Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday 23 Teves addressed a gathering in Jerusalem of Israel’s ambassadors to the Euro-Asian countries, stressed that “We must not spare efforts in developing our relations with the Euro-Asian states. States like Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and Albania are prepared consistently to take a stand alongside Israel. At the recent vote of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), all these states voted with Israel, and against the Arab League resolution, helping us defeat it. In economic terms, there is no doubt that we have much to gain from fostering our ties with the Euro-Asian states.”

Referring to the terror attack on the kosher market in Paris, FM Lieberman said that we cannot overlook the fact that this is a store that belongs to a Jew, and that the hostages and the victims were Jews, who were killed because they were Jews. “Most of the talk, both in France and throughout the world, was about freedom of speech, about extremism, about Islamophobia – and not about anti-Semitism. We must stop being politically correct and tell the truth. This is the classic hatred of Jews in modern garb, and the principal agent of this murderous anti-Semitism is radical Islam.”

Lieberman praised French Prime Minister Valls as “the first in Europe who spoke out honestly about this new form of anti-Semitism.” He added, “The terror attack in Paris serves as proof that the debate between the free world and radical Islam is not over territory but over values, and that the territorial demands from Israel are only an excuse. The radical organizations themselves – Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al-Qaeda, ISIS and Hizbullah – declare that they will never agree to the existence of Israel, even within the 1967 borders. They also pose a threat to the moderate Arab world, because they are unprepared to accept any moderate interpretation of Islam. We must therefore advance a regional initiative that will unite all the moderate forces in the Middle East.”

The foreign minister concluded by saying that in their recent attempt to pass a unilateral resolution in the UN Security Council on the establishment of a Palestinian state, and joining the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Palestinians have crossed every red line. A solution to the conflict can only be a regional one, including three elements: the Arab states, the Palestinians, and the Israeli Arabs.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)