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Remarks at the Israel Council on Foreign Relations

 

(This article expired 13.12.2017 / 14:00.)

Minister Zaorálek delivered remarks at the Israel Council on Foreign Relations in Jerusalem on November 5, 2014.

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boker tov lechulam – Good morning to everybody

I am very happy to have the opportunity to speak in front of this distinguished group and thanks to the organizers for it.

I will start with a simple statement: relations between our two countries are excellent and we hope they will remain so.

Long standing tradition of positive relations – going to pre state period and based in very good relations between Czechs and Jews in modern history. More than a hundred years of a unique phenomenon of village Jews. And still now CR a country with one of the lowest levels of anti-Semitism in Europe.

Some historians even claim that the person who created the earliest political entity on Czech soil and whose name was Samo was actually a Jewish merchant.

In 1927 the founder of the modern Czech statehood president Masaryk visited Zionist project in the British Mandate of Palestine – he was the only head of state that did so.

After the war Czechoslovakia helped the new born state in various ways – among others by weapons and military training.

Communist regime however turned against Israel cut off the relations and started nasty propaganda war against it.

It is not a widely known fact that restoration of diplomatic relations with Israel was one of strongly resonating ideas of the Prague spring of 1968.

When democracy was returned to Czechoslovakia and then Czech Republic the long suppressed positive feelings virtually exploded. Israel immediately became one of the best allies. This showed in many fields – from media reporting to tourism, military cooperation and ever growing mutual trade. 

This also showed in political support that Czech Republic provided to Israel in many arenas of international politics. Particularly so when we eventually joined the European Union

Almost twenty five years later the situation on one hand remains the same and on the other it is rather different. It means that the predominantly positive feelings towards Israel are still there unchanged. At the same time we are already a well-established country fully integrated in major structures like European Union and NATO.

That situation means that we have to take into consideration many more aspects than just our feelings and traditional positions and we have to coordinate our policy with our allies much more. Even more so as we feel that the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU is a very important tool for countries of the Czech Republic’s size and geopolitical position, and as such we want to support it and its unified voice more.

Despite some comments in the media I must repeat here that the government I represent does not intend to make any strategic changes to our previous policy towards the region. We may, however, diversify our positions more and look for other tactical options.

As seen from our official statements Czech Republic fully supports Israel’s right to self-defense. We also understand very well the dangers Israel is constantly facing and perceive
the ever changing and ever worsening security environment of the region.

We understand that Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the only one in the Middle East and surely not the worst one. We also do not believe that when it is solved, all others will automatically come to conclusion. Yet it is the longest burning and the most medialized conflict and if eventually solved it may ease the way to dealing properly with the others.

We firmly believe that the only possible and viable solution to the conflict is two states – Israel and Palestine – existing next to each other in peace and if possible cooperating with one another. I am very positive that I speak in the name of the whole of the European Union when I say that we all want to see the conflict ended peacefully.

As such we fully support all possible efforts leading in this direction and oppose all those that block it or threaten to block it.

The most problematic and explosive issue among those that we see as obstacles is that of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories.

I am aware of many arguments that some Israelis bring up about the legal status and other aspects of the settlements buildup. Yet let me put forth a rather simple argument. If we want and we may say we need a viable Palestinian state it has to be contiguous and it must have enough of territory to establish working economic structure there. Settlements scattered all around the West Bank simply do not allow for this. And if we do not have a Palestinian state we can hardly ask the Palestinians to end the conflict and vouch for Israeli security.

Every now and then we keep getting more news about additional housing units to be built in the settlements and every time it creates the same perception within the European Union: Israel put another obstacle in the way of peace that we all want or at least claim we want.

And again there may be arguments given that this or that particular construction is not a real obstacle to reaching an agreement. Yet most of the world and unfortunately I must stress here that it is most of the world views it as such.

This brings me to the last remark concerning the question of reality and perception of it.
I believe there is no need to explain what world we live in, that it is completely penetrated by the ever present media and sustained by a sound bite. As a result of this the perception of a fact is much stronger than the fact itself.

I spent longer part of my life under the communist regime and I can therefore understand very well how the weapon of propaganda works and I am able along with many from our part of the continent look at the media reports critically yet I cannot change the way they influence the perception of the masses.

Thank you for your attention.

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