Press conference of the Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Israel to the Russian Federation, Dorit Golender, on the topic: “Israel on the background of Middle East events.”
According to the Israeli Ambassador to Russia the development of trade-economic relations in 2011 ended in percentage terms quite positively. “Trade turnover between Russia and Israel in 2011 increased 36.99%. And this is without turnover related to the supplies of oil, gas and diamonds. The turnover is expressed in the sum 2,747,000. This shows that trade-economic relations, both at the level of state companies and private entrepreneurs working both in Russia and Israel, constantly grow. This is positive data, and we are very glad. We say that this year a number of agreements were signed. One of them is very important, in our view, the building of a pharmaceutical enterprise with an international name, in Russia. From the moment of cancellation of the visa regime, in 2008 tourism from Russia to Israel increased by hundreds of percents. For this and last year, one can count the number of 500 thousand tourists who travelled from Russia to Israel on the one hand, this is a decrease in percentage terms, by 12 per cent, but this decrease is connected with the absence of one-day and two-day tourism, which was popular and was practiced by Russian tourists who came to Egypt and from there – to Israel for visiting sacred places.
“The main moments in the plans of cooperation in the sphere of culture. I think that this is indeed one of the branches, or directions, which both Russia and Israel can be proud of. We always say that there is no Russian collective, no theatre or orchestra that would not visit Israel. In the program of the Festival “Kinotavr” that will take place in June in Sochi, there is a round table and other events being planned, devoted to contemporary Israeli cinema. At “Kinotavr” it is planned to show new Israeli films, to organize a meeting with Katrish Hori, the head of the Cinema Fund of Israel. In September in Moscow and other cities of Russia already traditional festivals of Israeli cinema will take place. Speaking of cultural plans, let me speak about a very big project that will take place on May 20, and, so to say, will conclude the celebrations of 20 years of diplomatic relations. This is the visit to Moscow by the Philharmonic Orchestra led by Zubina Mehta. Zubin Mehta, a maestro with a world-renowned name, the Israeli Symphony Orchestra and its 120 musicians will visit Moscow. This is a very important mutual project of the Russian Ministry of Culture and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We are very happy to underline this cooperation. By the way, a delegation of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation recently returned from Israel, which for several days discussed the organization of the Days of Russian Culture in Israel. Besides the Bima Theatre, a famous theatre which started in Moscow, and which with the establishment of the state of Israel was re-created in our land, is visiting to participate in a festival which will be organized here, at the invitation of the Moscow Maly Theater. This is also a very important event. We are expecting the visit of a very prominent writer, who, I think, has already become popular here, in Moscow, and not only in Moscow. This is our famous Meir Shalev. His books are bestsellers, and they are translated into Russian. In Natania a monument will be erected, a monument to the soldiers of the Red Army, the participants of the Second World War. This is a project of the Head of the Israeli Governmemt, Netanyahu. And we hope that the President of the Russian Federation will attend the opening of this monument. He promised it personally, and therefore Israel, of course, is awaiting his visit. In fact, the lessons of World War II are relevant for Israel today too.
“The most important of them is that the denial of the Holocaust is absolutely unacceptable. And it is important to stress that today, when leaders of many states more and more often attempt to do it, we say and pronounce for everybody to hear: there is nobody to protect us but ourselves, and just recently we were reminded that the danger had not disappeared. You know very well about the attempt on the lives of Israeli diplomats who were in Tbilisi, Delhi and Bangkok, and just before I came to this press-conference, 15 minutes ago, a note appeared in the press about an attempt on the life of the Minister of Defense of Israel in Singapore. So we confirm once again that terror against Israel, which exists today in the world, breaks down and wants to find its place, and, without doubt, hope to put an end to it. It is difficult to say, but nonetheless, we try to stop the terrorist actions which bring many victims. We are very grateful to Jordan for its cooperation and attempt to sit at the table of direct peaceful negotiations.
“To our regret, although an attempt was made and a meeting did occur, this effort of Jordan did not allow the promotion of peaceful negotiations between Palestine and Israel, at least not yet. Israel is convinced that it is impossible to achieve progress in a peace process by means of ultimatums. We talk about it all the time. We are ready to sit at the table of peace negotiations and discuss everything. This is how it was with Egypt: there were also settlements there, and when we sat at the table of peace negotiations, we managed to reach some compromise. And no doubt, only in this way Israel is ready to conduct negotiations with Palestine. But here appeared another difficult moment: the armistice between Hamas, which we consider a terrorist organization, and the Palestine administration. In such case Israel does not see the possibility to put it on the agenda and discuss the peace process. As we know, Israel wants peace, but Hamas always claims that Israel does not have the right to exist. Israel is the country which tries to solve all the conflicts in a peaceful way.
“Not only Israel, but other countries of the world community conduct control over what is going on in Iran. The reports of MGT give answers to this, and in principle we think the first duty to use any means to stop Iran's nuclear program. Although Israel does not have the right to vote, we support those sanctions which are directed at stopping work on this nuclear program. But Israel has its own information that this work continues. And as we say in Israel, to exactly translate from Hebrew, all options are on the table. We attentively follow the events in the Middle East. First of all, of course, we followed the Egyptian events. The peace treaty with Egypt is very important for Israel. We see that the power in Egypt is taken my Islamists who have never been in power. We hope that there will be stabilization, we follow what is happening. As a state, we never intervene in the political and military processes of other countries.
“Israel does not intervene in the affairs of neighboring countries and does not intend to do so in the future. If they witness disorders which can lead to anarchy, we, of course, watch this. We don’t give the priority to any fighting sides in Syria. At the same time, the situation that is forming in Syria today is absolutely blatant and it is impossible to be silent about it. Almost every day we see pictures in which the Syrian people are affected by the murders of their leader. It was already said that Bashar Assad does not have a moral right to remain the Syrian leader. We affirm that the Syrian-Israeli border was the quietest it has been in its whole existence. But this is not yet a factor of peace. Assad also said on several occasions that there is no place for Israel on the map. We don’t know who will come to power after Assad, which radical Islamic forces. But the continuation of today’s situation in Syria, in our view, is absolutely unacceptable. And we hope that in the nearest future the crisis situation that exists there will be resolved in some way. Assad’s regime remains problematic: he keeps promising to conduct some reforms, to sit at the table of negotiations with the opposition, but he is not doing this. And another factor which is not unimportant to Israel is this “wing,” this collaboration between Syria, Hamas and the smuggling of weapons which goes to terrorist organizations. This “wing” – Iran, Syria and Hezbollah – for Israel this regime is a part of the main strategic threat. Therefore, given the instability of Assad’s regime, it is necessary to speak about the leakage of weaponry; this weaponry goes to terrorist organizations which, as you know, act against Israel. Of course, there are several variants of the development of events: let’s wait and see”.
