the two states vision becoming a reality.”
The French were behind a recent condemnation of Israel by the European Union (EU), promote boycotts of Israeli goods coming form Judea and Samaria and are reportedly advancing a resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a focus on the Israel communities in Judea and Samaria.
Herzog thanked Hollande and Fabius for their determined fight against anti-Semitism in France, and expressed solidarity with their fight against terrorism. “We have a common enemy – Islamic terrorism. The enlightened world needs to join forces against it because it threatens all of us,” he said.