Mr. Aaron Abramovich, Director General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs State of Israel, visited IDSA accompanied by His Excellency Mark Sofer, Israel’s ambassador to India, Ms. Tammy Ben-Haim, head of International Cooperation and Political affairs at the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, and Mr. Alon Ushpiz, Director Coordination at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel. Mr. Abramovich gave a talk to the scholars on “Geopolitical situation in the Middle East: Chances and Challenges”.

He began his talk by talking about Indo-Israeli relations and about the convergence of interests of the two countries. He stated that the two countries were cooperating extensively in the field of defence and security and that relations in other fields were also improving considerably. Sectors where there was a potential for a strong relationship are agriculture, research and development and information technology. He mentioned that a large number of Israelis visit India and view India very favourably.

He then focussed on the changing dynamics in West Asia and asserted that the Palestinian question, which was once the central issue, was no longer so. Present day West Asia is witnessing a fight between moderates and extremists, with Iran leading the extremist bloc. Iran’s ambition to build nuclear weapons is a major threat to the international community. Though world leaders are using different tactics to induce Iran to stop its nuclear activities, Tehran has rejected all such efforts and is moving ahead with its nuclear programme. Mr. Abramovich warned that if Iran goes nuclear, it would have deadly spill over effects all across the region. Other countries will also use the Iranian tactic to acquire nuclear weapons. “If that happens we are going to see a totally different region,” he warned. He added that if Iran goes nuclear, it would result in the collapse of the NPT regime. It would also make numerous resolutions of the United Nations Security Council infructuous. Apart from its nuclear ambitions, Iran is also triggering instability in the region and has called for the destruction of Israel. It backs Hezbollah and Hamas, two Islamist outfits that trigger instability in Lebanon and in the territory under Palestinian Authority respectively. Mr. Abramovich urged the international community to speed up its activities to rein in Iran since the “ideological regime” in Tehran poses serious threats to world peace.

On the Palestinian question, Mr. Abramovich said that Israel has been engaged in talks with the Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen and hoped to find a permanent solution at the earliest. He said talks, which started soon after the November 2007 Annapolis conference, are being held at three levels – high level talks, talks at the level of the officials and talks amongst civilians. He was however not certain that a solution could be clinched by the end of this year as promised by US President George W. Bush in Annapolis and felt it was “a great challenge”. Mr. Abramovich also hailed the United States for its support for the peace process and said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been visiting the region almost every month to facilitate progress in the talks. Besides, the United States is also training Palestinian Authority security officials in a bid to enhance the security arrangements in the West Bank. In his view, the support of Arab countries is vital for the negotiations to succeed, as Hamas would try to undermine any agreement that Israel signs with the Palestinian Authority. The process needs the support of the Arab world so that Abu Mazen could convince his people about the positive impact of the peace process.

Mr. Abramovich stressed that Israel wanted to live in peace with its neighbours, a policy that led to peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. He talked about recent attempts to have peace with Syria and mentioned the indirect talks that have been going on between the two countries. He emphasised that his country was ready to reach an accord with the Baathist regime. Israel has also called for talks with Lebanon to reach a peace agreement. According to Mr. Abramovich, talks with Lebanon would be easier than with any other neighbour since there is no boundary dispute between the two countries. He added that if the peace processes succeeds, it would boost moderate voices in the region.

Mr. Abramovich also took some questions at the end of the talk. When asked about the rationale of holding talks with the Palestinians without the Hamas and talking to the Lebanese government without the Hezbollah, he said that both Hamas and Hezbollah represented radical Islam and did not even recognise the right of Israel to exist, and so it was not really feasible for Israel to talk to them till they changed their views in this regard.

One participant expressed the view that the central issue in West Asia still remains the Israel-Palestinian crisis and unless the refugee question and the status of Jerusalem are settled a final solution will not be viable. He also asked Mr. Abramovich to comment on the ‘right of return’ of Palestinian refugees, especially as Jews from all over the world had been given the right to return to Israel. In his response, Mr. Abramovich asserted that the Palestinian question was no longer the central issue in the region and reiterated that a fight is going on between moderates and extremists. As regards the ‘right of the return’, he said that the two state solution is about dividing people – a Jewish state for the Jews and a Palestinian state for the Palestinians. Quoting UN figures, he added that nearly 800,000 Palestinians fled Israel in 1948 when the state was formed, but more than 900,000 Jews migrated into Israel between 1948-51 from Arab countries. He stressed that Israel cannot accept any solution that asks the country to welcome Palestinian refugees.

In response to a question about Israel’s policy on the Iranian nuclear crisis, Mr. Abramovich said that his country has always supported diplomatic efforts of the international community. He added that Israel expected the international community to take harsher measures to stop Iran from going nuclear. He also said that Israel does not believe the IAEA claims that Iran is not engaged in acquiring nuclear weapons, and insisted that Israel had evidence to support its assertion that Iran is actually trying to build nuclear bombs.

Prepared by Stanly Johny